Biography
TV presenter whose irreverent wit earned him many fans around the world, who tuned into the BBC's nightly entertainment programme Liquid News (2000) to hear Price's caustic comments on the day's celebrity gossip.
After earning a degree in languages from Reading University, Price began his broadcasting career as a journalist on a BBC local radio station. His talents were soon spotted and he was quickly promoted to national radio, being part of the team who launched the BBC's 24 hour news station, Radio 5 Live.
In 1997 Price joined the BBC's new digital news channel BBC News 24 (1997) as a newsreader on the overnight shift. His demeanour suited the channel, which at the time aimed to be less formal than the traditional BBC news bulletins.
During his stint at News 24 he was given the opportunity to present a new entertainment slot: _"Entertainment 24" (1998)_, soon renamed "Zero 30" after its timeslot, 0030 hours.
Meanwhile, another BBC digital channel, BBC Choice, was suffering from low ratings and critical disdain. Searching for something to boost the figures, channel controller Stuart Murphy decided to transfer Price and the Zero 30 production team from News 24 and into a more prominent 8pm slot. The new show, named Liquid News (2000), debuted in 2000 and, by BBC Choice standards, was a huge hit, with most of this success directly attributable to its host.
The publicly-funded BBC was criticised in 2001 when bosses offered Price a large pay rise to stay with the channel for the foreseeable future. Some sections of the press considered his £280,000 a year salary to be too much for a presenter on a digital channel. However, the BBC recognised Price's potential and were keen to keep him from "defecting" to a rival network.
Under his new contract, Price hosted extra editions of Liquid News for BBC One, BBC Prime and BBC America, raising his profile further. Under proposals which were awaiting government approval, Price and Liquid News would have been the centrepiece of a new BBC channel, BBC Three.
Sadly it was not to be. Price hosted his last edition of Liquid News on Tuesday, April 16, 2002. For the rest of the week he was replaced by a guest host while he was ill with an inner ear infection. He was scheduled to return to the show on the following Monday, but never arrived for work that morning. Concerned colleagues went to his home in Shepherd's Bush, London, where they found him collapsed. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene two hours later.
Investigations concluded that Price had died from overdosing on his prescribed medication, but police where unable to conclude whether this was accident or a deliberate suicide. Friends who had seen Price immediately prior to his death said that he seemed cheerful and upbeat, but he had been prone to mood swings and bouts of depression in the past.
There can be no doubt that Christopher Price's death at the age of 34 was a great loss for British broadcasting. In a Liquid News special broadcast the day after his death, celebrities as diverse as comic actor Ralf Little, game show host Anne Robinson and BBC newsreader Huw Edwards paid tribute to him. Within a few days of his death, the BBC website had received over 5000 e-mails paying tribute to him.
