Stuart Cosgrove

Cosgrove graduated in Drama and English from the University of Hull and has studied at George Mason University, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Wharton Business School. He has a Ph.D. in Media (the thesis published as part of the book Theatres of the Left, 1880-1935) and a Doctorate in English and American Studies. He has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts by the University of Abertay Dundee and honorary professorships by the University of Stirling and Liverpool John Moores University.[2][3][4][5]

In Scotland, Cosgrove is probably best known as the co-host of BBC Radio Scotland's popular comedy football phone-in Off the Ball which he presents twice a week with Tam Cowan, and as the co-host of BBC Scotland's Saturday football Sportscene results show. Born and brought up in the Letham area of Perth, but living now in Dennistoun, he is an avid fan of the city's football club St Johnstone.[6] He also wrote a book, Hampden Babylon, revealing the seedier side of the Scottish football scene.

In 2005 he was named Broadcaster of the Year at the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards.

In 2007 and 2008 he presented "Stuart Cosgrove's Floorfillers" on BBC Radio Scotland, dedicated to Northern Soul music, of which he is a fan.

His "Haha, Fantastic, ye cannae beat it" quote is used by satirist and impressionist Jonathan Watson.

Cosgrove's father, a Perth native, was killed in his early 30s in a road accident in 1960,[7] when Cosgrove was eight years old.[8] A lorry driver for the Co-op supermarket, one of the tyres of the lorry he was travelling in as a passenger blew and the lorry hit a tree.[9] His mother, on the other hand, lived until she was 90.[7]

In August 1963, Cosgrove and his family were stuck on a train near Carlisle railway station for six hours. It transpired that all of the trains on the Glasgow line were stopped because the Great Train Robbery had just occurred in Ledburn, England.[8]

Cosgrove began supporting his hometown club St Johnstone because, before the Tulloch estate (or Hillyland, as it is known) to the northeast came to be,[9] he could see their then-ground Muirton Park from his Letham bedroom window.[10] For the first three or four years of his life, the family lived in Hillyland before the short move to Strathtay Road in Letham when he was about seven years of age.[9]

Cosgrove is married to Shirani, a Sri Lankan.[9] He has two sisters.[7]

• Theatres of the Left, 1880-1935, Workers' Theatre Movements in Britain and America, by Raphael Samuel, Ewan MacColl and Stuart Cosgrove. 1985 ISBN 0-7100-0901-1
• Flogging a Dead Horse: Heritage Culture and Its Role in Post-industrial Britain. Manchester: Cornerhouse, 1993. ISBN 0-948797-52-5. With photographs by Paul Reas and an afterword by Val Williams.
• Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul, Polygon, 2016