After leaving school, Walsh got an apprenticeship at
Rolls-Royce's aircraft engine factory in Watford.
Football career Walsh started his youth football career at
Wormley Rovers. In 1979, at the age of 18, Walsh became a professional football player for
Brentford, although he failed to make the first team, and was regularly a member of the reserves. While Walsh was at Brentford, he also played for
Barnet on loan, making five
Alliance Premier League appearances in the
1979–80 season. He also played for
Tring Town,
Boreham Wood and
Chalfont St Peter. Ankle fractures ended his football career at the age of 22, in 1982. He has participated in
Soccer Aid, a charity football match in which England takes on The Rest of the World, with teams made up of celebrities and professional footballers. He helped England win the
2006 event as a player and the
2012 and
2016 events as a coach. Walsh made an episode for Soccer Aid in June 2022.
Television career Following his football career, Walsh had a variety of jobs, including working as a bluecoat at
Pontins Walsh was recruited by television channel
ITV, who offered him the role as presenter on one of the network's new game shows,
Midas Touch. In 1997, Walsh was asked to front the British adaptation of the popular US game show
Wheel of Fortune, following the decision of long-time presenter
Nicky Campbell to leave the show after more than eight years. Walsh's tenure on
Wheel of Fortune lasted just one year, when he decided to turn his hand to acting. He also appeared on ''
Lily Savage's Blankety Blank''.
Acting Walsh's first acting job was a minor role in the
Channel 4 series,
Lock, Stock.... He also appeared as Dave Dodds in the 2001 Channel 4 TV film
Mike Bassett: England Manager. He returned to ITV in 2002 after landing a regular role in the short lived British soap opera
Night and Day. He featured in a total of 52 episodes. In 2003, while appearing in
Les Miserables in the
West End, he played a minor role in an episode of
The Bill spin-off series,
M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team. On 31 May 2004, he made his first appearance in
Coronation Street as factory boss
Danny Baldwin, a nephew of the long-running character
Mike Baldwin. It was originally envisaged that Walsh's character would be called Vic; however, Walsh asked for the character's name to be changed to Danny after his late father. In December 2006, Walsh was written out of
Coronation Street at his own request. In October 2007, he appeared in TV drama
Torn. The following year, Walsh appeared in two episodes of
Doctor Who spin-off
The Sarah Jane Adventures, in the second story of series two,
The Day of the Clown, as a sinister entity that fed off other people's fear. In his role, he played three parts of the same ego: a sinister American-sounding clown called Odd Bob, a mysterious European-sounding ringmaster called Elijah Spellman, and the infamous
Pied Piper of Hamelin. In January 2009, Walsh began appearing in
ITV crime drama
Law & Order: UK. He played the character of DS Ronnie Brooks, a recovering alcoholic who has been in the police force for more than twenty years. From 2009 until 2014, Walsh starred in a total of 53 episodes. After the eighth series, Walsh decided to take a break from the programme and ITV decided to rest the show, though it has not been cancelled, and is on a hiatus. Walsh said he would "like the opportunity to pursue other drama projects which ITV are developing". In May 2014, Walsh was cast as Brutus in a
BBC One comedy series,
SunTrap, starring alongside
Kayvan Novak and
Keith Allen. The show premiered on 27 May 2015. In October 2017, the BBC announced that Walsh had been cast as a
companion to
Jodie Whittaker as the
Thirteenth Doctor,
Graham O'Brien, in the
eleventh series of
Doctor Who. He reprised the role for the
twelfth series in 2020 and departed the programme in the 2021 New Year's Day special "
Revolution of the Daleks". He also appears in the
2022 special "
The Power of the Doctor". In December 2020, it was announced that Walsh had been cast as Pop Larkin in
The Larkins, a new six-part adaptation of
The Darling Buds of May. He started appearing on
The Larkins in October 2021.
Presenting On 9 September 2007, Walsh hosted the countdown ''TV's 50 Greatest Stars
on ITV, in which people had to vote for their favourite television personalities. Later that year, on 29 December 2007, Walsh hosted the quiz show No. 1 Soap Fan'' on ITV. In August 2008, Walsh fronted his own ITV series entitled
My Little Soldier, in which young contestants are required to do "grown-up things" such as travelling on their own by train. In November and December 2008, Walsh hosted another game show for ITV,
Spin Star. In June 2009, Walsh became the presenter of
ITV game show
The Chase, as well as the celebrity editions of the programme.
The Chase has become popular, beating rival BBC quiz show
Pointless regularly. The show features contestants who take on the "Chaser" in a series of general knowledge quiz rounds. There have also been a number of series of celebrity versions of the show, also hosted by Walsh. Walsh hosted a pilot for an
American version of
The Chase in 2012. However, it was decided that
Brooke Burns would host the show instead. Between 2010 and 2011, Walsh was the presenter of the Saturday panel show
Odd One In, with regular panellists
Peter Andre and
Jason Manford. Since 2012, Walsh has hosted the
Crime Thriller Awards on
ITV3. He also hosted the
Crime Thriller Club on ITV3 in 2013. Walsh also narrated a one-off documentary for
ITV called
The Circus. In August 2014, Walsh hosted an ITV series,
Come on Down! The Game Show Story, which looked back on the history of British game shows. On 26 October 2014, after two successful pilots, Walsh began hosting the first series of
Keep It in the Family. He returned to host a second series in 2015. In 2014, Walsh presented an episode of
Sunday Night at the Palladium. He returned to the show to present another episode in 2015. In 2016, he presented eight episodes of
Tonight at the London Palladium, a spin-off from the Sunday night series. A second series began airing in April 2017. On 26 December 2014, Walsh hosted an entertainment special called
A Christmas Cracker, filmed at the
Hammersmith Apollo in London. In 2016, Walsh began presenting
Cash Trapped, a daytime game show for ITV. A second and third series aired in 2017 and 2019, respectively. In 2017, Walsh guest-hosted five episodes of
The Nightly Show on ITV, which aired from 3 to 7 April. On 1 May 2019, it was announced that Walsh would host a new
late-night talk show on ITV, titled ''Bradley Walsh's Late Night Guestlist''. The pilot episode, featuring guests
Holly Willoughby,
Maya Jama and
Piers Morgan, aired on 11 May 2019. A full series was not commissioned. In 2020, Walsh was announced as the host of a one-off festive revival of the game show
Blankety Blank for the BBC. The show was later commissioned for a full series, and Walsh has presented the show ever since. In May 2023, the BBC announced that Walsh and his son Barney would be co-presenting the reboot of
Gladiators. In December 2023, Walsh hosted the
Royal Variety Performance at the
Royal Albert Hall.
Other appearances In 1997, Walsh had a spot in the Royal Gala celebrating 21 years of the
Prince's Trust. In 2005, Walsh was one of the victims of an Undercover in
Series 5 of ''
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway''. In 2007, Walsh took part in ''Northern Rock's All Star Golf Tournament'' on
ITV, in which his team, Team Europe, won. In August 2008, Walsh appeared in talent show
Maestro on
BBC Two, in which he was placed sixth. Since 2015, Walsh has been a team captain on the sports-based panel show
Play to the Whistle. Hosted by
Holly Willoughby, the first series lasted for seven episodes, beginning in April 2015. The second series began in April 2016, followed by a third in 2017. Since 2019, Walsh has starred in the ITV travel series
Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad alongside his son
Barney Walsh. In 2020, Walsh was the "first ever double Undercover victim" in
Series 16 of ''
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway''. In May 2022, Walsh appeared on
BBC Radio 4's
Desert Island Discs; his chosen favourite record, book, and luxury item were "
Always and Forever" by
Heatwave,
The Count of Monte Cristo by
Alexandre Dumas, and a set of golf clubs and balls respectively.
Singing career Walsh approached rival game show host
Alexander Armstrong to ask him for singing advice in 2016. The result, in November, was Walsh's release of his debut album,
Chasing Dreams, which peaked at number 10 on the
UK Albums Chart. It consists of covers of jazz standards such as "
That's Life" and "
Mr. Bojangles" as well as the title track, an original song written by Walsh. It became the biggest-selling debut album by a British artist in 2016, selling 111,650 copies. A year later, due to the success of
Chasing Dreams, Walsh released a second album, ''
When You're Smiling'', consisting of more covers of
traditional pop songs, and one original track. It reached number 11 in the charts. == Personal life ==