Presenter's Bio!

Guy Forshaw was born in Fulford in the district of Selby (from 1974 the district of York) in North Yorkshire. Having attended Selby Abbey School till 1968 he then moved to the village of Hexthorpe in Doncaster South Yorkshire after his parent's bought a corner shop in the village. Attending Hexthorpe Junior and later Hexthorpe Middle School Guy had already expressed a keen interest in school drama but was considered too much a show off on stage so the schools head of drama moved him to backstage duties where he had a flare for ordering people about and organizing everyone, an essential trait for a person wishing to work in Theatre!


It was in 1969 that Guy had his first taste of Theatre-land when he was coerced into helping backstage at The Doncaster Arts Centre with The Alder Grove Cubs & Scouts Annual Review Show in 1969. From that point on he caught the theatre bug & was never far away from the Arts Centre (later renamed The Civic Theatre) as he was to help out with many local theatre companies till 1992.

Guy was a pupil of Balby High School at Oswin Ave Balby Doncaster from 1972 to 1977 where he excelled in both the drama and music departments but not as a performer but as a backstage pupil helping out in over 30 productions at the school on stage lighting, sound and set construction. This is at the same time as working at The Civic Theatre with local amateur companies and The South Yorkshire Theatre for Youth.

Guy's first professional theatre job
was for Doncaster Council in 1977.

Guy Forshaw
(Romeo & Juliet's Caberet Venue 1984)

When he left school in 1977 he got a job with a Theatre-in-education company in Doncaster called LINK which was set up  by establish theatre actor/producer FINE TIME  FONTAYNE Guy was the company's Assistant Technician and with six actors and a senior technician traveled in Doncaster's s  schools putting on children's theatre shows till he left in 1978 to  join Doncaster's famous cabaret venue Romeo & Juliets as a  technician and assistant DJ later Chief Technician where he  worked till 1984. He was also First Leisure's top Lighting &  Sound Technician from 1980 to 1984 and worked at many other venues training new operators. 


He moved back into backstage Theatre late in 1984 achieving technical posts at:-

The Bolton Assembly Rooms, 
The Derby Playhouse,
The Gateway Theatre Chester,
The Sedgewick Conference Centre in London,
The London Palladium,

The Phoenix Theatre, London,
The De La War Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea

The Hull New Theatre,
and one of his favourite Theatres - The City Varieties in Leeds.

The one Theatre Guy has tried to get work in; The Crucible in Sheffield always eluded him after 30 years of trying!

Guy 'On Set' at The Civic Theatre
Doncaster 1989

After working with a technician at The Liverpool Garden Festival in 1987 at The Liverpool Garden Festival Dome he was able to get an interview with Central Television in Lenton Lane Nottingham as a Studio-hand later a Props Master before finally being made redundant early in 1992 as a Floor Manager. He then spent two years (limited contract) with Yorkshire Television in Leeds as a Studio Gallery Technical Controller a job he loved and was awarded many staff recognition titles for his vision mixing techniques on live shows.

Doncaster Little Theatre March 1995
Set construction for Terence Rattigan's
'Deep Blue Sea'

After the Central Television/Carlton Television/Yorkshire Television years Guy moved back into Theatre and worked with many touring companies in the midlands till he returned to Doncaster in 1994 to help set up a brand new theatre in Doncaster called The Doncaster Little Theatre where he was responsible for all the electrical and stage lighting and sound installations, operations and lighting/sound design for both amateur and professional companies. He left in 2003 to pick up full-time theatre again as a freelance technical consultant for a live events and touring production company based in London.

Guy Forshaw with a member of

the Theatre's Backstage Youth Group

at The Little Theatre in 1995

In 2009 he joined a local radio station 102.6 Sine FM in Doncaster on a new venture to broadcast on the FM frequency and his show Supersonic 70's was the first to be officially broadcast on FM in September 2009. He still presents the show in 2021 and has a large following on social network Twitter with many high profile celebrities following as well. 

Guy  Forshaw in 1991

Guy's voluntary work has also included working as a volunteer athletes  village security officer at the world student games in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in 1991 at the the famous Hyde Park flats. He spent two weeks helping to look after some of the world's most respected athletes.

Guy has also worked as a freelance technical consultant for an events company based in London from 2003 to 2013 working in and out of various small to medium based Theatres /Venues in the capital & South  East advising on re-fits, renovations and new ventures ranging from  work in Theatre/Cabaret venues to Digital Arts Events and Broadcasting.

Guy is regarded as one of only a handful of technicians in the UK to have ever worked in theatre & the broader entertainment industry regularly for over 40 years with very few gaps and when recently asked how he had lasted so long he said "Sacrifice".

From March 2014 to December 2018  Guy worked for various media companies based at Media City Salford in Manchester as a part-time freelance technical operator working for independent production companies.

As well as being a qualified Electrician (City & Guilds) H.N.D (1981) Guy is a member of The Association of British Theatre Technicians who has received training and certificates in indoor stage pyrotechnics by the highly acclaimed Le Maitre Limited over the years.

Guy has now retired from the entertainment industry after a total of fifty years (eight years in local theatre and forty two years professionally).

He has seen decades of change in the entertainment industry and has some important advice for the modern 'techie' - Adopt a 'pass it on' knowledge attitude to people coming up in the ranks, don't see them as a job threat. Team work is King and can only be successful when you're all singing from the same hymn sheet! 


2020/21 (The Pandemic)

Guy Forshaw (Sine FM 2020)

Guy still continues his voluntary live local radio show Supersonic 70's at Sine FM in Doncaster every Monday 2-4pm on 102.6 FM in Doncaster and online at sinefm.com Now in its 12th year!

Guy shares his spare time between local community radio in Doncaster and as an executor of several trust funds handed down to him by former colleagues from the wider entertainment industry.

Guy was saddened to hear of the decimation of many entertainment venues forced to close during the Covig-19 Pandemic and the loss of many experienced staff leaving the industry for good.  Guy quoted to press "The industry will recover but it will at a terrible cost and will take many, many years".

Guy is the Youth Bursary supporter of Cast Venue Doncaster
and also has Box Seat Sponsorship and full membership. Click on THIS LINK to see how you can support true local theatre.

Guy's Confetti Wall Plaque at Cast Theatre Doncaster 2019

2024

Guy still continues his voluntary live local radio show Supersonic 70's at Sine FM in Doncaster every Monday 2-4pm on 102.6 FM in Doncaster and online at sinefm.com It will enter its 15th year of broadcast in 2025.

Guy is now fully retired from professional work.