5 Facts About Andy Kershaw

1. In July 2003, Andy Kershaw was awarded an honorary doctorate of music by the University of East Anglia, and in 2005 he was similarly honoured by his old university, the University of Leeds, having failed to graduate originally.

2. In June 2005 Andy Kershaw criticised Bob Geldof over the choice of artists due to play at Live 8, which included few black performers and even fewer Africans.

3. In 1994, Andy Kershaw reported on Rwanda's genocide, filing a series of pieces for Radio 4's Today programme.

4. In July 1985, Andy Kershaw began life as a BBC Radio 1 DJ, ear-marked by the station as a possible successor to John Peel.

5. The son of a headmaster and headmistress, Andy Kershaw's parents instilled in him the ethics of education and self-improvement at an early age.