Olly Hilton Presents
Over the Christmas period, if you are a keen listener of Radio 1, you may have heard the voice of one of our alumni counting down the UK’s last Official No.1 of the year. On 30 December, Olly Hilton (LGS 2020) hosted the Official Chart as part of the BBC Radio 1 Christmas Presenter Takeover.
Reflecting on his time at Loughborough Grammar School, Olly notes how he had a difficult time after joining LGS in Year 9 initially, however, he found his passion within the Music and Drama departments, despite not having done much Drama before – except playing Kenickie in a primary production of Grease. LGS fueled Olly’s love of music, drama and writing through singing lessons and participation in student productions, performing both at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019 and the part of Javert in the School production of Les Misérables, and writing for the sometimes controversial student satirical newsletter.
"I quickly found Drama and Music at LGS to be somewhere that I could be myself and study something I was passionate about, making great friends in the process. I was inspired by Miss Bruton to pursue my love for Theatre and Acting at higher education level, which proved to be an excellent choice as I found that Theatre Studies has a number of transferable skills to presenting and journalism; writing and voice work being key. The biggest gift that LGS gave me was confidence."
His successes at School and the support of the Drama and Music departments gave him the confidence to apply for a place at the University of York to study Theatre in 2020. However, lockdown restrictions limited his ability to pursue this passion. Instead, at the end of his first year, Olly discovered URY, the University’s Student Radio Station and began doing a show called ‘Indie Archive’ which focused on Indie and Rock music. This ignited Olly’s passion for music, presenting, interviewing and journalism. Since then, he has joined local radio station YO1 Radio as the Sports Producer, BBC Radio York as a Broadcast Assistant, and is now the Head of News and Sport at URY and a Presenter for the Student Music Network’s Spotify Podcast.
University Radio York entered his Chart Show into the National Student Radio Awards and in December 2022, Olly attended the awards event in London.
See a full list of the winners here: Student Radio Awards 2022 – full winners list – RadioToday
Olly and his co-presenter Izzie won the Best Chart Show category, the prize for which was to present the BBC Radio One Christmas Chart Show.
"This was a dream come true for me, and after several training sessions at Broadcasting House in London, I presented the last chart show of the year on Radio 1 on 30th December 2022, with my co-presenter Izzie."
Congratulations Olly! We will be listening out for you on the radio!