In 1987 he masterminded the Ferry Aid charity single ‘Let It Be’ which topped the UK charts for three weeks and raised more than £1million for the survivors of the Zebrugge ferry disaster. He rapidly became showbusiness editor and then TV editor of The Sun, before joining the Daily Star as Assistant Editor.

In 1987, Garry began his award-winning Bushell On The Box TV review column which spawned an ITV show of the same name. This ran for two series (50 episodes) in 1996, and was Number One on the Night Network with a viewing share high of 68 per cent. Big names, ranging from Barbara Windsor to Roger Cook via Jonathan Ross and Penn & Teller appeared on the show for free, as did rock bands, comedians and underworld characters such as Lenny McClean and Roy Shaw. In 2002 he became resident TV critic for Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast, a role he reprised for six months on Nuts TV in 2008.

Garry has appeared on numerous TV shows ranging from Newsnight to Celebrity Squares via Big Brother’s Big Mouth. Garry was resident judge on the ITV series The Big Big Talent Show and worked with Michael Collins (author of The Likes Of Us) on The National Alf which Garry presented on Channel 4. He has also written comedy routines for Brian Conley and Bob Monkhouse.

He has hosted a weekly radio current affairs show on TalkSPORT, and currently hosts a monthly pod-cast show devoted to unsigned and indie bands on total rock.

Garry has appeared in panto and put on live shows including talent weekends at Butlin’s and two Festivals Of England for St George’s Day.

In 2006, researchers working for C4 suggested that Garry was one eighth African, which inspired him to claim to be one of “the Bushell men of the Kalahari”.

Divorced in 1999, he re-married new country singer Tania Ashbee (stage name, Leah McCaffrey) in 2000. They have two daughters, Jenna (born 1999) and Ciara (born 2002). He has three grown-up children: Julie, 30, Danny, 28 and Robert, 21.

In 2001 he was sacked by the Sun in a row over his first novel, The Face, a piece of darkly comic pulp fiction which was serialised in The Daily Star by its publisher. He immediately decamped to the Sunday People. Two years after his sacking, a poll of Sun readers organised by the Sun, established that Garry Bushell was still their favourite columnist.

Bushell On The Box now appears in The Daily Star Sunday.

 

Additional information: 

Garry did his journalist training with Paul Foot on the Socialist Worker.

He sings with punk and Ska band the Gonads, who have released six albums and toured the USA, Sweden and Germany.

He has been dubbed “the Godfather of Street-Punk”.

As well as writing for the nationals, Garry has contributed to Kerrang, Classic Rock, the Modern Review, Mensa magazine, Auto Express and Mojo.

He is Vice President of the Kent-based charity Dave Lee’s Happy Holidays.

A follow-up to The Face, called Two-Faced, was published in 2003. The Face is now being adapted as a film.

Garry made his movie acting debut in Hell To Pay (released 2006), where he played an incompetent gangster. He has written the screen-play for the punk movie ‘Join The Rejects…Get Yourself Killed.’

In 2005, Garry stood for the English Democrats Party at the General Election on a platform calling for the creation of an English Parliament – a cause now supported by 68 per cent of English voters (according to a recent poll published in the Daily Telegraph).

Garry manages cult New York rock band Maninblack.