Michael Cleere

Born in Ireland, Michael was a child of the 60s. At a very early age he decided that he wanted to be a saint and he came to the conclusion that all it would take was a lot of prayer. Five minutes later he changed his mind. His indecision was to be vindicated in later life when someone told him how difficult the saints can be to live with.

He began his broadcasting career in pirate radio, progressing in time to the BBC where he specialised in religious and social affairs. He won six national media awards for the corporation, including a much-coveted Sony for a radio documentary which the judging panel described as “utterly gripping”.

That could have been a case of art imitating life, as he’s had something of a rollercoaster ride through pastoral ministry, magazine publishing, and television production. The latter saw him make twelve TV documentaries for national television, all on subjects of faith and ethics, including a ground-breaking series on The New Testament.

Michael joined the Premier family in December 2006, initially as presenter of Premier’s drive time programme, and since June 2007 he’s been looking after Worship At Home on Sundays, where his unique mix of words and music is winning hearts and minds.

Five random facts

• His pastoral ministry in Belfast threw him into a wide range of tricky situations, including negotiating the release of a woman and three children held hostage by an armed gang.
• He has a thing about boats, narrow boats especially, and dreams of one day owning his own.
• He has a fine singing voice and has featured on a collection of inspirational songs with Daniel O’Donnell.
• He’s very proud of the 1994 BMW that he bought on eBay, and when he’s not behind the wheel of that he’s up on his bike and can be seen across the streets of London.
• Apart from the Word of God, especially Jeremiah 29:11, he also takes inspiration from Ernest Hemingway’s belief that “Life breaks everyone sometimes, and some grow strong at the broken places”.