Simon O'Brien (presenter)
Simon O'Brien (born 19 June 1965 in Garston, Liverpool, Lancashire) is a British television actor and radio presenter as well as a property developer. He came to prominence as the character Damon Grant in "Brookside", a role he played from the soap's launch in 1982 until 1987, when his character was killed off in York at the end of the 'soap bubble' "Damon and Debbie". He acted in the British version of "Fraggle Rock" from 1989 until 1990 as BJ the lighthouse keeper. He also presented the first three series of "I Can Do That" from  1988–1990; a children's quiz show produced by Yorkshire Television and broadcast on the ITV network, as well as the 'Rough Guide' travel programmes for a time with Magenta Devine. In the 1990s, after a spell presenting BBC football show "Standing Room Only" and a regular role on the American sitcom "Out All Night", he left show business and, with Alan Bate, set up Liverpool Cycle Centre, a combination of vegetarian café, cycle shop, cycle parking and other resources relevant to his enthusiasm for cycling. O'Brien then moved into property development. He has since returned to acting and presenting, with  a short-lived football quizshow, "Do I Not Know That?", on ITV Digital, co-presenting the BBC One show "To Buy or Not to Buy", as well as playing caretaker Wally Scott in "Grange Hill" from 2003. He is an Everton F.C. fan and has, in the past, been the club's public address announcer. In 1994 he played Vince in the sixth episode of the first series of Heartbeat. In 1999, O'Brien presented "Inside Football", a series of eight episodes produced by Nathan Carey and Freedom Media for Channel 5. He presented BBC Radio Merseyside's Breakfast show with  Lucinda Moore from September 2006 until 25 June 2007, when he resigned after the accidental broadcast of a promotional preview clip of a forthcoming radio show of him saying "fuck the government, fuck the planners". O'Brien was back on television on BBC One from 5 September 2011, hosting the second series of "To Build or Not to Build". In 2014 O'Brien began presenting the TV reality series "My Dream Derelict Home". More recently O'Brien co-presents Channel 4 TV series "Find it, Fix It, Flog it" alongside Henry Cole. He now presents Channel 4 DIY show for amateurs "The Great  House Giveaway", where two strangers (hoping to get on the housing ladder) get to renovate a house Simon buys for them at auction. They have six months to do it up and sell it on with a budget Simon sets. If they manage to sell and make a profit, they then get to keep it the profit and split it , giving them chance to buy their own house. In 2014 O'Brien was appointed chair of the Liverpool Green Strategy Group. He and his wife Liz, a teacher, have one daughter.