Edouard Lapaglie

Tony Quinn (born June 1956) is a UK radio personality and broadcaster who is best known for his comic Frenchman character and alter ego, Édouard Lapaglie.

Lapaglie provides sidekick comedy input on programmes presented by Martin Kelner, who often refers to Lapaglie as "everyone's favourite bogarse Frenchman".

Edouard Lapaglie

The character Edouard Lapaglie was 'born' on Radio Aire in 1981, appearing on the Martin Kelner Breakfast Show, then the Late Night and Tea-Time shows broadcasting the long-running Soap Opera "Monsieur Haricot prends ses Vacances". Edouard has subsequently appeared alongside Martin Kelner on Shows and Stations as varied as Jazz FM, Radio Napa and Pennine Radio of Forster Square, Bradford, now known as The Pulse of West Yorkshire.

Edouard featured on "Martin Kelner's Late Thing", originally broadcast Friday and Saturday, on the BBC Night Network across the North of England. In recent years the programme was 'networked' just to West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, this programme took place every Saturday evening between 10:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m. from the studios of BBC Radio Leeds until April 2007.

From June 2007, Edouard, Simon Jose and Elaine Lipworth began appearing on Martin Kelner's show on GMG radio station Real Radio. The programme was aired from their studios in Tingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m for a period, before Kelner returned to Radio Leeds.

Edouard could then be found on Martin Kelner and Edouards' 'Piss Poor Podcast' [1], an outlet for Kelner & Lapaglie's comedic material. Freed from the constraints of traditional broadcast media, this weekly transmission gained a growing cult following until 27 August 2010, when the 226th edition marked the end of these broadcasts for a while. In April 2016 The podcast was reborn, as Edouard and Kelner joined forces once more and issue 227 heralded the resurgence of a weekly edition, available for paid subscribers only.

As well as appearing on the radio in the early 1990s, Edouard (a member of the Performing Right Society) has also released a series of self penned musical works including "The Ballad of Edouard", "Touchez pas mon Doner Kebab" and "Bob le Dog".

Personal life

Born in Stockton on Tees, Quinn studied at Roundhay Grammar School for Boys in Leeds and graduated from Leeds College of Art in 1973. During the mid-1970s, he earned a living as a street musician in Paris and Fréjus when, following an attack by two French locals with a baseball bat, he returned to the UK arriving in Leeds in 1977.

He stood as an independent candidate for Roundhay ward in the 2018 and 2019 Leeds City Council elections.