Broadcaster. Raised in Perth and educated at Perth Academy and the University of Aberdeen, Sharp completed his studies at Princeton (New Jersey, USA). He began his career as a trainee journalist with the BBC in 1976. He went on to work for Independent Radio News in London, for Radio Tay in Dundee and for Channel Four television news before returning to the BBC. Based in San Francisco, he served as news editor for BBC radio and television on the West Coast of the USA during the 1980s. He also was a regular correspondent for Reuters, The Australian and The Glasgow Herald. In 1994, he proposed a format to the BBC for a late-night programme on their new radio station Radio Five Live, which would include a mix of world news, sport, talk and topical discussion.
He has subsequently regularly presented this show, Up All Night, which has won four Sony awards, including Gold Awards in 1998 and 1999. In 2001, he took Up All Night to Cuba for a pioneering week of broadcasting. He made return visits to the USA to bring British listeners the first-hand views of the American people in the wake of the fall of the Twin Towers in New York in 2001 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. His work also includes Caught in the Web, an early documentary series charting the rise of the Internet and I'll Be Watching You which examined workplace surveillance in Britain.
Sharp now lives in London.
