Former Celtic defender Derek Whyte has turned into the ultimate utility man on the screens of Showtime Arabia.
Commenting on football from around the globe keeps Whyte well connected within the game but outside the studio there’s not much that he hasn’t tried his hand at in Dubai.
Almost anything can crop up on the ‘Derek Does’ slot although he’s most at home with a microphone in his hand and switching on the karaoke machine as the video below highlights.
“That show was great fun,” he admitted about Showtime’s Christmas special. “When you see some of the guys on the beach it was more Weight Watch than Baywatch.
“The singing was done early in the day without the benefit of drink, a few folk have asked about it but we were all stone cold sober.
“At Celtic I used to sing with Andy Walker. I remember the pair of us singing at a Cash for Kids Christmas lunch, someone paid money for us to go up and sing Leroy Brown and that was us on a Friday lunchtime, twenty four hours before a match.
“I sang at Andy’s 40th birthday. We’d both sing a bit as did Tommy Burns and there were a few singers in the team at the time.
“I’ve got my karaoke machine here in Dubai and whenever there’s anyone over from Scotland the karaoke machine usually comes out.”
Watch Derek take on the mic at 4 min 30 sec
Whyte is the footballing voice of Showtime alongside Rob McCaffrey and has made the leap from ex-footballer to television host since moving to Dubai.
‘Live The All Sports Show’ goes out at tea-time every Friday with no two weeks the same for the bhoy from Cumbernauld.
“There’s a feature on the show called ‘Derek Does’ and it’s a bit like John Noakes on Blue Peter,” Whyte explained giving his age away. “It’s a filler part on the show and it gives me a chance to do things I’d never have dreamed of in Cumbernauld or Glasgow.
“In the last few months I’ve been hot air ballooning, swimming with sharks, scuba diving and racing round a F1 course in Abu Dhabi. I’ve been sky diving and the list goes on.
“I used to think that cricket was just a big game of rounders but when there’s a ball getting fired at you at 100 mph it’s unbelievable.
“I’ve learned how to swim properly doing tumble turns, anything for fun that’s a challenge I’ll give it a try.
“I was a dolphin trainer as well, I taught them to jump and spin and all sorts. That was brilliant.
“These things are expensive but I’m getting to enjoy them free and that’s another perk.
“I’ve got rock climbing lined up but the ballooning was incredible, I was 4000 feet above Dubai in a tiny basket with just a cameraman filming for company.”
Football remains the main focus however even if it does mean having his watch in a European time zone whilst living in the gulf.
He added: “I’m adding to my cv all the time. Just now I’m doing the Spanish football and the Champions League, that goes out across India and Pakistan and the shows get an unbelievable response to competitions, football is massive in these countries.
“People think that if you are out here you sit on the beach every day but I’m working five or six days a week at some bizarre times to cover the football.
“Kick offs can be at one in the morning finishing at half three, the change of the clocks gives me an extra hour but I’m still working a lot of strange shifts.
“We did the Carling Cup Final to China and they think that there was 200 million people watching!”
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