The well-known broadcaster was born in Newcastle, the son of a professional boxer, and attended the Royal Grammar School. There, among other accomplishments, he played the clarinet extremely well. In later life, he claimed to have been wheeled into the operating theatre at the Royal Victoria Infirmary at this time by Wittgenstein (q.v.).
Redhead went on to Cambridge, where he got a first in history and became president of the Cambridge Union. He worked as a journalist on the Guardian and became editor of the Manchester Evening News. His television career on the 'Tonight' programme failed to take off, however, and his aim of editing the Guardian eluded him. On his enormously successful 'Today' programme for Radio 4, however, Redhead developed a reputation for pertinacious questioning which provoked defensive objections from discomfited politicians.
Redhead made a memorable radio programme on the Geordie song tradition, but in general he publicly identified himself with Manchester causes and, as 'Macclesfield Man', adopted a blunt provincial stance when he felt the talk was becoming too London-centred. Redhead ranged widely as a broadcaster over moral, philosophical and religious topics, and there was talk that on retirement, he meant to take up church work.