Jason Barlow is a motoring journalist and broadcaster from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. He began his television career in 1998, when he was approached to present

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service i ...

's new car programme '' Driven'', with co-presenters

Mike Brewer Mike Brewer (born 28 August 1964) is an English car trader turned presenter of Driving, motoring television programmes. He currently presents ''Wheeler Dealers'' on the Discovery Channel (UK and Ireland), Discovery Channel with Marc "Elvis" Pri ...

and

James May James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter and journalist. He is best known as a co-presenter of the motoring programme ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from ...

. In 2000, he was personally approached by the then-controller of BBC2 to present ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

'', and he went on to front 53 editions of the programme prior to its relaunch in 2002, with

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' an ...

. Still under contract to the BBC, he presented

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

's motoring programme '' Wrong Car, Right Car'' from 2002 to 2003. More recently, he has presented several editions of Channel 4's award-winning '' Dispatches'', a behind-the-scenes documentary for

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

and Sky Movies on the making of Danny Boyle's 2006 sci-fi thriller ''Sunshine'', interviewed film director David Lynch for Bafta's David Lean lecture in 2007, presented ''TV's Greatest Cars'' and ''Movie's Greatest Cars'' for Sky One, and fronted ''The Big New Preview Show'' for Sky. Barlow is editor-at-large for BBC Top Gear magazine, a long-standing contributing editor to Britain's ''GQ'' magazine and writes regularly for ''The Sunday Times''. His work is widely syndicated around the world. He has also written for ''The Times'', ''The Guardian'', and ''The Independent'', and was nominated for a British Press Award for his ''Daily Telegraph'' column in 2003. He has also undertaken consultancy and corporate work for a variety of blue-chip clients including TAG Heuer, Barclay's Bank, Microsoft, Sony, Kaupthing, BMW, Mini, Ferrari, Peugeot, Honda, and Johnnie Walker. He has a law degree from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, and a postgraduate diploma in journalism studies from the

University of Cardiff , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

. He is married and lives with his daughter and son in Essex. Barlow won the award for 'Spectacle Wearer of the Year' in 2001.

References

Television presenters from Northern Ireland Living people People from Bangor, County Down British motoring journalists People educated at Bangor Grammar School Top Gear people Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from County Down Broadcasters from County Down {{UK-journalist-stub