Richard Philip "Rick" Edwards (born 20 May 1979) is an English television presenter, journalist, and author. Edwards presented T4 for four years, and has also presented '' Tool Academy'', ''

Freshly Squeezed ''Freshly Squeezed'' is a British breakfast television programme which was broadcast every weekday morning on Channel 4 from August 2006 to December 2012. Format The programme took the format of a music-based breakfast show, featuring studio p ...

'', '' E4 Music'', and much of

Channel 4 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 2012 Paralympics coverage. Edwards also hosted the "Fighting Talk" radio show on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcas ...

. As a journalist, he has written for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after b ...

'' and ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

''. From 2017 to 2021, he has been the presenter of the BBC quiz show '' Impossible'', and since November 2021 he has co-hosted the BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast show (replacing

Nicky Campbell Nicholas Andrew Argyll Campbell, OBE (born Nicholas Lackey, 10 April 1961) is a Scottish broadcaster and journalist. He has worked in television and radio since 1981 and as a network presenter with BBC Radio since 1987. Early life Campbell wa ...

), usually alongside

Rachel Burden Rachel Mary Ann Cecilia Burden (born 22 January 1975 in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England) is a newsreader, radio news reporter and presenter. She has presented the BBC Radio 5 Live weekday breakfast show since 2011. She is also one of the main w ...

Early life

Edwards was born on 20 May 1979 at Enfield to Philip G. Edwards and his wife Patricia A. nee Galloway He went to

Portsmouth Grammar School The Portsmouth Grammar School is a co-educational independent day school in Portsmouth, England, located in the historic part of Portsmouth. It was founded in 1732 as a boys' school and is located on Portsmouth High Street. History In 1732, ...

and later attended

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

, studying mathematics originally before changing to natural sciences after his first year. He performed stand-up and sketch shows during his time at university.

Career

Edwards hosted a Saturday evening radio show on

XFM Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2015 ...

entitled ''The Weekender'' for several years, hosting his last show on 10 January 2009. He also formed part of the BBC presenting team for their coverage of the

Reading and Leeds Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

. In 2011, Edwards began hosting E4's '' Tool Academy'', a reality TV show about fed-up girlfriends who have enrolled their underperforming other halves in a school in which "tools become men". During the 2012 Paralympics, Edwards formed part of the

commentary team as well as co-presenting ''That Paralympic Show'' with

Ade Adepitan Adedoyin Olayiwola "Ade" Adepitan (born 27 March 1973) is a Nigerian-born British television presenter and wheelchair basketball player. As a presenter, he has hosted a range of travel documentaries and sports programmes for BBC television. A ...

. In 2013, Edwards began co-presenting political discussion show ''Free Speech'' for

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

alongside Tina Daheley. During the 2015 general election, they presented a series of ''Free Speech'' specials. As a writer, his original film, Burger Van Champion, was commissioned as part of C4’s Coming Up strand in 2013 and was described by the Observer as ‘a remarkable debut’ and by Time Out as ‘funny, touching ndsuperbly written’. In July 2015, Edwards began presenting

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, ...

panel show, ''

Safeword In BDSM, a safeword is a code word, series of code words or other signal used by a person to communicate their physical or emotional state, typically when approaching, or crossing, a physical, emotional, or moral boundary. Some safewords are used ...

'' which returned for a second series in 2016. Edwards currently hosts the podcast Science(ish) alongside Dr Michael Brooks, which delves into the science behind popular films. The series proved such a hit that the duo were commissioned by Atlantic to write a book of the same name, ''Science(ish): The Peculiar Science Behind The Movies'', which was published in October 2017 and ranked number 1 in the Physics, Cosmology, and Humorous Essays Amazon charts for several weeks as well as achieving a position of 21 in the overall book charts. The podcast itself has topped the iTunes Science & Medicine chart. In March 2016, Edwards landed the anchor role on Sky's ''DC Fancast'' alongside Bec Hill. He claims this is a true highlight of his career. In January 2017, Edwards began presenting '' !mpossible'', a daytime

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...

quiz show. From March 2019, Edwards costarred in

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as we ...

's miniseries ''River Hunters'', alongside

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...

and river-hunter Beau Ouimette. In September 2021 BBC Radio 5 Live announced that it had hired Edwards to host its new breakfast show alongside

. The new-look 5 Live Breakfast launch took place on 8 November 2021 following

’s move to a slot later in the day.

Personal life

Edwards has said that he has a very poor sense of smell due to sniffing pure

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous w ...

while in school. Edwards supported green organisation

Global Cool Global Cool was a green living campaign run by the Global Cool Foundation, a registered climate change charity in the United Kingdom. As well as running the Global Cool lifestyle magazine website, Global Cool Foundation also worked with corpora ...

in 2010 as part of their Traincation campaign, along with his friend George Lamb. Edwards married ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British soap opera created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the programme follows the stories o ...

'' and ''

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuiti ...

'' actress

Emer Kenny Emer Gwynne Morganna Kenny (born 10 October 1989) is a British actress and screenwriter. Career Kenny made her professional debut in the 2007 BBC television drama '' Coming Down the Mountain'', and, in 2009, she made her film debut in Phil Cla ...

in 2016.

Filmography

Bibliography

*''Science(ish): The Peculiar Science Behind the Movies'' (2017, ) *''None of the Above'' (2015, ) *''Birds of pray'' (1998, )

References

External links

*
''5 Live Breakfast''
(BBC Radio 5 Live)
Rick Edwards Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Rick 1979 births Living people Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge BBC Radio 5 Live presenters BBC television presenters English game show hosts English radio personalities People from Enfield, London Television personalities from London