James Paul Theakston (born 21 December 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, and actor. He co-presented the former Saturday morning

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 network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

children's show ''

Live & Kicking ''Live & Kicking'' is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for '' Going Live!'', and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, ...

'', alongside

Zoe Ball Zoe Louise Ball (born 23 November 1970) is a British radio and television presenter. She was the first female host of both '' Radio 1 Breakfast'' and '' The Radio 2 Breakfast Show'' for the BBC, and presented the 1990s children's show ''Live & ...

between 1996 and 1999. He co-hosted

's former music programme ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

'' between 1998 and 2003. He currently co-hosts the national breakfast show with

Amanda Holden Amanda Louise Holden (born 16 February 1971) is an English actress, media personality, and singer. Since 2007, she has been a judge on the television talent show competition ''Britain's Got Talent'' on ITV. She also co-hosts the ''Heart Brea ...

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as ca ...

Radio. He narrated the BBC documentary series '' Traffic Cops'' from 2003 and 2015, and again on Channel 5 from 2016 onwards. He has hosted several television programmes for the BBC, ITV,

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 ...

and Channel 5. He has won a BAFTA for Live & Kicking and numerous awards for his radio work including a SONY GOLD, 3 Silver Awards and 4 Bronze awards, 2 ARQIVA Awards, 3 TRIC awards and 2 New York Radio Festival Awards.

Education

He joined the

National Youth Theatre The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) is a youth theatre and registered charity in London. Its aim is to develop and nurture young people through creative arts and theatrical productions. Founded in 1956 as the world's first youth the ...

at the age of 13, where he appeared in plays including '' Murder in the Cathedral'' and ''

Marat/Sade ''The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade'' (german: Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgrupp ...

'' alongside contemporaries such as

Daniel Craig Daniel Wroughton Craig (born 2 March 1968) is an English-American actor who gained international fame playing the secret agent James Bond in the film series, beginning with '' Casino Royale'' (2006) and in four further instalments, up to '' ...

, but he was put off from pursuing a full-time acting career by the financial hardships that he encountered. After leaving with nine O-Levels and one GCSE in Maths, retaking it at BHASVIC, he attended North London Polytechnic (now

London Metropolitan University London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public research university in London, England. The University of North London (formerly the Polytechnic of North London) and London Guildhall University (formerly the City ...

), from which he graduated with a first class degree in

business studies Business studies, often simply called business, is a field of study that deals with the principles of business, management, and economics. It combines elements of accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource management, ...

. Whilst at university, he read traffic bulletins on BBC GLR because he wanted to get into sports reporting.

Life and career

Radio

Before embarking on a broadcasting career, he worked for

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition e ...

eers

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...

, and planned to study

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...

at the

Courtauld Institute The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist c ...

. However, after undertaking football and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

reports for GLR and

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 Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

, he was spotted by the BBC's head of sport and hired to present GLR's ''Saturday Sport Show'' at the age of 23. He then presented numerous shows for Radio 5 Live including ''Sportscall,'' ''The Jamie Theakston Cricket Show'' and ''Sport on Wednesday''. Theakston joined Radio 1 in April 1999 to present the ''Sunday Lunch'' show. He fronted the 'One Big Sunday' events during 2000. He moved to a Saturday morning slot in 2001. He left Radio 1 in 2002 to pursue an acting career, his last show being broadcast on 28 September. He joined London radio station Heart 106.2 in May 2005, replacing Jonathan Coleman on ''Heart Breakfast'' with Harriet Scott, which won Gold for Best Music Personality Show at the New York Festivals and the Silver Entertainment Award at the

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

, both in 2007. Theakston (along with Scott) won the Radio Presenter of the Year award at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards in June 2009. Scott left Heart Breakfast in 2013; she was replaced by Spice Girl Emma Bunton, who already had a show on the Heart network. Bunton left in 2018. On 3 June 2019, Heart Breakfast went national across the UK, following a decision by the UK radio regulator

OFCOM The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

to reduce local programming requirements. Theakston currently hosts the show alongside

. Between Bunton’s departure and Holden’s arrival, Heart DJ

Lucy Horobin Lucy Clare Horobin (born 17 October 1979 in Canterbury, Kent) is a British radio presenter well-known for presenting Heart London Drivetime with Jason King. She attended Nottingham Trent University where she achieved a BA (Hons) in Broadcast ...

was brought in as a temporary co host for Theakston.

Television

On television, after presenting ''

The O Zone ''The O-Zone'' is a weekly music magazine show broadcast on BBC from 1989 to 2000 made by BBC Children's Presentation. The first series was presented by Andy Crane on BBC One as a ten-minute filler each weekday morning during the summer sch ...

'' with Jayne Middlemiss, he has most notably hosted ''

'' (1998–2003), ''

'' (1996–1999) and ''The Priory''. The latter two shows he co-presented alongside

Zoë Ball Zoe Louise Ball (born 23 November 1970) is a British radio and television presenter. She was the first female host of both ''Radio 1 Breakfast'' and ''The Radio 2 Breakfast Show'' for the BBC, and presented the 1990s children's show '' Live & ...

. Theakston featured beside Zoë Ball once again in Channel 5's ''Britain's Best Brain'' series, which aired in October 2009. He has also hosted a number of other shows, including the

reality TV show '' The Games'' alongside

Kirsty Gallacher Kirsty Jane Gallacher (born 20 January 1976) is a Scottish television presenter and model. She began her career at Sky Sports News in 1998 and hosted '' Kirsty's Home Videos'', '' RI:SE'' and '' Simply the Best'' before returning to Sky Sports ...

; game show, ''Beg Borrow or Steal'' (2004); prime-time Saturday night show ''The People's Quiz; Channel 4's The Search;'' and ITV Saturday night show ''With A Little Help From My Friends''. From July–August 2013, Theakston and Emma Bunton presented ITV's '' This Morning Summer'' on Friday mornings. Theakston's other presenting work includes fronting the

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

coverage for the BBC, the Oscars, the Grammys, ''A Question of Pop'', UK Music Hall of Fame and Guinness World Records. He narrated all episodes of '' Traffic Cops'' and its spin-off show '' Motorway Cops'', and since 2015 has narrated episodes of '' Caught on Camera''. He also played himself in the mock-interview series '' Rock Profile'' in which he interviewed "celebrities" impersonated by

Matt Lucas Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series ''Little Britain'' (2003–2006, 2020) and '' Come Fl ...

and David Walliams, and in the episode "Video Killed the Radio Star" of the TV series '' FM'' in March 2009.

Acting

As an actor, Theakston has appeared in shows such as ''

Agatha Christie's Marple ''Agatha Christie's Marple'' (or simply ''Marple'') is a British ITV television programme loosely based on the books and short stories by British crime novelist Agatha Christie. The title character was played by Geraldine McEwan from the first ...

'' and ''

Little Britain Little Britain may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little Britain'' (sketch show), a British radio and then TV show ** ''Little Britain USA'', an American spin-off * "Little Britain", a song by Dreadzone from the 1995 album ''Second Light'' * ...

''. Theakston has acted with

in ''

Mad About Alice ''Mad About Alice'' is a British sitcom that ran during 2004 for six episodes. It centres on the lives of a divorced couple and their young son. Despite no longer living together, Doug (Jamie Theakston) and Alice (Amanda Holden) remain in close c ...

'' (2004) and worked with

Adam Faith Terence Nelhams Wright (23 June 1940 – 8 March 2003), known as Adam Faith, was an English singer, actor, and financial journalist. A teen idol, he scored consecutive No. 1 hits on the UK Singles Chart with " What Do You Want?" (1959) and "P ...

on the series '' Murder in Mind'' in 2003, shortly before Faith's death. He has also starred in the West End in the plays ''

'Art' ''Art'' is a French-language play by Yasmina Reza that premiered in 1994 at Comédie des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The play subsequently ran in London in 1996 and on Broadway in 1998. Productions The play premiered on 28 October 1994 at Com� ...

'' and ''Home and Beauty'' at the Lyric Theatre,

Shaftesbury Avenue Shaftesbury Avenue is a major road in the West End of London, named after The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. It runs north-easterly from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus. From Piccadilly ...

. In 2004, he appeared in

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fiction ...

's ''Miss Marple: Body in the Library''.

Personal life

Theakston lived for about ten years in

Wings Place Wings Place, formerly Ditchling Garden Manor, also known as Anne of Cleves House, is a Grade I country house in Ditchling, East Sussex, England. It is a Tudor house, said to be one of the best examples in the country. History Wings Place was on ...

, a Tudor mansion in

Ditchling Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling ...

, East Sussex. Theakston married Sophie Siegle in Ditchling on 15 September 2007, and they live in west London. They have two children. He was previously romantically linked to socialite

Lady Victoria Hervey Lady Victoria Frederica Isabella Hervey (; born 6 October 1976) is an English model, socialite, aristocrat, and former "It girl". She is the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, half-sister of the 7th Marquess, and sister of the 8th Mar ...

, actor

Joely Richardson Joely Kim Richardson (born 9 January 1965) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Julia McNamara in the FX drama series ''Nip/Tuck'' (2003–10) and Katherine Parr in the Showtime series ''The Tudors'' (2010). She has also appea ...

, and models

Erin O'Connor Erin O'Connor, MBE (born 9 February 1978) is a British fashion model. Early life O'Connor was born and brought up in Brownhills, West Midlands, where she attended Brownhills Community School. She was brought up Catholic and her father is from ...

and Sophie Dahl. He is a keen fencer and competed for Sussex in 1985. As captain of Ditchling Cricket Club, Theakston was a member of the first cricket team from England to play the Afghan cricket team in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...

. He is a member of Mensa, a Patron of

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...

and a supporter of

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

Charity

Theakston took a break in 2003 to travel to

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...

to meet with former child soldiers. He is a

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

for CANCERVIVE – a charity established to address the needs of anyone whose family or friends are cancer sufferers. He played in his fifth successive

Soccer Aid ''Soccer Aid'' is a British annual (formerly bi-ennial) charity event that has raised over £38 million in aid of UNICEF UK, through ticket sales and donations from the public. The televised event is a friendly-style football match between tw ...

match at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wembl ...

in June 2014. Having, in 2010, saved four penalties for England against the Rest of the World in a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, before missing a penalty himself in a defeat, he was later named man of the match for his performance in goal. On 4 October 2019, Theakston took an 8 day break from Heart Breakfast to set off on his Bike Britain Challenge, a cycling event for

Global Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

's charity Make Some Noise. The event lasted 8 days, with Theakston cycling 650 miles from

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and arriving in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on the 11th. Along the way, he stopped at

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

and

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

, and met numerous life threatened children and their families. In June 2022, Theakston gifted his wicket to the bustling medium-pace of Ricky Boardman from Kew Cricket Club's 3rd XI, an event Theakston defined as 'pure theatre'.

Performance credits

Filmography

Television

Radio

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Theakston, Jamie 1970 births Living people People from Ditchling People educated at Hurstpierpoint College People educated at Lancing College Alumni of the University of North London National Youth Theatre members English atheists English humanists English television presenters English radio DJs British children's television presenters Mensans BBC Radio 1 presenters Top of the Pops presenters