Jonathan Overend is an English presenter, commentator and reporter working for ITV Sport, BBC Sport, Times Radio, ATP Media and Premier League Productions. He also runs his own production company, NinetyFour19 Ltd. Overend began his radio career as a volunteer at Hospital Radio

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...

. He joined

BBC Essex BBC Essex is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Essex. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on New London Road in Chelmsford. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 160,000 ...

in 1989, while still studying for his A levels. After studying journalism Overend became the UK's youngest full-time sports producer in 1994, at the age of 21. He then became a co-presenter of the BBC Essex Drivetime show. In 1997 he joined

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

to work on BBC Radio 5 Live as a reporter. He took over as the station's main tennis reporter in 2002 from Iain Carter and became correspondent a year later. In an 11-year tenure, he commentated on over 50 tennis tournaments, covering all of

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-e ...

's Grand Slam titles, and Andy Murray's career from junior to world No.3. After the

2013 Wimbledon Championships The 2013 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 127th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held ...

, Overend accepted a new position as a presenter of 5 Live Sport, as well as reporting and commentating on football. He was the second lead presenter for 5 Live at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and was the main host for the network at the 2016 Paralympic Games. He reported from the 2017/2018 Ashes Tour and, in 2019, ended a five-year tenure as anchor of the Sunday afternoon Premier League programme. In 2020, after a brief spell working for BBC Sounds on an Education podcast, part of the BBC's lockdown offering to parents and schoolchildren, it was announced Overend was leaving the BBC staff to go freelance. In September 2020, he joined the commentary team for ITV on the French Open tennis. In January 2021, Overend was the host and producer of the documentary podcast series "Emergency on Planet Sport" which explored the little-discussed topic of sport and climate change. The programmes led to wider media coverage of the topic on both BBC and Sky. Overend won the 2010 Sports Journalists' Association Sports Broadcaster of the Year award. He is tall and has two children.

References

External links

Overend's blog
at

Jonathan Overend
at

Journalisted The Media Standards Trust is a British media think tank formed in 2006. It carries out research on issues in the media sector. It also advocates for press freedom as well as industry quality, transparency and accountability. It is a registered char ...

''5 Live Sport''
Year of birth missing (living people) Living people English male journalists English sports journalists BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC Radio 5 Live presenters {{UK-nonfiction-writer-stub