Peter Edwin Allen (born 4 February 1946) is an English radio broadcaster with 40 years' experience in journalism. He has been with

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 Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

since it started in 1994, and co-presented the ''Drive'' programme for 16 years from 1998 to 2014.

Early life

Allen was born in

Rochford Rochford is a town in Essex, England, north of Southend-on-Sea, from London and from Chelmsford, the county town. At the 2011 census, the civil parish, which includes the town and London Southend Airport, had a population of 8,471. History ...

, Essex, and attended the independent Brentwood School. At 18 he left school and started work with his local newspaper. He emigrated to Australia and worked for the Sydney ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

''.

Broadcasting career

In the 1970s Allen switched to working in radio, joining Independent Radio News, the newly launched news service for UK commercial radio. He eventually became the network's political editor while working at

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

. He also worked as a presenter at its sister radio station

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...

, the London news and talk station. Allen then switched to television and was ITN political correspondent until 1992, when he was one of "a string of high-profile resignations" following the company's budget cuts. He then joined London News Network. On 1 March 1994, the BBC announced that Allen was to host its new ''Breakfast'' programme on

. In 1997 ''Breakfast'' was extended by half an hour. Also in 1997, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' described the "witty repartee" of Allen and co-presenter (and future protagonist) Jane Garvey as the best illustration of the station's tone, "friendly, informal, brisk, and mercifully, not terribly politically correct". Garvey describes him as "the legendary Peter Allen who taught me a lot about broadcasting, and even more about confectionery". On 31 August 1997, Allen and James Naughtie hosted the

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

coverage of the

death of Diana, Princess of Wales In the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died from injuries sustained earlier that day in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed, Diana's partner, and Henri Paul, their chauffeur, were found d ...

which saw Radios 2, 3, 4 and 5 Live taking a single programme. This coverage won a Sony Award for best news event. During 13 years working together at Five Live, following ''Breakfast'' with ''Drive'', Allen and Garvey won six Sony Awards including the Gold award for news broadcaster of the year in 2002. In 2007, newspapers cited unnamed sources which said that Allen had been rejected as

John Humphrys Desmond John Humphrys (born 17 August 1943) is a Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter for the '' Nine O'Clock News'', the flagship BBC News television programme, and from 1987 until 2019 he presented on the BBC Radio 4 ...

' replacement on BBC Radio 4's ''Today'' programme because he was not "posh enough" and did not have an

Oxbridge Oxbridge is a portmanteau of Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most famous universities in the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collectively, in contrast to other British universities, and more broadly to de ...

background. A BBC spokesperson responded "The reason we are not commenting is that it is about whether or not someone went for a job that may or not exist. Consequently, we cannot really get into it." He has been with the network since 1994 and was the co-presenter of BBC Radio 5 Live's ''Drive'' programme for more than 16 years, from September 1998 to October 2014. He also chairs conferences and hosts events and award ceremonies, as well as performing as an after-dinner speaker. In July 2014 the BBC announced that he was moving to a morning slot for three days a week, replacing

Victoria Derbyshire Victoria Antoinette Derbyshire is a British journalist, newsreader and broadcaster. Her eponymous current affairs and debate programme was broadcast on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel from 2015 until March 2020. She has also presented ''News ...

who was leaving the station. In August 2015, Allen presented a live programme from

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...

on the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb, speaking to several survivors of the attack and an American physicist who helped to design the bombs in the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

. From November 2016, Allen co-hosted a 5 Live Sunday evening programme with Jane Garvey. From January 2018 to September 2019 he co-hosted a Sunday evening programme on the same station, ''Peter Allen and Caroline Barker'', in which the presenters were to "delve into the personalities behind the headlines".

References

External links

Fi Glover, ''The Independent'', June 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Peter British radio personalities BBC Radio 5 Live presenters Living people People from Rochford People educated at Brentwood School, Essex 1946 births LBC radio presenters