Jeremy Guy Vine is an English television and radio presenter, and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guests and popular music, taking over from long-serving host Jimmy Young in 2003.
Vine is also the host of the Channel 5 (formerly BBC Two) quiz programme Eggheads, taking over from former host Dermot Murnaghan full-time in 2014. In 2015, he was a contestant on the 13th series of Strictly Come Dancing. Since September 2018, he has presented a Channel 5 weekday current-affairs show, Jeremy Vine.
Vine's career at the BBC included reading the news on the radio in Northern Ireland and working as a researcher on the BBC1 series Heart of the Matter. In 1989, he became a regular reporter on the BBC Radio 4 programme Today, filing reports from across Europe.
While working for Today, he published two comic novels set amidst the modern Church of England, including Forget Heaven, Just Kiss Me (1992) and The Whole World in My Hands (1993). The novels were not successful, and Vine now regards them as juvenilia.
In the mid-1990s, Vine became familiar to BBC TV viewers as a political reporter, which included reporting on the ascent of New Labour under Tony Blair. He later made his mark offering irreverent reports on the 1997 General Election.
Following the 1997 election, Vine became the Africa Correspondent based in Johannesburg, travelling across Africa. Reporting assignments took him to the war front to report on the Eritrean–Ethiopian War, the Angolan Civil War, the violence in Lesotho after South African troops went in and hoisted a South African flag over the Royal Palace, following leadership disputes. He also travelled to Algiers and Kenya, to report during political elections.
Vine was successful in gaining interviews with key leaders in various African nations, including the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and the leader of the Islamist regime in Khartoum, Sudan. Other areas of Africa from which he has reported include Mali, Zambia, Sierra Leone and the Niger Delta (to report on the Nigerian villagers' unrest over the work of the oil companies).
In April 1999, Vine presented an exclusive report on South African police brutality for BBC Two's Newsnight. The film won the Silver Nymph at the Monte Carlo Television Festival and resulted in the suspension of 22 police officers. In July 1999, the BBC announced that Vine was joining Newsnight full-time as a co-presenter, having stood in for Jeremy Paxman over the two previous summers. Paxman was reported to have called Vine "mini-me", a reference to the diminutive associate of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers film series.
Vine was one of the original presenters of Broadcasting House on BBC Radio 4 and presented The Politics Show on BBC One from its launch in 2003 until Jon Sopel took over in 2005.
In May 2006, Vine was announced as Peter Snow's replacement for presenting the BBC election graphics, including the famous Swingometer. His performance on the night of the council elections in England and Wales on 30 April 2008 was widely criticised.
From 2007 until 2009, Vine co-presented the Teaching Awards with Kate Thornton (2007), Myleene Klass (2008) and Christine Lampard (2009).
Between 2007 and 2010, Vine was the presenter of the BBC's flagship and the world's oldest current affairs programme, Panorama, which coincided with the show's move back to a Monday peak-time slot.
From 2008 to 2018, Vine presented Points of View, taking over from Sir Terry Wogan. On 6 October 2008, he started hosting the former BBC Two quiz show Eggheads while the spin-off show, Are You an Egghead?, was presented by the regular host, Dermot Murnaghan. Once the spin-off show had finished, Vine continued to host the second half of each series, with Murnaghan hosting the first half. In Series 16, it was announced that Vine had become the sole presenter. As of 2014, Vine also hosted the spin-off series Revenge of the Egghead. The series ran for a 6-week period, between 24 February and 4 April 2014. On 12 March 2021, it was announced that after 18 years at the BBC, the programme would be moving to Channel 5, and Vine was to continue as host of the show. From 2016 to 2017, Vine co-presented Crimewatch with Tina Daheley.
In September 2018, Vine replaced Matthew Wright as the presenter of Channel 5's weekday morning current affairs show, formerly called The Wright Stuff. The show's name has now changed to Jeremy Vine. Vine said he would continue to present his Radio 2 weekday lunchtime programme. In March 2021, it was announced that Eggheads would be joining his morning current affairs/phone-in show as a programme broadcast on Channel 5, after the BBC put the quiz on hiatus.
