Jon Holmes

Jon Holmes (born 24 April 1973) is a British comedian, writer, presenter and broadcaster known for his work on such programmes as The Skewer,The Now Show, Listen Against (for BBC Radio 4), along with both music and spoken word radio.

He has appeared on numerous television programmes.

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Holmes was raised in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

Holmes was adopted when he was aged one month.

He attended Canterbury Christ Church College, where he graduated with a joint degree in English with radio, film and television.

He became involved with university radio station C4 Radio and also wrote, directed and performed in various student revue shows; he became a presenter on Canterbury's local radio station KMFM Canterbury (then CTFM).

The format of the show was similar to satirist Chris Morris's radio shows from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Holmes occasionally replaces holidaying presenters on Radio 2, with co-presenter Miranda Hart.

After graduation, Holmes's first foray into BBC radio comedy was for BBC Radio 4 with his debut comedy series Grievous Bodily Radio in 1997.

He also had a show on Power FM on Sunday nights.

The Jon & Andy Show (with Andy Hurst), which Holmes presented during 1998–2000, won him a gold Sony Radio Academy Award for entertainment.

In 2001 Holmes co-created the Radio 4 show Dead Ringers, for which he jointly won his second gold Sony, and the show transferred to BBC Two television.

Following this, the late-night Jon Holmes show on Virgin Radio ran from 2001 to 2002, but Holmes was fired after several controversial stunts.

Virgin was fined a record £75,000 for Holmes's feature "Swearing Radio Hangman for the Under-12s", in which he persuaded a nine-year-old girl to spell out and then repeat the phrase "soapy tit wank".

Meanwhile, on BBC Radio 4, Holmes was writing and appearing on The Now Show and The 99p Challenge, where he first worked with Armando Iannucci.

Since then he has worked with Iannucci on Gash (Channel 4, 2003) and Time Trumpet (BBC2, 2006), and in 2006 he received his sixth Sony Award for his work on Radio 4's Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive.

He also hosted a spin-off BBC Radio 7 radio series and official podcast of the American drama series Heroes, featuring on BBC Two in the UK.

He has also fronted his own BBC Radio 1 show and from 2006 to 2012 had his own weekend show on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Holmes was a regular contributor to the Radio 4 programme Loose Ends.

Between 2006 until 2012 Holmes presented a BBC Radio 6 Music show every Saturday at 10am, where he "plays some music and messes around in the gaps" alongside his friend and sidekick David Whitehead and producer Adam Hudson.

Throughout 2007, Holmes presented the Friday afternoon drivetime show on London talk station LBC, leaving in January 2008 when the station's new owners made the station more news-based.

In November 2007 he began a new Radio 4 series, Listen Against, which he co-presented with newsreader Alice Arnold.

Series 2 began on Radio 4 in November 2008 and Series 3 was broadcast in the summer of 2010.

A BBC Radio 2 film panel show, I'm Spartacus, aired on the network in April 2009 while also on Radio 2.

Holmes co-wrote and co-presented The Day the Music Died alongside Andrew Collins.

In October 2011 he attracted criticism after co-hosting The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Hart while Chris Evans was on holiday.

The website Digital Spy reported that some listeners were unhappy with the quality of the programme.

The BBC issued a statement in response saying, "Miranda Hart is one of the UK's best-loved comedians and BBC Radio 2 felt it appropriate to bring her warmth to its audience for a week. Jon Holmes is a highly experienced presenter from BBC Radio 6 Music [...] BBC Radio 2 appreciates if their presentation wasn't to everyone's liking, but feels it's important to be able to bring new talent to its output and hopes its audience understands the importance of maintaining a breadth of content on the network."

On 19 December 2012, it was announced that Holmes would be taking over from Danny Wallace as presenter of the XFM London breakfast show from 7 January 2013.

A podcast to accompany the show was released on 11 January 2013, charting at number 13 in the UK iTunes Podcast chart.

The show ran on weekdays between 6am and 10am.

Holmes made the headlines again after a controversial joke about the Irish at the Winter Olympics.

Holmes was nominated for 'Presenter of the Year' at the 2015 Commercial Radio Awards.

In March 2016 it was announced that Holmes would move to the new-to-launch speech station Talkradio to present the weekday afternoon slot.

Holmes left the station, and his final show was on 12 January 2018.

In 2018 Holmes was back on Radio 2 with Jeremy Vine: Agony Uncle, which he wrote and appeared in as 'Tim the producer'.

With Lewis MacLeod as Jeremy Vine, it was a 'behind the scenes look at what happens during The Jeremy Vine Show when the records are on'.

The premise featured 'Jeremy' taking phone calls to give advice from various celebrities played by impressionists Terry Mynott and Jess Robinson.

The show returned for a 2018 Christmas special.

Following a pilot in 2019, since January 2020 Holmes has produced his BBC Radio 4 soundscape dark satire The Skewer.