Jeremy Paxman
Encyclopedia
Jeremy Dickson Paxman is a British
journalist
, author
and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC
since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians. His regular appearances on the BBC2's Newsnight
programme have been criticised as aggressive, intimidating and condescending, and also applauded as tough and incisive. He is also the question master of University Challenge
, taking over from Bamber Gascoigne
when the programme was revived in 1994.
. His mother, Joan, born 1920, was a housewife. Paxman is the eldest of four children and has two brothers, one of whom, Giles
, is the British Ambassador to Spain (having previously held the same post in Mexico
), and a sister, Jenny, a producer at BBC Radio
.
He was brought up in Yorkshire
and Peopleton
, Worcestershire
. He attended Malvern College
from 1964 to 1968 and read English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge
, where he edited the undergraduate newspaper Varsity. While at Cambridge, Paxman was briefly a member of the Labour Club.
Paxman was the subject in January 2006 of an episode of the BBC genealogy
series Who Do You Think You Are?. The documentary concluded him to be descended from one Roger Packsman, a 14th century politician from Suffolk
who had changed his name to Paxman (man of peace, "Pax" translates from Latin as peace) to impress "the electorate." His maternal grandmother was born in Glasgow
, Scotland
. The programme generated much pre-publicity by displaying the usually pitiless Paxman teary-eyed on camera when informed that his impoverished great-grandmother Mary Mackay's poor relief
had been revoked because she'd had a child out of wedlock.
, where he reported the Troubles
. He moved to London in 1977. Two years later he transferred from the Tonight programme to Panorama
. After five years reporting from places such as Beirut
, Uganda
and Central America
, he read the Six O'Clock News
for two years, before moving to BBC1's Breakfast Time
programme.
in 1989.
On 13 May 1997 he spoke with Michael Howard
in what became the programme's most notorious interview. Howard, who had been Home Secretary
until thirteen days earlier
, had held a meeting with Derek Lewis, head of the Prison Service
, about the possible dismissal of the governor of Parkhurst Prison
, John Marriott. Howard, having given evasive answers, was asked by Paxman the same question "Did you threaten to overrule him [Lewis]?" a total of twelve times in succession (14 if the first two inquiries worded somewhat differently and some time before the succession of 12). Howard did not give a direct answer, instead repeatedly saying that he "did not overrule him", and ignoring the "threaten" part of the question. Later, during a 20th anniversary edition of Newsnight, Paxman told Howard that he had simply been trying to prolong the interview since the next item in the running order wasn't ready. In 2004 Paxman raised the subject again with Howard, by then leader of the Conservative Party
. This time, Howard laughed it off, saying that he had not threatened to overrule the head of the Prison Service. Secret Home Office papers released in 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act failed to corroborate this.
In 1998, Denis Halliday
, a United Nations
Humanitarian Coordinator
, resigned his post in Iraq
, describing the effects of his own organisation's sanctions
as genocide. Paxman asked Halliday in a Newsnight interview, "Aren't you just an apologist for Saddam Hussein?"
Later that year Paxman won a Royal Television Society
award.
In 2003, Prime Minister
Tony Blair
opted to make the case for the invasion of Iraq
via questions from a TV studio audience, mediated by Paxman. The programme is chiefly remembered for the fact that Paxman asked Blair if he and U.S. President Bush
prayed together. Blair replied, "No, Jeremy. We don't pray together."
During the 2005 General Election
some viewers complained to the BBC that Paxman's robust questioning of party leaders had been rude and aggressive. There was criticism of his five-in-the-morning results interview with George Galloway
. Referring to Oona King
, whom Galloway had just defeated, Paxman asked more than once whether he was proud of having got rid of "one of the very few black women in Parliament." An exasperated Galloway cut the interview short. Paxman later made a taped guest appearance on the Celebrity Big Brother reality TV show challenging Galloway to a follow-up session "with or without your leotard" (Galloway, a Big Brother contestant at the time, had in an earlier much-publicised stunt during the show dressed up in a leotard).
Paxman's brusque manner is not restricted to political interviews. When Newsnights editor decided to broadcast brief weather forecasts instead of financial reports he openly ridiculed the decision: "And for tonight's weather – it's April, what do you expect?". The financial reports were re-introduced after a few weeks. In a Radio Times
poll of 3,000 people in 2006, he was voted the fourth "scariest" TV celebrity.
, bringing him the distinction of "longest-serving current quizmaster on British TV." He presented on BBC America
and BBC World
a weekly compilation of highlights from the domestic edition of Newsnight from February 2008 until shortly after the 2008 U.S. election
, when the American programme was cancelled. The programme is still aired on BBC World
.
In April 2006 The Sun
claimed that Paxman earned £800,000 for his Newsnight job and £240,000 for presenting University Challenge, bringing his TV earnings to a yearly total of £1,040,000. This was one of a series of BBC salary leaks in the tabloid
press that prompted an internal BBC investigation.
Beginning on 15 February 2009, his four part documentary The Victorians
aired on BBC One
. The series explores Victorian
art and culture.
was Director General of the BBC, the British press from time to time reported Paxman's criticism of his boss. The former, suspected at first to be an outsider brought in by a hostile government to supervise the BBC's break-up and ultimate sell-off, in turn publicly questioned the confrontational approach, as he saw it, of certain TV and radio interviewers. This was seen at the time as coded criticism of Paxman himself and of his BBC colleague John Humphrys
.
On 24 August 2007 Paxman delivered the McTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival
. In it he was critical of much of contemporary TV in Britain. He expressed concern that as a consequence of recent production scandals the medium was rapidly losing public trust. Speaking of prime minister Tony Blair
's criticism of the mass media at the time he left office, Paxman asserted that often press and broadcasting may be "oppositional" in relation to the government of the day this could only benefit democracy. Those Reithian
goals, to "inform, educate and entertain," still remained valid. Paxman took the opportunity to dismiss as "inaccurate" the attribution to himself of the oft-quoted "Why is this lying bastard lying to me?" as the supposed dominant thought in his mind when interviewing senior politicians. He called on the television industry to rediscover a sense of purpose.
, arose out of an edition of the Panorama programme they had made together on biological
and chemical warfare
. In a revised 2002 version they asserted that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons. In 1985 Paxman published Through the Volcanoes: A Central American Journey, an eyewitness account of people, places and politics. Friends in High Places: Who Runs Britain? (1991) was the result of numerous detailed interviews with the powerful or highly influential, what used to be called The Establishment
. Paxman's The English: A Portrait of a People (1999) was not the first of his books to be greeted with wide critical acclaim. The Political Animal: An Anatomy (2003), again based on extensive interviews, examines the motivations and methods of those who constitute the author's professional prey: Westminster politicians. The otherwise-republican Paxman's On Royalty
, which entailed the cooperation of Britain's royal family
, became by the time it was published in 2006, to his own surprise and somewhat to the surprise of others, a defence of the country's constitutional monarchy. His recent books have been big sellers. His book, The Victorians: Britain through the Paintings of the Age, published in 2009, was accompanied by a BBC documentary series. In his introduction, Paxman acknowledged that the Irish writer Neil Hegarty had played a significant role in editing the book and bringing it to completion. Paxman was praised by academics and figures in the publishing industry for acknowledging Hegarty's substantial contribution. Paxman stated that since all television is a "collaborative exercise", it was "rather silly for this book - which accompanies a television series - to appear with only one name on the cover." Paxman's most recent book is a study of the British Empire
, Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British.
Award for "outstanding presenter in the factual arena." Two years later he won the Royal Television Society
's Interviewer of the Year Award for his somewhat notorious Newsnight interview (see above) with Michael Howard, as well as the Broadcasting Press Guild
's award for best "non-acting" performer. He got another Richard Dimbleby Award in 2000 and was nominated for the award in 2001 and 2002. He won the Royal Television Society
TV journalism presenter of the year award in 2002 and 2007.
Paxman was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Leeds
in the summer of 1999 and in December that year received an honorary degree
from the University of Bradford
. In 2006 he received an honorary doctorate from the Open University
. Among those at the ceremony were three members of the Open University's 1999 University Challenge team. Paxman is a Fellow by special election of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
, and an Honorary Fellow of his alma mater, St. Catharine's College, Cambridge
.
, Oxfordshire
. They have three children: Jessica, and twins Victoria and Jack. He supports Leeds United
, and enjoys fly fishing
in his leisure time. He is vice-chairman of the Wild Trout Trust conservation charity. He is also a patron of the charity Sustrans
.
When, in his twenties, Paxman unsuccessfully applied for the vacant editorship of the venerable Labour-supporting weekly The New Statesman
, he said he considered himself a socialist. He had previously stood as a Communist candidate in school elections. More recently, he has been described as "the archetypal floating voter", and Jon Snow
once said that Paxman's greatest strength was being "not very political". Paxman himself has stated:
He has periodically suffered from depression
.
arrangements. Having advertised on a Romania
n website, they hired two people at below minimum wage
without a written contract. While this is not illegal in the UK if employees live in, Paxman, known for grilling interviewees on workers' rights issues, was criticised when his employees went public, claiming to have been paid "the bare minimum".
Paxman's controversial remarks about the Scots
have provoked anger at parliamentary level. Twenty Scottish Members of Parliament
signed a House of Commons motion in March 2005 condemning him for comparing supposed Scottish dominance at Westminster to British rule in India: a "Scottish Raj
" was running the UK, said Paxman. The row came right after a Cabinet
minister had complained that the Newsnight host had been offensive about his Glasgow
accent. Paxman's response served further to fan the flames. In an introduction to a new edition of Chambers Dictionary
in August 2008 Paxman labelled the work of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns
as "sentimental doggerel." Paxman himself is quarter-Scottish through his maternal grandmother, a fact which he stated has led to many of his comments being misunderstood as he regards the Scots "with affection".
Paxman has come under fire from critics of US foreign policy, including fellow journalist John Pilger
, for his involvement with the British-American Project
about which, according to The Guardian
, "even its supporters joke that it's funded by the CIA."
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians. His regular appearances on the BBC2's Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
programme have been criticised as aggressive, intimidating and condescending, and also applauded as tough and incisive. He is also the question master of University Challenge
University Challenge
University Challenge is a British quiz programme that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the American show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC television from 1959 to 1970....
, taking over from Bamber Gascoigne
Bamber Gascoigne
Bamber Gascoigne, FRSL is a British television presenter and author, most known for being the original quizmaster on University Challenge.-Biography:...
when the programme was revived in 1994.
Early life
Paxman was born in LeedsLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
. His mother, Joan, born 1920, was a housewife. Paxman is the eldest of four children and has two brothers, one of whom, Giles
Giles Paxman
H.E. Timothy Giles Paxman, LVO is the current Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Spain.Giles Paxman was educated at Malvern College and New College, Oxford...
, is the British Ambassador to Spain (having previously held the same post in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
), and a sister, Jenny, a producer at BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
.
He was brought up in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
and Peopleton
Peopleton
Peopleton is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England. In 2001 the parish had a population of 640, with 245 households.-Location:Peopleton is located about south east of Worcester and north of Pershore...
, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
. He attended Malvern College
Malvern College
Malvern College is a coeducational independent school located on a 250 acre campus near the town centre of Malvern, Worcestershire in England. Founded on 25 January 1865, until 1992, the College was a secondary school for boys aged 13 to 18...
from 1964 to 1968 and read English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...
, where he edited the undergraduate newspaper Varsity. While at Cambridge, Paxman was briefly a member of the Labour Club.
Paxman was the subject in January 2006 of an episode of the BBC genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
series Who Do You Think You Are?. The documentary concluded him to be descended from one Roger Packsman, a 14th century politician from Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
who had changed his name to Paxman (man of peace, "Pax" translates from Latin as peace) to impress "the electorate." His maternal grandmother was born in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The programme generated much pre-publicity by displaying the usually pitiless Paxman teary-eyed on camera when informed that his impoverished great-grandmother Mary Mackay's poor relief
Poor Law
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...
had been revoked because she'd had a child out of wedlock.
Journalism
Paxman joined the BBC's graduate trainee programme in 1972. He started in local radio, at BBC Radio Brighton. He moved to BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, where he reported the Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
. He moved to London in 1977. Two years later he transferred from the Tonight programme to Panorama
Panorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
. After five years reporting from places such as Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, he read the Six O'Clock News
BBC Six O'Clock News
The BBC News at Six is the evening news programme broadcast each night on British television channel BBC One and the BBC News channel at 18:00. For a long period the News at Six was the most watched news programme in the UK but since 2006 it has been over taken by the BBC News at Ten...
for two years, before moving to BBC1's Breakfast Time
Breakfast Time
Breakfast Time was British television's first national breakfast show, beating TV-am's flagship programme Good Morning Britain to the air by two weeks.The show was revolutionary for the time...
programme.
Newsnight
Paxman became a presenter of NewsnightNewsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
in 1989.
On 13 May 1997 he spoke with Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
in what became the programme's most notorious interview. Howard, who had been Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
until thirteen days earlier
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
, had held a meeting with Derek Lewis, head of the Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service is a part of the National Offender Management Service of the Government of the United Kingdom tasked with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales...
, about the possible dismissal of the governor of Parkhurst Prison
Parkhurst (HM Prison)
HMP Isle of Wight - Parkhurst Barracks is a prison situated in Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.Parkhurst prison is one of the three prisons that make up HMP Isle of Wight, the other two being Camp Hill, and Albany...
, John Marriott. Howard, having given evasive answers, was asked by Paxman the same question "Did you threaten to overrule him [Lewis]?" a total of twelve times in succession (14 if the first two inquiries worded somewhat differently and some time before the succession of 12). Howard did not give a direct answer, instead repeatedly saying that he "did not overrule him", and ignoring the "threaten" part of the question. Later, during a 20th anniversary edition of Newsnight, Paxman told Howard that he had simply been trying to prolong the interview since the next item in the running order wasn't ready. In 2004 Paxman raised the subject again with Howard, by then leader of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
. This time, Howard laughed it off, saying that he had not threatened to overrule the head of the Prison Service. Secret Home Office papers released in 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act failed to corroborate this.
In 1998, Denis Halliday
Denis Halliday
Denis J. Halliday was the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq from September 1, 1997, until 1998. He is Irish and holds an M.A. in Economics, Geography and Public Administration from Trinity College, Dublin....
, a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Humanitarian Coordinator
Humanitarian Coordinator
The Humanitarian Coordinator is the senior-most United Nations official in a country experiencing a humanitarian emergency. The Humanitarian Coordinator is appointed by the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator when a new emergency occurs or an existing humanitarian situation "worsens in...
, resigned his post in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, describing the effects of his own organisation's sanctions
Iraq sanctions
The Iraq sanctions were a near-total financial and trade embargo imposed by the United Nations Security Council on the nation of Iraq. They began August 6, 1990, four days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, stayed largely in force until May 2003 , and certain portions including reparations to Kuwait...
as genocide. Paxman asked Halliday in a Newsnight interview, "Aren't you just an apologist for Saddam Hussein?"
Later that year Paxman won a Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
award.
In 2003, Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
opted to make the case for the invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
via questions from a TV studio audience, mediated by Paxman. The programme is chiefly remembered for the fact that Paxman asked Blair if he and U.S. President Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
prayed together. Blair replied, "No, Jeremy. We don't pray together."
During the 2005 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
some viewers complained to the BBC that Paxman's robust questioning of party leaders had been rude and aggressive. There was criticism of his five-in-the-morning results interview with George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
. Referring to Oona King
Oona King
Oona Tamsyn King, Baroness King of Bow is a Baroness and Member of the House of Lords, and former Chief Diversity Officer of Channel 4. She previously had served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow from 1997 until 2005, when she was defeated by Respect candidate George...
, whom Galloway had just defeated, Paxman asked more than once whether he was proud of having got rid of "one of the very few black women in Parliament." An exasperated Galloway cut the interview short. Paxman later made a taped guest appearance on the Celebrity Big Brother reality TV show challenging Galloway to a follow-up session "with or without your leotard" (Galloway, a Big Brother contestant at the time, had in an earlier much-publicised stunt during the show dressed up in a leotard).
Paxman's brusque manner is not restricted to political interviews. When Newsnights editor decided to broadcast brief weather forecasts instead of financial reports he openly ridiculed the decision: "And for tonight's weather – it's April, what do you expect?". The financial reports were re-introduced after a few weeks. In a Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
poll of 3,000 people in 2006, he was voted the fourth "scariest" TV celebrity.
Other TV work
Paxman has presented the weekly TV programme review Did You See?, You Decide and, most notably, since 1994, University ChallengeUniversity Challenge
University Challenge is a British quiz programme that has aired since 1962. The format is based on the American show College Bowl, which ran on NBC radio from 1953 to 1957, and on NBC television from 1959 to 1970....
, bringing him the distinction of "longest-serving current quizmaster on British TV." He presented on BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
and BBC World
BBC World
BBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel in the world...
a weekly compilation of highlights from the domestic edition of Newsnight from February 2008 until shortly after the 2008 U.S. election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, when the American programme was cancelled. The programme is still aired on BBC World
BBC World
BBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel in the world...
.
In April 2006 The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
claimed that Paxman earned £800,000 for his Newsnight job and £240,000 for presenting University Challenge, bringing his TV earnings to a yearly total of £1,040,000. This was one of a series of BBC salary leaks in the tabloid
Tabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...
press that prompted an internal BBC investigation.
Beginning on 15 February 2009, his four part documentary The Victorians
The Victorians
The Victorians - Their Story In Pictures is the name of a 2009 British documentary series which focuses on Victorian art and culture. The four part series is written and presented by Jeremy Paxman and debuted on BBC One at 9:00pm on Sunday 15 February 2009...
aired on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
. The series explores Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
art and culture.
Paxman and the BBC
While John BirtJohn Birt, Baron Birt
John Birt, Baron Birt is a former Director-General of the BBC who was in the post from 1992 to 2000.After a successful career in commercial television, first at Granada and then at LWT, Birt was brought in as deputy director-general of the BBC in 1987 for his current affairs expertise...
was Director General of the BBC, the British press from time to time reported Paxman's criticism of his boss. The former, suspected at first to be an outsider brought in by a hostile government to supervise the BBC's break-up and ultimate sell-off, in turn publicly questioned the confrontational approach, as he saw it, of certain TV and radio interviewers. This was seen at the time as coded criticism of Paxman himself and of his BBC colleague John Humphrys
John Humphrys
Desmond John Humphrys , is a Welsh-born British author, journalist and presenter of radio and television, who has won many national broadcasting awards...
.
On 24 August 2007 Paxman delivered the McTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival
Edinburgh International Television Festival
The Edinburgh International Television Festival, founded in 1976, is held annually over the British August bank holiday weekend at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre....
. In it he was critical of much of contemporary TV in Britain. He expressed concern that as a consequence of recent production scandals the medium was rapidly losing public trust. Speaking of prime minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's criticism of the mass media at the time he left office, Paxman asserted that often press and broadcasting may be "oppositional" in relation to the government of the day this could only benefit democracy. Those Reithian
John Reith, 1st Baron Reith
John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom...
goals, to "inform, educate and entertain," still remained valid. Paxman took the opportunity to dismiss as "inaccurate" the attribution to himself of the oft-quoted "Why is this lying bastard lying to me?" as the supposed dominant thought in his mind when interviewing senior politicians. He called on the television industry to rediscover a sense of purpose.
Books
Paxman's first book, A Higher Form of Killing (1982), written with then BBC colleague and friend Robert HarrisRobert Harris (novelist)
Robert Dennis Harris is an English novelist. He is a former journalist and BBC television reporter.-Early life:Born in Nottingham, Harris spent his childhood in a small rented house on a Nottingham council estate. His ambition to become a writer arose at an early age, from visits to the local...
, arose out of an edition of the Panorama programme they had made together on biological
Biological warfare
Biological warfare is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war...
and chemical warfare
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
. In a revised 2002 version they asserted that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons. In 1985 Paxman published Through the Volcanoes: A Central American Journey, an eyewitness account of people, places and politics. Friends in High Places: Who Runs Britain? (1991) was the result of numerous detailed interviews with the powerful or highly influential, what used to be called The Establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
. Paxman's The English: A Portrait of a People (1999) was not the first of his books to be greeted with wide critical acclaim. The Political Animal: An Anatomy (2003), again based on extensive interviews, examines the motivations and methods of those who constitute the author's professional prey: Westminster politicians. The otherwise-republican Paxman's On Royalty
On Royalty
On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families is a book by Jeremy Paxman examining the ways in which the British Monarchy continues to hold to the public imagination....
, which entailed the cooperation of Britain's royal family
Royal family
A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...
, became by the time it was published in 2006, to his own surprise and somewhat to the surprise of others, a defence of the country's constitutional monarchy. His recent books have been big sellers. His book, The Victorians: Britain through the Paintings of the Age, published in 2009, was accompanied by a BBC documentary series. In his introduction, Paxman acknowledged that the Irish writer Neil Hegarty had played a significant role in editing the book and bringing it to completion. Paxman was praised by academics and figures in the publishing industry for acknowledging Hegarty's substantial contribution. Paxman stated that since all television is a "collaborative exercise", it was "rather silly for this book - which accompanies a television series - to appear with only one name on the cover." Paxman's most recent book is a study of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British.
Awards and honours
In 1996 Paxman received BAFTA's Richard DimblebyRichard Dimbleby
Richard Dimbleby CBE was an English journalist and broadcaster widely acknowledged as one of the greatest figures in British broadcasting history.-Early life:...
Award for "outstanding presenter in the factual arena." Two years later he won the Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
's Interviewer of the Year Award for his somewhat notorious Newsnight interview (see above) with Michael Howard, as well as the Broadcasting Press Guild
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....
's award for best "non-acting" performer. He got another Richard Dimbleby Award in 2000 and was nominated for the award in 2001 and 2002. He won the Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
TV journalism presenter of the year award in 2002 and 2007.
Paxman was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
in the summer of 1999 and in December that year received an honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
from the University of Bradford
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a British university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The University received its Royal Charter in 1966, making it the 40th University to be created in Britain, but its origins date back to the early 1800s...
. In 2006 he received an honorary doctorate from the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
. Among those at the ceremony were three members of the Open University's 1999 University Challenge team. Paxman is a Fellow by special election of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Better known within the University by its nickname, "Teddy Hall", the college has a claim to being "the oldest academical society for the education of undergraduates in any university"...
, and an Honorary Fellow of his alma mater, St. Catharine's College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...
.
Personal life
Paxman lives with his partner Elizabeth Ann Clough in StonorStonor
Stonor Park is a private park and historic country house at Stonor, about north of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England, close to the county boundary with Buckinghamshire.-Setting:...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. They have three children: Jessica, and twins Victoria and Jack. He supports Leeds United
Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
, and enjoys fly fishing
Fly fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
in his leisure time. He is vice-chairman of the Wild Trout Trust conservation charity. He is also a patron of the charity Sustrans
Sustrans
Sustrans is a British charity to promote sustainable transport. The charity is currently working on a number of practical projects to encourage people to walk, cycle and use public transport, to give people the choice of "travelling in ways that benefit their health and the environment"...
.
When, in his twenties, Paxman unsuccessfully applied for the vacant editorship of the venerable Labour-supporting weekly The New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, he said he considered himself a socialist. He had previously stood as a Communist candidate in school elections. More recently, he has been described as "the archetypal floating voter", and Jon Snow
Jon Snow
Jon Snow is an English journalist and presenter, currently employed by ITN. He is best known for presenting Channel 4 News.He was Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.-Early life:...
once said that Paxman's greatest strength was being "not very political". Paxman himself has stated:
I do understand we have to have a government, and I do firmly believe in democracy. So it's not true to say I'm not a political person. I am a political person. But I'm not a party political person. I don't believe there is a monopoly of wisdom in any one party. I suppose as one gets older - I would have described it at the age of 21 as the process of selling out, but another way of looking at it is to say, actually, the world is not a very simple place, and that as you get older simple-minded solutions seem less attractive.
He has periodically suffered from depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
.
Criticism
Paxman has been publicly criticised over his and his partner's home helpDomestic worker
A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...
arrangements. Having advertised on a Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n website, they hired two people at below minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
without a written contract. While this is not illegal in the UK if employees live in, Paxman, known for grilling interviewees on workers' rights issues, was criticised when his employees went public, claiming to have been paid "the bare minimum".
Paxman's controversial remarks about the Scots
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
have provoked anger at parliamentary level. Twenty Scottish Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
signed a House of Commons motion in March 2005 condemning him for comparing supposed Scottish dominance at Westminster to British rule in India: a "Scottish Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
" was running the UK, said Paxman. The row came right after a Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
minister had complained that the Newsnight host had been offensive about his Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
accent. Paxman's response served further to fan the flames. In an introduction to a new edition of Chambers Dictionary
Chambers Dictionary
The Chambers Dictionary was first published by W. and R. Chambers as Chambers's English Dictionary in 1872. It was an expanded version of Chambers's Etymological Dictionary of 1867, compiled by James Donald...
in August 2008 Paxman labelled the work of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
as "sentimental doggerel." Paxman himself is quarter-Scottish through his maternal grandmother, a fact which he stated has led to many of his comments being misunderstood as he regards the Scots "with affection".
Paxman has come under fire from critics of US foreign policy, including fellow journalist John Pilger
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
, for his involvement with the British-American Project
British-American Project
The British-American Project is a fellowship of some 600 leaders and opinion formers from a broad spectrum of occupations, backgrounds and political viewpoints, drawn in equal numbers from the United States and the United Kingdom...
about which, according to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, "even its supporters joke that it's funded by the CIA."
Paxman in popular culture
- Paxman became a focus of media attention in his own right in October 2000 when the stolen Enigma machineEnigma machineAn Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
, which had been taken from Bletchley ParkBletchley ParkBletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
Museum, was inexplicably sent to him in the post. He had it returned to its rightful location. - Charlie BrookerCharlie BrookerCharlton "Charlie" Brooker is a British journalist, comic writer and broadcaster. His style of humour is savage and profane, with surreal elements and a consistent satirical pessimism...
once opined in his Screen Burn columns that one of his new policies for the BBC were he put in charge would be to "let Paxman actually hit people", describing this as "self-explanatory". Similarly, Graeme GardenGraeme GardenDavid Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...
suggested on I'm Sorry I Haven't A ClueI'm Sorry I Haven't a ClueI'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
in 1994 that one way to increase Newsnight' s ratings would be to "arm Jeremy Paxman".
External links
- Biography of Jeremy Paxman, member of the BBC's Press Office, at the official website of the BBC.
- Profile of Jeremy Paxman at Speaker's Associates
- BBC 'Newsnight' biography of Jeremy Paxman
- Official website of BBC's Newsnight programme
- Paxman questioned by fellow-journalists at London's Frontline Club, February 2008
- Paxman interviewed at length on the US Charlie Rose Show, June 2007