Jon Holmes
Encyclopedia
Jon Holmes is a seven time Sony award
-winning and double Bafta winning British
writer
, comedian
and broadcaster
.
, Warwickshire
. He attended Canterbury Christ Church University
, where he graduated with a joint degree in English with Radio, Film and Television. While at the university he became involved with its radio station C4 Radio, and also wrote, directed and performed in various student revue shows; and was a presenter on Canterbury's local radio station KMFM Canterbury
(then CTFM).
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 from 1998–2000, won him a gold Sony Radio Academy Award
for entertainment. It was here where Holmes began to acquire his reputation for controversy with on air interactive listener games such as 'I'm Standing On...' (a time trial in which listeners were encouraged to stand on their neighbour's car, wheelie bin etc. and shout "I'm Standing on....' whatever it was until their angry neighbour came out and shouted abuse).
In 2001 Holmes co-created the hit Radio 4 show Dead Ringers
, for which he jointly won his second gold Sony, and the show transferred to BBC Two
.
He then moved to XFM London
"for approximately an hour" before being fired for going to the toilet on air in fellow presenter Dermot O'Leary's
desk drawer. Subsequently signed by Virgin radio, the late-night Jon Holmes show on Virgin Radio
ran from 2001 to 2002, but Holmes was fired after several controversial stunts. Virgin were fined a record £75,000 for Holmes' 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
, he 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), Time Trumpet
(BBC2, 2006), and in 2006 Holmes received his sixth Sony Award for his work on Radio 4's Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive
. On The Now Show, Holmes is regularly mocked for his short stature by his co-presenters as a running joke.
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.
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-presents with newsreader Alice Arnold
. The show "takes the programmes out of the radio, fiddles around with them and then puts them back together the wrong way round". The programme was well received, The Daily Telegraph
calling the show "beautifully crafted and sharp" and The Guardian
described it as "the mischievous offspring of Radio 4's Feedback
and The Day Today
. Series 2 began on Radio 4 in November 2008 and Series 3 was broadcast in the Summer of 2010. "Were the Python team starting out today, they might conceivably come up with something like the utterly fabulous Listen Against." - Independent On Sunday. "Sly, satirical, smart and very funny. Natural successor to On The Hour and The Day Today” Sunday Telegraph. The show was listed in the Telegraph's 'Top 10 Programmes of 2010' and was nominated for The Independent's 2010 'Why I Pay My Licence Fee' Award.
A BBC Radio 2
film panel show, I'm Spartacus, aired on the network in April 2009 while also on Radio 2, Holmes co-writes and presents The Day the Music Died
alongside Andrew Collins
. He has also fronted his own BBC Radio 1
show and, since September 2006, has had his own weekend show on BBC 6 Music
.
Holmes is also a regular contributor to the Radio 4 programme Loose Ends
where he interviews a variety of big-name guests, while on BBC Radio 5Live he produces the quirky magazine show Men's Hour and presents Mob Rule with Jon Holmes, described as 'Points of View for nutters".
radio shows from the late 80s and early 90s. Heavily inspired themes include spoof news items, voiceovers and contributions from children, spoken words from various broadcasters and politicians cut up and re-edited into nonsense and a general subversive edginess very much in the Morris style.
Regular features include:
Special celebrity endorsement - every week Jon Holmes' show is endorsed by Andy Hurst impersonating a figure in the news, for example "Hello, I'm Robert Mugabe
, and when I'm not killing white farmers or rigging elections I always listen to the Jon Holmes show on BBC 6Music".
The Old Gay Whistle Test - a homosexual pensioner whistles a tune for the listeners to guess.
Ken Bruce Master - Radio 2's PopMaster
quiz is turned "arseaboutupside", so instead of listeners answering questions about pop stars, pop stars answer very stupid and surreal questions about Radio 2
presenter Ken Bruce.
DIY Tip - various rock stars share DIY advice. Recent examples include MeatLoaf on correctly potting bulbs and Mark Ronson on the best way to install a mortice lock.
Toddler Pops - a five year old child discusses politics with Holmes and then plays a xylophone tune for listeners to guess.
Band I Found On MySpace Or... - quiz in which various strange names are read out. They're either the name of 'a band I found on MySpace' or something else. The something else changes each week. Examples include 'Band I Found on MySpace' or 'type of spider' and 'Band I Found on MySpace' or 'Sex Toy'.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell On The Radio - callers must battle their way through 'a disused Russian submarine' and shoot whatever pops up as Holmes 'reads out' the action. The things that pop up are often very surreal and often tied to the week's news.
Twittersweet Symphony as the show broadcasts, a chosen song is tweeted in real time on the micro-blogging network Twitter
. Holmes's followers thereby get a stream of song related jokes and comments that correspond to the song and its singer line per line as they're listening to the song. This often contains material that Holmes would probably not be allowed to get away with on the radio. It is referred to on the show, slightly sarcastically, as a "bonus inter-platform multifeature".
666 - in order to fulfill the station's remit for new music, at 6pm on 6Music on Saturday Jon raids another 6Music presenter's pigeon hole and plays a track from the 6th CD he pulls out.
Audible Lolly Stick - like on lolly sticks in the olden days when you had to "suck off" the lolly part to get the whole joke, Jon tells the setup to a joke on the show to which the punchline is only available on the podcast version of the programme.
Encyclopaedia Rocktanica a musical Wikipedia in which rock stars impart knowledge and information. For instance the Joey Tempest
from Europe (band)
explaining the ins and outs of gamma ray bursts.
Features are interspersed with various fake news items and re-edited audio in the style of Holmes own radio 4 show Listen Against. On air he is joined in the studio by David Whitehead oft referred to as "the BBC's idiot".
As of November 2009 a podcast of the show was made available by the BBC.
. 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."
Also co-writes BBC1's The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
. The show was a big hit for Saturday nights and a second series will air in Autumn 2010. Holmes also co-writes Horrible Histories
, for BBC 1, for which he won two BAFTAs in 2010 as part of the writing team.
Apart from the transfer of Radio 4's Dead Ringers, in 2002 Holmes co-presented the fifth series of the 11 O'Clock Show
on Channel 4
television with Sarah Alexander
. He also wrote for Graham Norton
on his award-winning Channel 4 show V Graham Norton
and co-presented BBC3's The State We're In, in which he was beaten up by the SAS
. Holmes also wrote and appeared in Gash
, a nightly politics programme which was broadcast to coincide with the 2003 local elections and presented by Armando Iannucci
. He also co-wrote Iannucci's Time Trumpet
for BBC2.
In 2005, with Dead Ringers's Jon Culshaw
, Holmes co-wrote and script edited ITV1's The Impressionable Jon Culshaw. He also played various roles in various sketches. The show was nominated for the Golden Rose of Montreux
TV Award.
Selected other credits include Have I Got News For You
, Mock The Week
and The Harry Hill Show
. He is also the voice of BBC Three
's 7 Days and Crash Test Danny
for The Discovery Channel.
He regularly appears on Sky News
to preview the following morning's newspapers.
and Hugh Dennis
. He also co-wrote (with Mitch Benn
) The History of the World Through Twitter
described as "hundreds of characters from history tweeting each other in 140 characters or less - as if Twitter had existed since the dawn of time.". Both books were published in October 2009. A second Now Show book will be published in 2010.
He is also a Sunday Times columnist and has written for The Guardian, The Times and the Radio Times among others. He is also a travel writer for the Sunday Times.
Holmes also co-wrote Stephen Fry
's script for the BAFTA Film Awards and has hosted the MOJO Awards
and the Radio Production Awards.
He toured the UK in 2008/2009 reading from his book Rock Star Babylon (for which Stephen Fry voiced the footnotes) and in August 2009 played the Edinburgh Comedy Festival
to nine star reviews, although these stars were fairly well split across various newspapers.
On 15 September 2010, Holmes, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI
's state visit to the UK.
, two Silver Sony Radio Awards
, four Bronze Sony Radio Awards
, a British Comedy Award
, a Broadcasting Press Guild Award
for Best Radio Show and was a nominee, for The Now Show
, for a Channel 4 Political Award
. He was also nominated for a Rose D'or for his work on The Impressionable Jon Culshaw, for ITV1 in 2006.
He has been nominated for two BAFTAS and a Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award and was recently made a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association
.
Sony Radio Academy Awards
The Sony Radio Academy Awards , started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. They are run by ZAFER Associates in association with the Radio Academy...
-winning and double Bafta winning British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
.
Early life
Born in Stratford upon Avon, Holmes was raised in NuneatonNuneaton
Nuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire.Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
. He attended Canterbury Christ Church University
Canterbury Christ Church University
Canterbury Christ Church University is a university in Canterbury, Kent, England. Founded as a Church of England college for teaching training it has grown to full university status and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2012. The focus of its work is in the education of people going into...
, where he graduated with a joint degree in English with Radio, Film and Television. While at the university he became involved with its radio station C4 Radio, and also wrote, directed and performed in various student revue shows; and was a presenter on Canterbury's local radio station KMFM Canterbury
KMFM Canterbury
KMFM Canterbury is an Independent Local Radio serving the City of Canterbury and the surrounding areas in Kent, South East England. It is part of the KMFM group of radio stations in the county, which are part of the KM Group.-History:...
(then CTFM).
Career
After graduation, Holmes's first foray into BBC radio comedy was for BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
with his debut comedy series Grievous Bodily Radio in 1997. He also had a show on Power FM
Power FM
Power FM redirects here and refers to the former UK radio station. For the Australian radio station network of the same name, see Power FM Network. For the English language broadcaster based in the Canary Islands see Power FM Canary Islands...
on Sunday nights. The Jon & Andy show (with Andy Hurst), which Holmes presented from 1998–2000, won him a gold Sony Radio Academy Award
Sony Radio Academy Awards
The Sony Radio Academy Awards , started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. They are run by ZAFER Associates in association with the Radio Academy...
for entertainment. It was here where Holmes began to acquire his reputation for controversy with on air interactive listener games such as 'I'm Standing On...' (a time trial in which listeners were encouraged to stand on their neighbour's car, wheelie bin etc. and shout "I'm Standing on....' whatever it was until their angry neighbour came out and shouted abuse).
In 2001 Holmes co-created the hit Radio 4 show Dead Ringers
Dead Ringers (comedy)
Dead Ringers is a UK radio and television comedy impressions broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and later BBC Two. The programme was devised by producer Bill Dare and developed with Jon Holmes, Andy Hurst and Simon Blackwell. It starred Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Phil Cornwell, Kevin Connelly and Mark Perry...
, for which he jointly won his second gold Sony, and the show transferred to BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
.
He then moved to XFM London
Xfm London
Xfm London is a commercial radio station in the United Kingdom owned by Global Radio and broadcasts on 104.9 FM in London, on digital radio via 30 DAB multiplexes across the country, Sky, TalkTalk TV and Virgin Media....
"for approximately an hour" before being fired for going to the toilet on air in fellow presenter Dermot O'Leary's
Dermot O'Leary
Dermot O'Leary is an English television and radio presenter. He established himself as a presenter of Big Brother's Little Brother on Channel 4 before moving on to The X Factor on ITV. O'Leary has also presented on the BBC and has his own radio show on BBC Radio 2...
desk drawer. Subsequently signed by Virgin radio, the late-night Jon Holmes show on Virgin Radio
Virgin Radio
Absolute Radio is one of the UK's three Independent National Radio stations. The station rebranded to its current name at 7.45am on 29 September 2008.The station is based in London and plays popular rock music...
ran from 2001 to 2002, but Holmes was fired after several controversial stunts. Virgin were fined a record £75,000 for Holmes' 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
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, he was writing and appearing on The Now Show
The Now Show
The Now Show is a British radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, which satirises the week's news. The show is a mixture of stand-up, sketches and songs presented by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis...
and The 99p Challenge
The 99p Challenge
The 99p Challenge is a spoof panel game originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The show is presented by Sue Perkins and features a selection of regular panelists such as Armando Iannucci and regular writers Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley, Jon Holmes and Tony Roche...
, where he first worked with Armando Iannucci
Armando Iannucci
Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish comedian, satirist, writer, director, performer and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, he studied at Oxford University and left graduate work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy....
. Since then he has worked with Iannucci on Gash
Gash (TV series)
Gash was a satirical TV comedy created by Armando Iannucci and broadcast every weeknight from Monday 28th April to Thursday May 1st 2003 on Channel 4 to coincide with the 2003 local elections. Written and filmed on the day of transmission, the programme was a topical review show featuring sketches,...
(Channel 4, 2003), Time Trumpet
Time Trumpet
Time Trumpet is a six-episode satirical television comedy series which aired on BBC Two in 2006. The series was written by Armando Iannucci, Roger Drew and Will Smith in a similar manner to Iannucci's earlier one-off programmes 2004: The Stupid Version and Clinton: His Struggle with...
(BBC2, 2006), and in 2006 Holmes received his sixth Sony Award for his work on Radio 4's Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive
Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive
Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive is a British radio comedy programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2005 with a second series in 2006, a third in 2007 and a fourth in 2008. Series 2, 3 and 4 of the show were broadcast in the popular Friday evening slot, which it has shared with The...
. On The Now Show, Holmes is regularly mocked for his short stature by his co-presenters as a running joke.
He also hosted a spin-off BBC Radio 7 radio series and official podcast of the American drama series Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
, featuring on BBC Two in the UK.
Throughout 2007, Holmes presented the Friday afternoon drivetime show on London talk station LBC
LBC
LBC Radio operates two London-based radio stations, with news and talk formats. LBC was Britain's first legal commercial Independent Local Radio station, providing a service of news and information to London. It began broadcasting on 8 October 1973, a week ahead of Capital Radio...
, 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-presents with newsreader Alice Arnold
Alice Arnold
Alice Arnold is a British newsreader and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4.After gaining a degree in politics at the University of Sussex, she trained as an actress and was a magistrate for ten years....
. The show "takes the programmes out of the radio, fiddles around with them and then puts them back together the wrong way round". The programme was well received, The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
calling the show "beautifully crafted and sharp" and The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
described it as "the mischievous offspring of Radio 4's Feedback
Feedback (radio series)
Feedback is a series broadcast on BBC Radio 4, presented by Roger Bolton.-History:Originally a 15 minute programme, it began in 1979 replacing Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells. Amongst its earlier presenters were Colin Semper, a former head of Religious Broadcasting, and Susan Marling. Mary Whitehouse,...
and The Day Today
The Day Today
The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994, and created by the comedians Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris. It is an adaptation of the radio programme On the Hour, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992...
. Series 2 began on Radio 4 in November 2008 and Series 3 was broadcast in the Summer of 2010. "Were the Python team starting out today, they might conceivably come up with something like the utterly fabulous Listen Against." - Independent On Sunday. "Sly, satirical, smart and very funny. Natural successor to On The Hour and The Day Today” Sunday Telegraph. The show was listed in the Telegraph's 'Top 10 Programmes of 2010' and was nominated for The Independent's 2010 'Why I Pay My Licence Fee' Award.
A BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
film panel show, I'm Spartacus, aired on the network in April 2009 while also on Radio 2, Holmes co-writes and presents The Day the Music Died
The Day the Music Died (radio)
The Day the Music Died is a British topical music radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 2. The show has aired since 2003. The sixth series in 2007 saw the departure of Robin Ince, leaving Jon Holmes and Andrew Collins to co-present.- External links :*...
alongside Andrew Collins
Andrew Collins (broadcaster)
Andrew Collins is the creator and writer of Radio 4 sitcom Mr Blue Sky. His TV writing work includes EastEnders and the sitcoms Grass and Not Going Out .-Personal life:Collins was a member of the Labour Party between the late 1980s and early 1990s, leaving after Labour's...
. He has also fronted his own BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
show and, since September 2006, has had his own weekend show on BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
.
Holmes is also a regular contributor to the Radio 4 programme Loose Ends
Loose Ends
In common conversation, the phrase loose ends usually refers to unresolved issues.Loose Ends may also refer to the following:In music:* Loose Ends * Loose Ends...
where he interviews a variety of big-name guests, while on BBC Radio 5Live he produces the quirky magazine show Men's Hour and presents Mob Rule with Jon Holmes, described as 'Points of View for nutters".
BBC 6 Music
From 4-7pm every Saturday afternoon, Jon "plays some music and messes around in the gaps" alongside his friend and sidekick, David Whitehead, and producer Adam Hudson. The format of the show is similar to satirist Chris Morris'Chris Morris (satirist)
Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye, as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter.In 2010 Morris...
radio shows from the late 80s and early 90s. Heavily inspired themes include spoof news items, voiceovers and contributions from children, spoken words from various broadcasters and politicians cut up and re-edited into nonsense and a general subversive edginess very much in the Morris style.
Regular features include:
Special celebrity endorsement - every week Jon Holmes' show is endorsed by Andy Hurst impersonating a figure in the news, for example "Hello, I'm Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
, and when I'm not killing white farmers or rigging elections I always listen to the Jon Holmes show on BBC 6Music".
The Old Gay Whistle Test - a homosexual pensioner whistles a tune for the listeners to guess.
Ken Bruce Master - Radio 2's PopMaster
PopMaster
PopMaster is a popular music quiz on the Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2. It usually takes place at around 10:30 a.m. on weekday mornings.-Structure:...
quiz is turned "arseaboutupside", so instead of listeners answering questions about pop stars, pop stars answer very stupid and surreal questions about Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
presenter Ken Bruce.
DIY Tip - various rock stars share DIY advice. Recent examples include MeatLoaf on correctly potting bulbs and Mark Ronson on the best way to install a mortice lock.
Toddler Pops - a five year old child discusses politics with Holmes and then plays a xylophone tune for listeners to guess.
Band I Found On MySpace Or... - quiz in which various strange names are read out. They're either the name of 'a band I found on MySpace' or something else. The something else changes each week. Examples include 'Band I Found on MySpace' or 'type of spider' and 'Band I Found on MySpace' or 'Sex Toy'.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell On The Radio - callers must battle their way through 'a disused Russian submarine' and shoot whatever pops up as Holmes 'reads out' the action. The things that pop up are often very surreal and often tied to the week's news.
Twittersweet Symphony as the show broadcasts, a chosen song is tweeted in real time on the micro-blogging network Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
. Holmes's followers thereby get a stream of song related jokes and comments that correspond to the song and its singer line per line as they're listening to the song. This often contains material that Holmes would probably not be allowed to get away with on the radio. It is referred to on the show, slightly sarcastically, as a "bonus inter-platform multifeature".
666 - in order to fulfill the station's remit for new music, at 6pm on 6Music on Saturday Jon raids another 6Music presenter's pigeon hole and plays a track from the 6th CD he pulls out.
Audible Lolly Stick - like on lolly sticks in the olden days when you had to "suck off" the lolly part to get the whole joke, Jon tells the setup to a joke on the show to which the punchline is only available on the podcast version of the programme.
Encyclopaedia Rocktanica a musical Wikipedia in which rock stars impart knowledge and information. For instance the Joey Tempest
Joey Tempest
Joey Tempest is the vocalist and main songwriter in the Swedish heavy metal band Europe. He has written hits like "The Final Countdown", "Rock the Night" and "Superstitious".-Early life:...
from Europe (band)
Europe (band)
Europe is a Swedish rock band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979 under the name Force by vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum and drummer Tony Reno. Although widely associated with glam metal, the band's sound incorporates heavy metal and hard rock elements...
explaining the ins and outs of gamma ray bursts.
Features are interspersed with various fake news items and re-edited audio in the style of Holmes own radio 4 show Listen Against. On air he is joined in the studio by David Whitehead oft referred to as "the BBC's idiot".
As of November 2009 a podcast of the show was made available by the BBC.
BBC Radio 2
Holmes occasionally replaces holidaying presenters on Radio 2, with co-presenter Miranda HartMiranda Hart
Miranda Katharine Hart Dyke , known professionally as Miranda Hart, is an English actress, writer and stand-up comedienne. She writes and stars in the BBC sitcom Miranda...
. In October 2011 he attracted criticism after co-hosting the Chris Evans Breakfast Show
Chris Evans Breakfast Show
The Chris Evans Breakfast Show is the flagship show on BBC Radio 2 in the United Kingdom. It is presented by Chris Evans from 11 January 2010, when Evans took over from Sir Terry Wogan who ended his stint as Breakfast presenter at the end of 2009...
with Hart while Chris Evans was on holiday. The website Digital Spy
Digital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....
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."
Television
Co-wrote and appeared in 2009 Unwrapped, a review of the year for BBC2 but with entirely fabricated news stories with judicious use of re-edited news footage and video archive not dissimilar to Holmes's own Listen Against on Radio 4. The show aired at Christmas 2009 to favourable reviews.Also co-writes BBC1's The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson is a British comedy sketch show which stars impressionists Jon Culshaw and Debra Stephenson. A second series was broadcast between 14 November 2010 - 23 December 2010 and a third series started on the 26 October 2011 at 8.30pm on BBC One...
. The show was a big hit for Saturday nights and a second series will air in Autumn 2010. Holmes also co-writes Horrible Histories
Horrible Histories
Horrible Histories is a series of illustrated history books published in the United Kingdom by Scholastic. They are designed to engage children in history by concentrating on the unusual, gory, or unpleasant. The series has proved exceptionally successful in commercial terms...
, for BBC 1, for which he won two BAFTAs in 2010 as part of the writing team.
Apart from the transfer of Radio 4's Dead Ringers, in 2002 Holmes co-presented the fifth series of the 11 O'Clock Show
The Eleven O'Clock Show
The 11 O'Clock Show was a satirical late-night British television comedy series on Channel 4, which featured topical sketches and commentary on news items.The series ran from 1998 to 2000, most notably while hosted by Iain Lee and Daisy Donovan...
on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
television with Sarah Alexander
Sarah Alexander
Sarah Alexander is an English actress, known for her roles in various British comedy series such as Armstrong and Miller, Smack the Pony, Coupling, The Worst Week of My Life and Green Wing....
. He also wrote for Graham Norton
Graham Norton
Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist...
on his award-winning Channel 4 show V Graham Norton
V Graham Norton
V Graham Norton was an entertainment programme shown on Channel 4 in the UK starring Graham Norton, broadcast every weeknight as a successor to the weekly So Graham Norton. It aired from 6 May 2002 to 26 December 2003. It featured celebrities who chatted with Graham and became involved in studio...
and co-presented BBC3's The State We're In, in which he was beaten up by the SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
. Holmes also wrote and appeared in Gash
Gash (TV series)
Gash was a satirical TV comedy created by Armando Iannucci and broadcast every weeknight from Monday 28th April to Thursday May 1st 2003 on Channel 4 to coincide with the 2003 local elections. Written and filmed on the day of transmission, the programme was a topical review show featuring sketches,...
, a nightly politics programme which was broadcast to coincide with the 2003 local elections and presented by Armando Iannucci
Armando Iannucci
Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish comedian, satirist, writer, director, performer and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, he studied at Oxford University and left graduate work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy....
. He also co-wrote Iannucci's Time Trumpet
Time Trumpet
Time Trumpet is a six-episode satirical television comedy series which aired on BBC Two in 2006. The series was written by Armando Iannucci, Roger Drew and Will Smith in a similar manner to Iannucci's earlier one-off programmes 2004: The Stupid Version and Clinton: His Struggle with...
for BBC2.
In 2005, with Dead Ringers's Jon Culshaw
Jon Culshaw
Jonathan Peter Culshaw is an English impressionist and comedian. He was educated at St Bede's RC High School, Ormskirk and St John Rigby College, in Orrell, Wigan....
, Holmes co-wrote and script edited ITV1's The Impressionable Jon Culshaw. He also played various roles in various sketches. The show was nominated for the Golden Rose of Montreux
Rose d'Or
The Rose d’Or is one of the most important international festivals in entertainment television. It was founded in Montreux in 1961 and has taken place in Lucerne since 2004. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from over 40...
TV Award.
Selected other credits include Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
, Mock The Week
Mock the Week
Mock the Week is a British topical celebrity panel game hosted by Dara Ó Briain that launched in 2005. The game is influenced by improvised topical stand-up comedy, with several rounds requiring players to deliver answers on unexpected subjects on the spur of the moment.It is made by independent...
and The Harry Hill Show
Harry Hill
Harry Hill , is a Perrier Award–winning English comedian, author and television presenter. A former medical doctor , Hill began his career in comedy with the popular radio show Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.-Personal life:Hill was born in Woking,...
. He is also the voice of BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
's 7 Days and Crash Test Danny
Crash Test Danny
Crash Test Danny was a series of 13 educational science sketch television shows for the Discovery Kids channel in the UK.Danny, played by Ben Langley, is a real life crash test dummy who goes the extra mile to put the fizz into physics...
for The Discovery Channel.
He regularly appears on Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
to preview the following morning's newspapers.
Other media
Holmes's first book, Status Quo and the Kangaroo, was published in hardback by Penguin May 2007 and has since been published in Australia, Canada, the US and India and has been translated into Russian. The paperback Rock Star Babylon, was published in the UK in September 2008. 2009 saw the publication of another book, The Now Show Book of World Records which Holmes co-wrote with Steve PuntSteve Punt
Stephen Punt is a British writer, comedian and actor, best known for his long-time comedy partnership with Hugh Dennis. Punt lives in Wimbledon with his girlfriend and two children.-Life and career:...
and Hugh Dennis
Hugh Dennis
Peter Hugh Dennis is an English actor, comedian, writer, impressionist and voice-over artist, best known for his work with comedy partner Steve Punt. He is also known for his position as a permanent panelist on the TV comedy show Mock The Week...
. He also co-wrote (with Mitch Benn
Mitch Benn
Mitch Benn is a British musician and stand-up comedian known for his humorous songs performed on BBC radio. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's satirical programme The Now Show, and has hosted other radio shows.Benn has performed at several music festivals, and at the Edinburgh Festival...
) The History of the World Through Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
described as "hundreds of characters from history tweeting each other in 140 characters or less - as if Twitter had existed since the dawn of time.". Both books were published in October 2009. A second Now Show book will be published in 2010.
He is also a Sunday Times columnist and has written for The Guardian, The Times and the Radio Times among others. He is also a travel writer for the Sunday Times.
Holmes also co-wrote Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
's script for the BAFTA Film Awards and has hosted the MOJO Awards
MOJO Awards
The MOJO Awards is an awards ceremony that began in 2004 by Mojo, a popular music magazine published monthly by Bauer in the United Kingdom...
and the Radio Production Awards.
He toured the UK in 2008/2009 reading from his book Rock Star Babylon (for which Stephen Fry voiced the footnotes) and in August 2009 played the Edinburgh Comedy Festival
Edinburgh Comedy Festival
Edinburgh Comedy Festival is a collection of comedy shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe which runs each August.-Media coverage:In June 2008, there were many news stories and commentaries in the media about the launch of the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, both positive and negative.Much was reported...
to nine star reviews, although these stars were fairly well split across various newspapers.
On 15 September 2010, Holmes, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
's state visit to the UK.
Awards
Jon Holmes has won two Gold Sony Radio AwardsSony Radio Academy Awards
The Sony Radio Academy Awards , started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. They are run by ZAFER Associates in association with the Radio Academy...
, two Silver Sony Radio Awards
Sony Radio Academy Awards
The Sony Radio Academy Awards , started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. They are run by ZAFER Associates in association with the Radio Academy...
, four Bronze Sony Radio Awards
Sony Radio Academy Awards
The Sony Radio Academy Awards , started in 1983, are some of the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. They are run by ZAFER Associates in association with the Radio Academy...
, a British Comedy Award
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...
, a Broadcasting Press Guild Award
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....
for Best Radio Show and was a nominee, for The Now Show
The Now Show
The Now Show is a British radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, which satirises the week's news. The show is a mixture of stand-up, sketches and songs presented by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis...
, for a Channel 4 Political Award
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. He was also nominated for a Rose D'or for his work on The Impressionable Jon Culshaw, for ITV1 in 2006.
He has been nominated for two BAFTAS and a Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award and was recently made a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association
British Humanist Association
The British Humanist Association is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes Humanism and represents "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs." The BHA is committed to secularism, human rights, democracy, egalitarianism and mutual respect...
.
External links
- Profile on his agent's site.
- BBC interview (scroll down)
- Cyberchat