Jon Holmes (born 24 April 1973)[1] is a British comedian, writer, presenter and broadcaster. His work includes, for BBC Radio 4, The Naked Week,[2]The Skewer, The Now Show, and Listen Against. He has also appeared on other music and spoken word radio, and on television.
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Holmes was raised in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Holmes was adopted when he was aged one month.[3] He attended Canterbury Christ Church College,[4] where he graduated with a joint degree in English with radio, film and television. He became involved with university radio station C4 Radio and also wrote, directed and performed in various student revue shows; he became a presenter on Canterbury's local radio station KMFM Canterbury (then CTFM).[5]
From 2001 to 2002, Virgin Radio transmitted a late-night show with Jon Holmes. Holmes was fired, after Virgin was fined a record £75,000 for several controversial stunts, including Holmes's "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".[12]
From 2006 to 2010, BBC Radio 7 (DAB digital radio) broadcast and podcast 78 episodes of "Heroes—The Official Radio Show" with Jon Holmes, for the 77 episodes of the American drama series, on BBC Two, Heroes, every Saturday at 7:30 p.m..[13]
In 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.[citation needed]
In November 2007 he began a new Radio 4 series, Listen Against, which he co-presented with newsreader Alice Arnold.[14][15][16] Series 2 began on Radio 4 in November 2008 and Series 3 was broadcast in the summer of 2010.[17]
From January 2013, Holmes presented the XFM London breakfast show. A podcast to accompany the show was released on 11 January 2013.[19] The show ran on weekdays between 6am and 10am. Holmes made the headlines again after a racist joke about the Irish at the Winter Olympics.[20] Holmes was nominated for 'Presenter of the Year' at the 2015 Commercial Radio Awards.
From 21 March 2016 to 12 January 2018, Holmes was a weekdays afternoon 1-4pm, presenter on talkRADIO.[21]
Following a pilot in 2019, since January 2020 Holmes has produced his BBC Radio 4 soundscape dark satire The Skewer.[citation needed]
In October 2011, Holmes substituted, with co-presenter Miranda Hart, for regular presenter Chris Evans on the Radio 2 show, The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, attracting criticism.[22] 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."[23]
In 2018, Holmes wrote, and appeared in, as 'Tim the producer', on Jeremy Vine: Agony Uncle, for BBC Radio 2. Lewis MacLeod portrayed "Jeremy Vine", as a 'behind the scenes look at what happens during The Jeremy Vine Show when the records are on'. The premise featured 'Jeremy' taking phone calls to give advice from various celebrities played by impressionists Terry Mynott and Jess Robinson. The show returned for a 2018 Christmas special.[24]
From January 2013, Holmes hosted The XFM London Daily Breakfast Show, weekdays, alongside Matt Dyson, Dave Masterman and a series of interns.[25]
From 26 September 2015, Holmes was relegated to the weekend breakfast show[26] for the XFM relaunch as Radio X. Former Radio 1 Breakfast DJ Chris Moyles hosted the Radio X daily breakfast show.[27] in direct competition with his Radio 1 successor Nick Grimshaw.[28]
As well as writing for television, Holmes co-wrote and appeared in 2009 Unwrapped,[29] a review of the year for BBC Two 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 44. The show aired at Christmas 2009.[citation needed]
He appeared (in acting roles) in Crackanory on the Dave Channel as well as 'Nick Tesla' in the controversial Channel 4 drama Ukip: The First 100 Days which imagined what it would be like if Ukip won the 2016 UK general election.[citation needed]
Apart from the transfer of Radio 4's Dead Ringers, in 2002 Holmes co-presented the fifth series of The Eleven O'Clock Show on Channel 4 television with Sarah Alexander.[31] He 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 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.[citation needed]
He regularly appears on Sky News to preview the following morning's newspapers.[citation needed]
Other media
He has been a Sunday Times columnist and has written for The Guardian, The Times and the Radio Times, among others. He is now a travel writer for the Sunday Times.[citation needed]
In 2016 he hosted Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards.[34]
Works
In 2007, Holmes's book, Status Quo and the Kangaroo, was published in the UK by Penguin and later published in Australia, Canada, USA, India and Russia.[citation needed]
In September 2008, Holmes's paperback Rock Star Babylon was published in the UK.[citation needed] In 2008-2009, Holmes toured the UK, reading from his book Rock Star Babylon (for which Stephen Fry voiced the footnotes) and in August 2009 played the Edinburgh Comedy Festival.[citation needed] In 2021, a number of Rock Star Babylon stories (including Status Quo and the Kangaroo), had been adapted into a radio comedy show called Rockanory. The series is due to be broadcast by Absolute Radio and will feature the voices of Shaun Keaveny, Jon Culshaw and Jake Yapp. Holmes produced the series and has co-written it with Gareth Ceredig.[35]
In 2009, Holmes co-wrote (with Mitch Benn) The History of the World Through Twitter.[citation needed]
In 2015, Holmes's comedy memoir, A Portrait of An Idiot As A Young Man was published.[36]
Politics
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.[37]
↑ Day, Julia (19 March 2002). "Virgin hit by record fine". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 May 2019. Just before midnight on January 18 Holmes' late-night show broadcast the child taking part in a competition in which callers guess the letters of the phrase "soapy tit wank". The girl was prompted to say the phrase and then encouraged to repeat it three times in what the authority called a "highly offensive" and "totally unacceptable" programme.
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