BIOGRAPHY

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From a very early age I’ve loved cars and, after reading Geography at Oriel College, Oxford from 1979 to 1982, I joined the Ford Motor Company as a Graduate Trainee. In practice my job at their sprawling headquarters in Warley, Essex proved rather uninteresting - tasks like counting the number of windscreen wipers required every day in Köln. After a year or so, I left to join the BBC’s Top Gear programme as a researcher.

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I went on to become Producer and Executive Producer of the show between 1987 and 1999, where I was responsible for launching the TV careers of Jeremy Clarkson, Quentin Willson and Vicki Butler-Henderson. I also produced other car programmes for the BBC including the classic car series The Car’s the Star. Though I left the BBC to go freelance in 1999 I later had a corner named after me on the Top Gear test track.

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In 2002, after spells as a producer with ITV and The Natural History Unit, I launched Fifth Gear for Channel Five and produced the show until 2004 when I joined The Gadget Show as a presenter. This gave me the opportunity to indulge another childhood passion, technology – I used to repair TVs, build radios and practise old-fashioned chemical photography as a youth. I became established as the programme’s main gadget reviewer. I continue to test technology and consumer products on the programme's successor, Shop Smart, Save Money.

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When not presenting I enjoy writing. In 2019 I published my first book, Autopia: The Future of Cars, and I contribute to T3 and Amateur Photographer.  I have also written for, amongst others, the London Evening Standard, Top Gear Magazine, Classic Car Weekly, MSN and CNET. Married with two bilingual daughters, my current interests include the radio, photography, reading about architecture, business and economics and visiting art galleries.