Desmond John Humphrys (born 17 August 1943) From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter of the Nine O'Clock News, the flagship BBC News television programme, He was the host of the BBC Two television quiz show Mastermind from 2003 to 2021, for a total of 735 episodes. Humphrys now presents a regular Sunday afternoon show on Classic FM, where he also sometimes fills in on the weekday More Music Breakfast show.

Humphrys has a reputation as having been an outspoken and challenging interviewer; occasionally politicians have, after being subjected to a tough interview on live radio, been critical of his style.

Early life and career

Humphrys was born into a working-class environment in Cardiff, at 193 Pearl Street, Adamsdown, son of Winifred Mary (Matthews), a hairdresser, and Edward George Humphrys, a self-employed Conservative-voting French polisher. He was one of five children.

Career at the BBC

Humphrys joined the BBC later in 1966 as the district reporter for Liverpool and the north-west, where he reported on the dock strikes of that time, sometimes for the national news.

From 1993, he presented the weekly On The Record political TV show until its demise in 2002. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in January 2001 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel while presenting an edition of On The Record at the BBC Television Centre. He also appeared on Series 1 Episode 5 of Da Ali G Show, which aired on 28 April 2000.

Humphrys has also presented Panorama and was the presenter of the revived version of the game show Mastermind between 2003 and 2021. He became the programme's fourth regular host, succeeding Magnus Magnusson, Peter Snow and Clive Anderson.

Humphrys is an agnostic, but has said that he has a curiosity to test his agnosticism and challenge established religions to see if they can restore his childhood belief in God. In 2006, he presented a BBC Radio 4 programme, titled Humphrys in Search of God, in which he spoke to leading British authorities on Christianity, Judaism and Islam in order to try to restore his faith.

On 12 November 2009, he became a temporary replacement for David Dimbleby as the host of Question Time when Dimbleby was recovering from an injury. On 3 January 2011, Humphrys announced that he had extended his contract to present the Today programme, but in doing so had agreed to a pay cut. In 2014, he appeared as himself in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern.

Humphry's interview with the Director-General of the BBC George Entwistle on 11 November 2012 on the Today programme was widely reported to have been a major factor in Entwistle's resignation later that day. In the interview, Entwistle admitted he was unaware of a Newsnight investigation which wrongly accused a senior Conservative figure of child abuse until after it was broadcast. The report came about during the unfolding of the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal, which was also considered a factor that contributed to Entwistle's resignation.

On the day of the interview, Humphrys' co-presenter James Naughtie recalled "It was electric in that studio. There were three of us sitting there, George, John and me. And I think all three of us knew we could see a man destroying his own job, on the spot. He was at sea. And it was a deeply uncomfortable 10 minutes." Humphrys later said: "I know it was said in the papers the following morning that he had been humiliated. I didn't set out to humiliate him, of course I didn't."

In a March 2014 interview with the Radio Times, Humphrys noted some of the biases at the BBC, describing it as "broadly liberal as opposed to broadly conservative". He highlighted failings in coverage of the issues of Europe and immigration, stating: "We weren't sufficiently sceptical – that's the most accurate phrase – of the pro-European case. We bought into the European ideal. We weren't sufficiently sceptical about the pro-immigration argument. We didn't look at the potential negatives with sufficient rigour."

In February 2019, Humphrys announced that he was to leave the Today programme, saying that he should have quit "years ago". He hosted his final edition on 19 September, when his interviewees were Tony Blair, Dame Edna Everage and David Cameron.

Other interests

Humphrys has written several books, including Lost for Words, in which he criticises what he sees as the widespread misuse of the English language, plus Devil's Advocate, Beyond Words, The Great Food Gamble and In God We Doubt: Confessions of a Failed Atheist. In September 2019, he released his memoir A Day Like Today, which included his views on the internal political climate at the BBC.

He played himself in the 2013 crime thriller film Closed Circuit with Eric Bana playing the lead.

After leaving the BBC, Humphrys joined the Daily Mail as a weekly columnist and became a presenter on Classic FM on Sunday afternoons between 3 pm and 5 pm.

Humphrys is a keen gardener who makes his home-made compost and uses his own urine to water his lawn.

Humphrys founded Kitchen Table Charities Trust (KTCT) in 2005. The charity collects donations and distributes small grants to projects mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Political views

Humphrys has been described as a "natural liberal" and does not view himself as conservative, saying; "I am not conservative, you know. I am genuinely one of those pathetic people who has very strong views about issues". Sanderson was a newsreader with news programme Spotlight, then with BBC News 24, and is now a radio producer. Humphrys had a reverse vasectomy. He referred to these facts on 31 October 2006 on BBC Radio 4 in the programme Humphrys in Search of God. He and Sanderson subsequently separated. In 2009, he began a relationship with the journalist Catherine Bennett, a contributor to The Observer. He lives in Hammersmith, west London.

Humphrys' brother, Bob Humphrys, was a sports television presenter on BBC Wales Today. He died of lung cancer in Cardiff on 19 August 2008, aged 56. In December 2013, Humphrys was featured in an episode of the BBC Wales series Coming Home where it was revealed that their great-grandmother, Sarah Willey, had been a resident at the Cardiff workhouse and that their paternal great-grandfather was from Finland.

Humphrys is a keen listener to classical music and was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs on 6 January 2008.

Bibliography

References

  • John Humphrys on Classic FM
  • BBC Video of John Humphrys' house from The One Show
  • Clint Eastwood interviewed for television by John Humphrys (1967)
  • Telegraph October 2006
  • Independent October 2005
  • Independent March 2005