Dan Snow

Daniel Robert "Dan" Snow (born 3 December 1978) is a British television presenter, who presents history programmes for the BBC and other broadcasters and has a history slot on The One Show.^[1]

Early life and background

Dan Snow is the youngest son of Peter Snow, BBC television journalist, and Canadian Ann MacMillan, managing editor emeritus of CBC's London Bureau; thus he holds dual British-Canadian citizenship.^[2] Through his mother, he is the nephew of Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan and also a great-great-grandson of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.^[3] One of his father's cousins is the Channel 4 news reporter Jon Snow and his paternal great-grandfather (Peter and Jon's grandfather) was Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow, a British infantry general during World War I.

Education

Snow was educated in London at Westfield Primary School now Barnes Primary and at St Paul's School where he was Captain of School and rowed for its VIII.

He went up to Balliol College, Oxford,^[4] his father's alma mater, and graduated with first-class honours in Modern History (M.A.).^[3][5]

A keen rower since his secondary school days, he won the U-23 men's division at the 2000 British Indoor Rowing Championships^[6] and rowed three times in the Boat Race, winning in 2000 and losing the controversial 2001 Boat Race when President.^[7][8]

Career

Snow presented his first programme in October 2002 just after graduating from university, co-presenting the BBC's 60th anniversary special on the Battles of El Alamein with his father Peter.^[9] Father and son then collaborated to present an 8-part documentary series called Battlefield Britain, which aired in 2004 winning a BAFTA Craft Award for special effects. The same year Snow won a Sony award as one of the presenters on the LBC Boat Race coverage.

He has made some history programmes for the BBC. He also presents on many of the state occasions such as the 200th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Trafalgar, Beating Retreat 2006, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two, the 90th anniversary of the Armistice in November 2008, Trooping the Colour and the Lord Mayor's Show. Snow again collaborated with his father to present BBC 2's 20th Century Battlefields and its print edition, which were both well received.^[10] The series covers battles all around the world and is presented in similar fashion to the first Battlefield Britain which was broadcast in various markets in 2006 and is available on DVD. The second series can also be viewed on the Military Channel.

In June 2008, Snow was in a three-part series called Britain's Lost World on BBC One. Along with Kate Humble and Steve Backshall, he stayed on the island of St Kilda, Scotland, to find out more about its history and wildlife. In the television programme My Family at War he explored the role of his great-grandfather General Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow, who commanded the VII Corps on the first day on the Somme in World War I.

In November 2011 Snow teamed up with the Irish Army to fire a British or Canadian-made Browning Mark II (or a Mk. II* variant) .303" machinegun which he had excavated from a Spitfire that had crashed in Donegal while being flown by Bud Wolfe. Despite having lain in a peat bog for 70 years the machine gun fired without a hitch after careful cleaning and with fresh ammunition.^[11]

On 8 December 2012, Snow co-presented Rome's Lost Empire with Dr. Sarah Parcak, a space archaeologist from University of Alabama at Birmingham (U.A.B.).

In late 2012 Snow embarked on a promotional tour for his new book Battle Castles: 500 Years of Knights and Siege Warfare,^[12] which was published in conjunction with a 6-part documentary he had presented for the History Channel. In early 2013, he presented a programme on the history of railways on BBC Two, called "Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways".

In the summer of 2013 Snow was part of a team with eight others down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in period-correct boats recreating the epic trip by John Wesley Powell through uncharted territory and rapids in 1869. Other British team members accompanied by American experts were Mike Dilger and Sam Willis. The footage, narrated by Dougray Scott, became Operation Grand Canyon with Dan Snow which was broadcast on BBC Two in January 2014.

Snow has also travelled through war zones in Congo and Syria to make programmes about the historical context of those conflicts. These were shown on BBC2 in 2013. Snow has released award winning apps, the Timeline series, which include the Number 1 selling Reference app, TimelineWW2. He attracted criticism for saying in 2012 that ‘apps are simply a better vehicle than books’.

On 7 May 2015 Snow presented the online alternative election night broadcast unelection.^[13][14]

On 27 November 2015 Snow presented a live-streamed Periscope broadcast from The Mary Rose. Gaining exclusive access to the 'hot-box' conservation structure, Snow and his team were the first people, excluding museum staff to inspect the hull of the ship. The broadcast was featured by Periscope^[15] and at the time of writing has received in excess of one hundred thousand views. Snow's team pioneered the multi-camera live Periscope, inviting viewers to switch between live-streams.

Personal life

On 27 November 2010, Snow married the criminologist and philanthropist Lady Edwina Grosvenor,^[16][17] second daughter of the 6th Duke of Westminster.^[18] Their daughter Zia was born in 2011 (named after Zia Wernher)^[19] and their son Wolf Robert in 2014,^[20] and they have another daughter Orla born after Wolf.^[21]

On 18 April 2010 Snow and a few friends took three rigid-hulled inflatable boats from Dover to Calais to help people return to Britain after they were stranded in France by the air travel disruption after the Icelandic eruption. When they arrived at Calais they were told by the French authorities to fous le camp ("get lost"). He did manage to get 25 people back but was unable to return for more.^[22]

In August 2011, Snow chased a group of rioters through Notting Hill in west London before tackling and performing a citizen’s arrest on a looter who was fleeing from a shoe shop.^[23][24]

Snow serves as President of the Council for British Archaeology.^[25] As an atheist and a humanist, he is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association, an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a member of the Royal Historical Society. He is also an advocate for political reform, being the Electoral Reform Society’s first ambassador. He played a central part in the United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, 2011; after he released a successful viral video, the campaign used a version of it, featuring Snow, as their final Referendum Broadcast.

In August 2014, Snow was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to that referendum.^[26]

Allegations of nepotism

Given his relationship with Peter Snow and Jon Snow, allegations of nepotism are frequently levelled at Snow. Snow has previously acknowledged the allegations and has argued that "there's nothing I can do about that".^[27] Jon Snow has acknowledged that his own career may have started as it did due to nepotism.^[28]

Credits

Television

Radio

• Art in the Trenches, Radio 4
• At War with Wellington, Radio 4
• Prince of Wales, Radio 4, a look at the history of the office of Prince of Wales and the current occupant

Books

• Snow, Dan; Snow, Peter (2004). Battlefield Britain. London: Random House (BBC Books). ISBN 0-563-48789-5. 
• Snow, Dan; Snow, Peter (2008). 20th Century Battlefields. Random House (BBC Books). ISBN 978-144-8140-596. 
• Snow, Dan (2009). Death or Victory: the Battle of Quebec and the birth of Empire. London: Harper Press. ISBN 0-00-728620-1. 
• Snow, Dan; Pottle, Mark (2011). The Confusion of Command: The Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas D'Oyly 'Snowball' Snow 1914 -1918. Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1848325753. 
• Snow, Dan (2012). Battle Castles: 500 Years of Knights and Siege Warfare. London: Harper Press. ISBN 0-00-745558-5. 
• Snow, Dan; Snow, Peter (2015). The Battle of Waterloo Experience. Andre Deutsch Ltd. ISBN 978-0233004471. 

Awards

• BAFTA (Visual Effects) for 'Battlefield Britain'
• Sony Award (Best Live Coverage) for Boat Race Day
• BAFTA Cymru (Best Presenter) for 'Hadrian'
• Maritime Media Award for best television, film or radio for 'Empire of the Seas'
• 2011 History Makers Award (Most Innovative Production) for 'Battle for North America' a 1-hour special on Snow's book 'Death or Victory.' Produced by Snow's production company Ballista
• Voice of the Listener & Viewer Special Award 2013

Ancestry

See also

• Duke of Westminster

References

External links

• Video guides
• Relative Values
• Q&A in the Guardian
• Agent
• English Heritage Films
• Daily Telegraph interview about his rowing
• Video podcasts to accompany his latest series
• Dan Snow's History Hit Podcast
• Dan Snow at the Internet Movie Database
• Dan Snow (official Periscope channel)