Jake Humphrey

Jake Humphrey
Humphrey at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed
Born	Jacob John Humphrey (1978-10-07) 7 October 1978 Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Residence	London
Nationality	British
Occupation	Television presenter, journalist, businessman
Employer	BBC, BT Vision, Channel 4, ITV, The Sun BT Sport BBC Sport Whisper Films
Home town	Norwich, Norfolk
Height	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)[1]
Weight	95 kg (15.0 st; 209 lb)
Spouse(s)	Harriet Humphrey (m. 2007)
Children	Florence Aurelia Alice Humphrey (b. 2013) Sebastian Alexander James Humphrey (b. 2015)<s/small>
Website	Official Website

Jacob John "Jake" Humphrey (born (1978-10-07)7 October 1978) is an English television presenter and journalist, best known for presenting BBC Sport's coverage of Formula One from 2009 until 2012. He is the main presenter of BT Sport football coverage and Director of Whisper Films.

Humphrey's career in television began after leaving school. His first work for the BBC was for their children's channel CBBC, although a switch to sport from 2006 saw him become the youngest ever host of their football shows Football Focus, and later Match of the Day and Final Score. While continuing as a guest presenter on those shows, he also went on to present BBC coverage of international football.

Outside of football, he has also presented BBC coverage of the Commonwealth Games and Summer Olympics, and of American Football in the Super Bowl and NFL International Series. He began presenting Formula One after the BBC regained the rights from ITV.

Humphrey has also co-hosted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and has guest presented non-sports programmes such as The One Show for BBC One and This Morning for ITV.

Early life

Born in Peterborough, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England to Liz, a retired teacher and Rex, a retired chief executive of Age Concern Norfolk. He has one sister, Rachel and a brother, Thomas.^[2] The family moved to Norwich, Norfolk when Humphrey was nine^[3] and attended Framingham Earl High School and the Sixth Form at the Hewett School, Norwich. During his time at school he also worked as a paperboy and became interested in the media. For two years, Humphrey was subjected to bullying from other pupils and transferring to other schools resolved his problem. When he was 16, Humphrey got a job at McDonald's and was sacked for poor communication skills. Later he worked in the position of a waiter.^[4]

Career

Early career

After failing his A Levels, while studying for his resits the following year he took a work experience job at ITV East of England contractor Anglia Television.^[5] After passing his A Levels the following summer, he joined Anglia on a full-time basis as a runner, followed by transferring to Rapture TV where he presented the original incarnation of G@mers. Humphrey began presenting on CBBC as assistant host in Against All Odds and later as main host of Rule The School in 2001. He later became the main presenter of Against All Odds and a studio presenter for CBBC the following year.

Children's TV

In late 2002, he hosted CBBC's coverage of Fame Academy, along with Holly Willoughby. They also presented the 2003 celebrity edition for Comic Relief. Humphrey also presented the 2005 and 2007 Comic Relief editions of Fame Academy, with Sophie McDonnell and Caroline Flack respectively. Humphrey also presented CBBC show Against All Odds, a TV show that featured reconstructions of real life emergencies and gave First Aid advice to viewers.

Beginning in 2004, Humphrey started hosting The Saturday Show and BAMZOOKi, but these roles ended in 2005 and 2006 respectively. He also presented Newsround from 2005 till 2008. He was named anchorman of children's sports show Sportsround in September 2005, beginning a series of roles related to sports. Also he was the presenter on Gimme a Break in the first series.

Sports presenting

Humphrey started presenting as a match reporter with BBC Radio 5 Live in 2005 and then presented coverage of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

He first hosted Football Focus in November 2006, covering for regular host Manish Bhasin who was presenting coverage of the 2006 Ashes. He later covered for Bhasin again during the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Humphrey has since hosted Final Score when regular presenter Ray Stubbs was unable to do so. He first hosted Match of the Day for the FA Women's Cup final in May 2007, and then presented coverage of the 2007 Women's World Cup.

In October 2007, he became the BBC's first ever American Football host, subsequently presenting Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLIII live. Humphrey has also presented the BBC's highlights shows for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations and he presented the FA Women's Cup final in 2008, the final Women's Cup Final on the BBC due to the end of the FA contract. Humphrey also hosted the afternoon show at the Olympics for the BBC in Beijing in 2008, and co-hosted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 with Gary Lineker and Sue Barker.

In 2009, he became the anchor for the BBC's Formula One coverage. It was widely considered a highly successful switch for Humphrey, with his hero Des Lynam naming him 2009's best sports broadcaster in his annual 'Desmonds' awards in December 2009.^[6]

In June 2012, he also presented the BBC's coverage of the Euro's starting with Germany v Portugal from Lviv in the Ukraine with Alan Shearer.

In July and August 2012, Humphrey presented coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics. He anchored slots on BBC One and on BBC Three. He also presented coverage from the Velodrome with Chris Boardman and Mark Cavendish.

On 18 September 2012, Humphrey signed up to be the anchor of BT Vision Barclays Premier League football coverage. He joined BT's new sports channel in January 2013 on a four-year deal. It was announced he would leave the BBC's Formula One coverage at the end of the 2012 season. However, the deal with BT is not exclusive and allows him to work for the BBC and other broadcasters outside contract commitments.

In March 2014, Humphrey started hosting F121, an online YouTube series which sees him interview a series of famous faces from the world of motor sport from the comfort of his living room. In Episode 1 his guest was Stirling Moss.

Other presenting

Humphrey presented the 2011 & 2012 New Year Live countdown programme. He also appeared in BBC One HD's 'BBC One Never Looked So Good' Ad, kicking a disco ball then smiling to the camera. Humphrey also briefly hosted coverage of the 2011 Royal Wedding from a 66-year-old Lancaster bomber however was cut off due to technical difficulties with his audio.^[7]

He presents Free Speech, which began on BBC Three on 7 March 2012. From 23 October 2012, he has hosted The One Show as a stand-in presenter. He also hosted the BBC daytime game show Beat The Pack and has presented sports bulletins on 'BBC News Channel.

On 31 May 2013, Humphrey presented ITVs This Morning for the first time alongside Amanda Byram. On 21 November 2014, he hosted a second episode, alongside Ruth Langsford. Humphrey presented on BBC Radio 2 for the first time overnight on 10 October 2014.

Charity work

Humphrey is the patron of the Break young people's charity.^[8]

Personal life

He lives in south-west London, and married his childhood sweetheart, Harriet, in a ceremony in his home village just outside Norwich in August 2007.^[9] On 11 September 2012 he announced via Twitter that Harriet is expecting their first child. Their daughter, Florence Aurelia Alice Humphrey, was born on 20 March 2013. Since, he has had a second child, Sebastian Alexander James was born on 1 August 2015.^[10] Harriet is employed as one of the directors and the production managers of Whisper Films.^[11]

He is a supporter of his local football team Norwich City.

Humphrey is colour-blind – a fact he revealed to much hilarity on BBC Radio 5 Live comedy sports show Fighting Talk, when talking about locking the automatic door on a train lavatory. He can not tell when the light that shows when the door is locked has gone from green to red.^[12]

He received an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from the University of East Anglia in July 2012.^[13]

Filmography

Television

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jake Humphrey.

• Official website
• Jake Humphrey at the Internet Movie Database
• Jake Humphrey at the BBC