Jeremy Vine (born May 17, 1965, Epsom, England) is a current affairs presenter on BBC radio and television. Vine was educated at Epsom College and Durham University (Hatfield College), graduating with a first-class degree in English. He went on to a journalism training course with the Coventry Evening Telegraph before joining the BBC in 1987.
His career at the BBC included reading the news on radio in Northern Ireland and working as a researcher on the BBC1 religious-affairs series Heart of the Matter. In 1989 he became a regular reporter on the Radio 4 programme Today, filing reports from across Europe, from Ireland to Siberia.
While working for Today, he published two comic novels set amid the modern Church of England, Forget Heaven, Just Kiss Me (1992) and The Whole World In My Hands (1993). They were not very successful and Vine now regards them as juvenilia.
In the mid-1990s he became familiar to BBC TV viewers as a political reporter, reporting on the modernisation of the Labour Party and later making a mark with his irreverent reports on the 1997 General Election.
He became a regular presenter of BBC2's Newsnight in 1999, and was one of the original presenters of Broadcasting House on Radio 4. After several stints as a stand-in for Jimmy Young on Radio 2 in 2001-2002, he took over the 12 midday show permanently in January 2003, though the show became shrouded in controversy when it emerged that Young had not retired voluntarily as had originally been claimed.
Vine is one of the most prominent openly Christian broadcasters in the UK and has also presented numerous religious-themed programmes for the BBC. He is known for his direct and some would say abrasive interview style.
In 2005 Vine won the best speech broadcaster award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards and on December 14th was announced as Peter Snow's replacement manning the election graphics, including the famous Swingometer. He will take over from the local elections on May 4th 2006.
He also presented The Politics Show on BBC1 from its launch in 2003 until Jon Sopel took over in 2005.
In May 2006, BBC Radio 2 was cut off the air for two minutes as he was about to discuss new evidence of a conspiracy theory relating to the MI5's involvement in the death of Princess Diana with Mohamed Al-Fayed. Vine was later quoted saying that the BBC had nothing to do with being cut off.
Jeremy is the older brother of comedian Tim Vine.
