The Most Famous

PRESENTERS from United Kingdom

This page contains a list of the greatest British Presenters. The pantheon dataset contains 143 Presenters, 17 of which were born in United Kingdom. This makes United Kingdom the birth place of the 2nd most number of Presenters.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary British Presenters of all time. This list of famous British Presenters is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of British Presenters.

1. David Attenborough (b. 1926)

With an HPI of 63.57, David Attenborough is the most famous British Presenter. His biography has been translated into 76 different languages on wikipedia.

Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is a British broadcaster, biologist, natural historian, and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature documentary series forming the Life collection, a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth. Attenborough was a senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s. First becoming prominent as host of Zoo Quest in 1954, his filmography as writer, presenter and narrator has spanned eight decades; it includes Natural World, Wildlife on One, the Planet Earth franchise, The Blue Planet and its sequel. He is the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in black and white, colour, high-definition, 3D and 4K resolution. Over his life he has collected dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Narration. While Attenborough's earlier work focused primarily on the wonders of the natural world, his later work has been more vocal in support of environmental causes. He has advocated for restoring planetary biodiversity, limiting population growth, switching to renewable energy, mitigating climate change, reducing meat consumption, and setting aside more areas for natural preservation. On his broadcasting and passion for nature, NPR stated Attenborough "roamed the globe and shared his discoveries and enthusiasms with his patented semi-whisper way of narrating". He is widely considered a national treasure in the UK, although he himself does not embrace the term.

2. Jimmy Savile (1926 - 2011)

With an HPI of 58.01, Jimmy Savile is the 2nd most famous British Presenter. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile (; 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English media personality and DJ. Savile was well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image, charitable work, and hosting the BBC shows Top of the Pops, a pop music programme, and the popular children's programme, Jim'll Fix It. After his death, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse made against him were investigated, leading the police to conclude that he had been a predatory sex offender and possibly one of Britain's most prolific. There had been allegations during his lifetime, but they were dismissed and accusers were ignored or disbelieved. As a teenager during the Second World War, Savile worked in coal mines as a Bevin Boy. He began a career playing records in, and later managing, dance halls. His media career started as a disc jockey at Radio Luxembourg in 1958 and at Tyne Tees Television in 1960. From 1964 to 1988, Savile was a regular presenter on the BBC music show Top of the Pops, also co-presenting the last edition in 2006. In 1968, he began hosting his own radio shows for Radio 1, broadcasting until 1987. From 1975 to 1994, he presented Jim'll Fix It, an early Saturday evening television programme which arranged for the wishes of viewers, mainly children, to come true. Savile was known for fundraising and supporting various charities and hospitals, in particular Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire. In 2009, he was described by The Guardian as a "prodigious philanthropist" and was honoured for his charity work. He was awarded the OBE in 1971 and was knighted in 1990. Following his death in 2011 at the age of 84, Savile was praised in obituaries for his personal qualities and his work raising an estimated £40 million for charities. In October 2012, an ITV documentary examined claims of sexual abuse by Savile. This led to extensive media coverage and a substantial and rapidly growing body of witness statements and sexual abuse claims, including accusations against public bodies for covering up or failure of duty. Scotland Yard launched Operation Yewtree, a criminal investigation into allegations of child sex abuse by Savile spanning six decades, describing him as a "predatory sex offender", and later stated that they were pursuing more than 400 lines of inquiry based on the testimony of 300 potential victims via 14 police forces. The scandal had resulted in inquiries or reviews at the BBC, within the NHS, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Department of Health. In June 2014, investigations into Savile's activities at 28 NHS hospitals, including Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, concluded that he had sexually assaulted staff and patients aged between 5 and 75 over several decades. As a result of the scandal, some of the honours that Savile was awarded during his career were posthumously revoked and his television appearances, such as episodes of Top of the Pops that he presented, are no longer repeated.

3. Bear Grylls (b. 1974)

With an HPI of 55.97, Bear Grylls is the 3rd most famous British Presenter. His biography has been translated into 58 different languages.

Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls (; born 7 June 1974) is a British adventurer, writer, television presenter and former SAS trooper who is also a survival expert. He first drew attention after embarking on a number of notable adventures, including several world records in hostile environments, and then became widely known for his television series Man vs. Wild (2006–2011). He is also involved in a number of wilderness survival television series in the UK and US, such as Running Wild with Bear Grylls and The Island with Bear Grylls. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed as The Scout Association’s youngest-ever Chief Scout of the United Kingdom and Overseas Territories at the age of 35, a post he has held for a second term since 2015 and in 2024 became the second longest serving Chief Scout after Robert Baden-Powell. On 5 September 2024, Grylls was succeeded as Chief Scout by Dwayne Fields.

4. Sharon Osbourne (b. 1952)

With an HPI of 52.28, Sharon Osbourne is the 4th most famous British Presenter. Her biography has been translated into 31 different languages.

Sharon Rachel Osbourne (née Levy, later Arden; born 9 October 1952) is an English television personality, music manager, and author. She is married to heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and came to prominence while appearing on The Osbournes (2002–2005), a reality television show that aired on MTV, which followed her family's daily life. Osbourne later became a judge on television talent competition shows, including The X Factor (2004–2007, 2013, 2016–2017) and America's Got Talent (2007–2012). Osbourne is credited with reviving her husband's heavy metal career by founding the summer Ozzfest tour, which was held almost annually between 1996 and 2018. In light of her success managing her husband, she branched out into managing other acts, such as Gary Moore, Motörhead, Lita Ford, and The Smashing Pumpkins, through her own talent management company Sharon Osbourne Management. From 2003 to 2004, Osbourne hosted her own television talk show The Sharon Osbourne Show, which was syndicated to various US channels and also shown in the UK on Sky One. In 2010, she was a contestant on the NBC reality show The Celebrity Apprentice, and became a co-host on the CBS talk show The Talk, hosting until her termination in 2021. In 2022, she joined TalkTV, hosting a prime time show also titled The Talk. In 2024, Osbourne appeared as a celebrity lodger on the twenty-third series of the ITV reality show Celebrity Big Brother. Osbourne has released three autobiographies and two novels. Her first autobiography, Extreme, debuted at number one on the Sunday Times best-seller list.

5. David Frost (1939 - 2013)

With an HPI of 50.15, David Frost is the 5th most famous British Presenter. His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Sir David Paradine Frost (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was an English television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He rose to prominence during the satire boom in the United Kingdom when he was chosen to host the satirical programme That Was the Week That Was in 1962. His success on this show led to work as a host on American television. He became known for his television interviews with senior political figures, among them the Nixon interviews with US president Richard Nixon in 1977 which were adapted into a stage play and film. Frost interviewed all eight British prime ministers serving from 1964 to 2016, from Alec Douglas-Home to David Cameron, and all eight American presidents in office from 1969 to 2008. Frost was one of the people behind the launch of ITV station TV-am in 1983. He was the inaugural host of the US news magazine programme Inside Edition. He hosted the Sunday morning interview programme Breakfast with Frost for the BBC from 1993 to 2005, and spent two decades as host of Through the Keyhole. From 2006 to 2012, he hosted the weekly programme Frost Over the World on Al Jazeera English, and the weekly programme The Frost Interview from 2012. He received the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2005 and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Emmy Awards in 2009. Frost died on 31 August 2013, aged 74, on board the cruise ship MS Queen Elizabeth, where he had been engaged as a speaker. His memorial stone was unveiled in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey in March 2014.

6. John Peel (1939 - 2004)

With an HPI of 49.88, John Peel is the 6th most famous British Presenter. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004. Peel was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock and progressive rock records on British radio. He is widely acknowledged for promoting artists of many genres, including pop, dub reggae, punk rock and post-punk, electronic music and dance music, indie rock, extreme metal and British hip hop. Fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini described Peel as "the most important single person in popular music from approximately 1967 through 1978. He broke more important artists than any individual." Peel's Radio 1 shows were notable for the regular "Peel Sessions", which usually consisted of four songs recorded by an artist in the BBC's studios, often providing the first major national coverage to bands that later achieved fame. The annual Festive Fifty countdown of his listeners' favourite records of the year was a notable part of his promotion of new music. Peel appeared on television occasionally as one of the presenters of Top of the Pops in the 1980s, and provided voice-over commentary for a number of BBC programmes. He became popular with the audience of BBC Radio 4 for his Home Truths programme, which ran from the 1990s, featuring unusual stories from listeners' domestic lives.

7. Gavin McInnes (b. 1970)

With an HPI of 41.14, Gavin McInnes is the 7th most famous British Presenter. His biography has been translated into 49 different languages.

Gavin Miles McInnes (; born 17 July 1970) is a Canadian writer, podcaster, far-right commentator and founder of the Proud Boys. He is the host of Get Off My Lawn with Gavin McInnes on his website Censored.TV. He co-founded Vice magazine in 1994 at the age of 24 and relocated to the United States in 2001. In 2016 he founded the Proud Boys, an American far-right militant organization which was designated a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand after he left the group. McInnes has been described as promoting violence against political opponents but has argued that he has only supported political violence in self-defense and that he is not far-right or a supporter of fascism, instead identifying as "a fiscal conservative and libertarian". Born to Scottish parents in Hertfordshire, England, McInnes emigrated to Canada as a child. He graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa before moving to Montreal and co-founding Vice with Suroosh Alvi and Shane Smith. He relocated with Vice Media to New York City in 2001. During his time at Vice, McInnes was called a leading figure in the New York hipster subculture. He holds both Canadian and British citizenship and lives in Larchmont, New York. In 2018, McInnes was fired from Blaze Media and was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for violating terms of use related to promoting violent extremist groups and hate speech. In June 2020, McInnes's account was suspended from YouTube for violating YouTube's policies concerning hate speech by posting content that was "glorifying [and] inciting violence against another person or group of people."

8. Matt Lucas (b. 1974)

With an HPI of 40.92, Matt Lucas is the 8th most famous British Presenter. His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor and comedian. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series Little Britain (2003–2006) and Come Fly with Me (2010–2011). Lucas first came to prominence on the comedy panel show Shooting Stars, in which he portrayed scorekeeper George Dawes from 1995 to 2009. From 2015 to 2017, he portrayed the role of Nardole in the BBC series Doctor Who. He has also appeared in films, including Astro Boy (2009), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Bridesmaids, Gnomeo & Juliet (both 2011), Small Apartments (2012), Paddington (2014), and Wonka (2023). Lucas presented the baking competition show The Great British Bake Off, alongside Noel Fielding from 2020 to 2023.

9. Tony Wilson (1950 - 2007)

With an HPI of 40.21, Tony Wilson is the 9th most famous British Presenter. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Anthony Howard Wilson (20 February 1950 – 10 August 2007) was a British record label owner, radio and television presenter, nightclub manager and impresario, and a journalist for Granada Television, the BBC and Channel 4. As a co-founder of the independent label Factory Records and founder-manager of the Haçienda nightclub, Wilson was behind some of Manchester's most successful bands, including Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays. Wilson was known as "Mr Manchester", dubbed as such for his work in promoting the culture of Manchester throughout his career. Wilson was portrayed by Steve Coogan in Michael Winterbottom's film 24 Hour Party People (2002), and by Craig Parkinson in Anton Corbijn's film Control (2007).

10. Bruce Forsyth (1928 - 2017)

With an HPI of 40.19, Bruce Forsyth is the 10th most famous British Presenter. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was an English entertainer and television presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series Sunday Night at the London Palladium. He went on to host several game shows, including The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right, The Price Is Right and You Bet!. He co-presented Strictly Come Dancing from 2004 to 2013. During his time as host of The Generation Game, Forsyth began using what would become his signature 'call and response' greeting with the studio audience, "It's nice to see you, to see you...", to which the audience would loudly reply, "Nice!"; he used this on many shows he later hosted for the rest of his career. Forsyth was also known for his "The Thinker" pose, emulating Rodin's sculpture, which he used on many shows he later hosted. Forsyth was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to entertainment and charity. In 2012, Guinness World Records recognised Forsyth as having the longest television career for a male entertainer.

People

Pantheon has 23 people classified as British presenters born between 1911 and 1983. Of these 23, 15 (65.22%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living British presenters include David Attenborough, Bear Grylls, and Sharon Osbourne. The most famous deceased British presenters include Jimmy Savile, David Frost, and John Peel. As of April 2024, 6 new British presenters have been added to Pantheon including Noel Fielding, Mehdi Hasan, and Michael McIntyre.