James was born to Alan and Rosemary Milward on 17 December 1985 in Lewisham, South London. His parents were both teachers; Alan a headteacher, and Rosemary a special-needs teacher.[2] He has one sister, Catherine. As a baby, he received three life-saving blood transfusions and was in an incubator for a week.[3]
James used to play cricket for Hertfordshire Under-18s.[4]
James first broadcast was on hospital radio aged 14; however, he later discovered that the transmitter was broken and none of his shows actually went out.[5]
While at university, he presented several shows on the students' union radio station Livewire 1350AM, becoming the station manager in 2006. He later said that being station manager was a job he did not enjoy.[8] He also presented several breakfast shows on Future Radio in Norwich and also on Pulse Rated in Salhouse before he got his break at BBC Radio 1.[9] He won 'Best Male Presenter' at the Student Radio Awards 2005.[5] During university holidays he presented stints on Galaxy North East.
James joined BBC Radio 1 in June 2007 to present Early Breakfast on Friday and cover for other presenters such as Sara Cox and Vernon Kay. He presented his first show on Friday 1 June 2007, the day after graduating from university. In October 2007, he was awarded the Early Breakfast Show (4:30am – 7am, which was soon changed to 4am – 6:30am) five days a week. He presented his first full-time show on Monday 1 October 2007, and his first ever Record of the Week was Hometown Glory by Adele.
On 21 September 2009, a new schedule was launched on Radio 1, and it was announced that James would move to an early afternoon slot – 1pm to 4pm - replacing Edith Bowman, who moved to the weekend breakfast slot.
James was the host of The Official Chart Update, on Wednesday afternoons between 3:30pm and 4pm, and 4pm to 4:30pm when he moved to drivetime, from its inception in March 2010[10] until January 2013 when Scott Mills took it over, at the original time of 3:30pm.
James also co-hosts Not Just Cricket on 5 Live with England cricketers Graeme Swann and James Anderson that is broadcast once every few months. The show's main focus is cricket, but topics are varied.
He also hosted a weekly podcast That's What He Said with former BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat presenter Chris Smith. The podcast ended when James began presenting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show.
James guest hosted the edition of 16 February 2013 of the 5 Live comedy sport programme Fighting Talk, standing in for Colin Murray.
On 15 November 2017, James along with Felix White, Jimmy Anderson, renewed producer Mark 'Sharky' Sharman (AKA Sharknado the Movie) and regular input from Bristolian Matt ‘Mattchin’ Horan began hosting a cricketing podcast Tailenders. This was initially a weekly podcast covering the 2017–18 Ashes series, but from 23 May 2018 it was renewed to continue on a 'weekly' basis.[11] Features include 'General Cricketing Sadness', 'Mattchin's Quiz' and 'Black Wednesday/Xmas Show/App Launch'.[12]
Since 2019, James has also presented the BBC Radio 4 series Rewinder, a show where he digs through the BBC archives to find classic material to reflect on current stories of the week.[13]
In February 2023, James launched Formula 1 podcast The Fast And The Curious alongside former Radio 1 Newsbeat presenter Christian Hewgill and BBC Sport broadcaster Betty Glover. [14]
On 28 February 2012, it was announced that James and Scott Mills would swap shows from 2 April 2012, meaning James would host the drivetime show (1600–1900) from that date. James's show had a variety of recurring features including: "The 10 Minute Takeover" (Mon-Thurs 1800), "Impossible Karaoke", "Rage against the Answer Machine", "Mayor of Where", "Ask The Nation", "Wrong Uns", "What's My Age Again" prior to "The Official Chart" moving to Fridays, celebrity guests on Thursdays, and Film Reviews with reviewer Ali Plumb.[15] Off the cuff improv games typically include Chris Smith aka: 'Chris Smith with the news' the main afternoon Newsbeat reader.
James once hosted his show for an entire week broadcasting from the BFBS radio studio in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan; he also staged "G In the Park", a mini-music festival from the BBC in Glasgow prior to the T in the Park festival.
Due to changes in release dates of music worldwide, since 10 July 2015 James' former Friday show was taken up by The Official Chart between 1600 and 1745, followed by Dance Anthems between 1800 and 1900.
The drive time show is traditionally split into two halves, with a fifteen-minute break between 1745 and 1800 for the evening Newsbeat broadcast.
The Dorset Police tractor 'Robocrop', named by Greg James
On 19 June 2017, James chose the name "RoboCrop" from "thousands and thousands" of listeners' suggestions for a tractor on loan to Dorset Police to tour agricultural shows to raise awareness of rural crime. Dorset Police said the tractor, equipped with a siren, had a top speed of 23 mph (37 km/h) and was "not built for response policing".[16]
Radio 1 Breakfast
On 20 August 2018,[17] James took over Radio 1 Breakfast from Nick Grimshaw. The pair switched shows, with Grimshaw taking on the Drivetime show from 4pm – 7pm. It was announced by the two presenters on Grimshaw's Breakfast Show on 31 May, with Grimshaw joking "It's time for a change, time for a new show and, most importantly, it's going to be time for a new wake-up time... preferably around 11:30am".[18] Both presenters were very excited about the change, with James saying that taking over would be a "big challenge" but he was ready and willing "to give it a go". His first guest on the show was Wallace the Lion from Blackpool Zoo.[17] The show was broadcast four days a week, until December 2020 when the BBC announced changes to the Radio 1 schedule, with James' Breakfast Show now being five days a week, whilst Matt Edmondson and Mollie King moved from the weekend breakfast show to the weekend afternoon slot.
Television
James is also a TV presenter. In 2009, he presented a TV show for BBC Three called Sun, Sex and Holiday Madness, about British tourists in Magaluf and Young, Jobless and Living at Home, also for BBC Three. He has presented Sound on BBC Two's Switch and he hosted the backstage winners' podium at the 2009 BRIT Awards, which he did again in 2010.
In 2012, James co-presented two series of Unzipped (originally named Britain Unzipped) on BBC Three with Russell Kane and later How to Win Eurovision, a special two-hour show, on 11 May 2013. In December 2012, James and Gabby Logan presented 50 Greatest London 2012 Olympics Moments on BBC Three. The show was broadcast on his 27th birthday.
On 25 September 2013, James along with Kane starred in their chat show Staying in with Greg and Russell on BBC Three. Both later appeared on the Children in Need 2013 appeal night during a Lip Sync Challenge, which James won by performing "Circle of Life" from The Lion King.
In 2014, James appeared as a contestant in the CBeebies gameshow Swashbuckle with his niece Pia.
In May 2015, he played a police officer in the BBC Three comedy murder mystery series Murder in Successville.[20] Also in 2015, James co-wrote and starred in the Comedy Feeds episode Dead Air.
In 2022, James became an executive producer for the Sky documentary series The Man Who Bought Cricket, focusing on billionaire and fraudster Allen Stanford. It was based on a BBC Sounds podcast presented by James on the same subject, in a series called Sport's Strangest Crimes.
In March 2023, Channel 4 announced that James would be the host of its new reality show Rise and Fall.[24]
On June 16, 2023 he appeared as himself in Episode 1 of the BBC One comedy Queen of Oz. James is seen and heard on his radio programme questioning the outrageous antics of spoiled spare to the British crown, Princess Georgiana, played by Catherine Tate.
Kid Normal
James and Chris Smith at the 2022 Chiswick Book Festival
Together with newsreader Chris Smith, James wrote the children's book series Kid Normal which is a 6-book series about a normal boy in a superhero world. The first one was published by Bloomsbury and released on 13 July 2017 in the UK and the second one the following March. The first book was the biggest selling children's debut of the year and have sold over 100,000 copies combined.[25] The books have also been released in 19 other languages around the world.[26]
In February 2015, he, Chris Smith, Yasmin Evans and Alex Jones traveled to Uganda to take part in Operation Health. There, they helped to rebuild the Iyolwa Health Centre in Eastern Uganda, using money raised by Comic Relief.[28] He blogged about it here.[29] In total, the Radio 1 audience raised £551,405.[29]
In February 2016, for Sport Relief, James underwent the tough challenge, dubbed the 'Gregathlon', of completing five Triathlons in 5 days, in 5 different cities across the UK, hosting his Drivetime Radio 1 show after completing his daily Triathlon, raising £1 million for charity.
In February 2018, James undertook his second Gregathlon for Sport Relief: Pedal to the Peaks. He cycled over 500 miles (800 km) and climbed Snowdon and Scafell Pike before the challenge had to be postponed because extreme weather conditions caused by the Beast from the East. He returned to complete the challenge and climbed Ben Nevis on 16 March 2018, raising over £1 million.
Personal life
On 1 June 2018, James announced his engagement to his girlfriend Bella Mackie, the daughter of newspaper editor Alan Rusbridger and the author of bestselling dark novel How to Kill Your Family.[30] They married in September of the same year. They live in Kentish Town, North London.[31][32]
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