By Deirdre Huston
Jonathan was born in Plymouth but grew up in Wadebridge, Cornwall. He was six weeks premature, and Rhesus Negative blood group, and needed a hospital birth. “I don’t think my dad ever forgave me for being born in Devon,” he jokes. His father was from tin mining stock, while his mother hailed from High Wycombe. One of Jonathan’s earliest memories is of sitting on his grandfather’s knee at four or five: “They sent me to get him out of the pub,” he admits. “During the Twenties, he was ‘The Trainer’ of Wycombe Wanderers football team, as they used to call him. He was a bad lad. After absconding with his work’s Christmas Club money, they caught him trying to board a cross-channel ferry from Brighton. But I loved him dearly.” Jonathan missed him when he died a year or two later. When the family moved to Bristol for his father to start a fresh job, Jonathan went into the first year of junior school. Although his father was a rugby man, Jonathan loved football and all he wanted to do was play for Bristol City. Jonathan’s father was a progressive man who believed in giving youth opportunities, and he worked as a Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering. The family lived on the same road as Bristol City manager Alan Dicks, and through him Jonathan’s father became involved with the club, taking on responsibility for the education of junior players. In 1972 Jonathan and his father started filming games for use in training, making Bristol City the first club in Europe to film games for tactical purposes. Jonathan explains how this helped him gain experience in football and media worlds: “I was meeting people in TV, and we travelled to games with journalists or on the First Team bus.” Still grappling with ambitions to play football, he reveals: “For about six months, I trained with the club, but I knew I wasn’t good enough. Then I broke my leg playing football at school and I was four months in plaster. I got a letter from Bristol City saying they didn’t want to take me on, and I locked myself in my room for two days. I was fifteen.” But Jonathan continued working with his dad, filming the games, and when he progressed on to Birmingham University, Alan sent him a lovely letter of thanks which, to this day, Jonathan treasures.
When Jonathan was a second year undergraduate, BBC Radio Bristol had a job vacancy covering Bristol City games. To pass the audition, Jon had to commentate over recordings of Bristol City games. Fortunately, those recordings were provided by Jonathan’s dad, enabling him to prepare thoroughly and, from then on, things fell into place. Jonathan admits: “I’ve been incredibly lucky.” But anyone familiar with his career can see that thorough research and a knack for presenting complex ideas succinctly have contributed much to his success. He learned journalistic skills at National Broadcast School but his big break came in 1987 when he was working for the BBC, and a friend from National Broadcast School, Andy Parkinson, was leaving Capital Radio to work at the BBC. Andy recommended Jonathan to talk to Capital because they were looking for someone to help set up sports coverage. Matthew Bannister appointed Jonathan to set up coverage of London football. Later, Richard Park gave Jonathan his first major platform, and Jonathan helped set up Capital Gold Sports. “We did a rights deal for six teams for £30,000 a year,” he comments. “Nowadays the rights are worth hundreds of thousands of pounds per club! And they allowed me to commentate in a way which mirrored the passion of football supporters.” Capital Gold Sports exploded on to the air and captured the London audience. Commentary from the 1990 World Cup was dubbed on to World in Motion, and the Three Lions ‘Football’s Coming Home’ song in 1996 when the version with the Capital Gold commentary outsold the one with the BBC commentary. Jonathan is quick to acknowledge the many people who helped his career, including his good friend Chris Tarrant, who frequently played Jonathan’s commentary on his breakfast show. “They bought lots of independent stations around the country and we built a radio empire,” remembers Jonathan. He became Group Head of Sport. “We had the rights for 72 out of 92 clubs in the country, including all the top clubs. He has been lucky enough to be awarded six Sony Radio Awards, four individual and two team, plus three New York Radio Festival Golds. “They gave us awards for being the Best Commentator, Presenter and then Sports Programmes in the world,” says Jonathan, laughing. He has fond memories of fantastic teamwork: “It was like Wild West radio. I was there for 15 years and laughed for 15 years, but we worked hard too. Eighteen hours a day, six days a week. At one stage we were banned from every pub down the Tottenham Court Road.” Jonathan met politicians, rock stars and actors, even Princess Diana. “There were some crazy times. At one big sports writers’ dinner, I remember two of the Capital Gold team with their trousers round their ankles on the dance floor next to Princess Anne and her husband. There were lots of tales which can’t be told, but we had such fun.” Jonathan has treasured memories of working with Bobby Moore, summarising their friendship with one simple statement: “He was one of the best men I’ve ever met in my life.” But things were changing and, when Richard Park left, Jonathan’s heart went out of it. In 2002 Bob Shennan, Head of Five Live Sport, enticed him back to the BBC.
To read more about Jonathan’s amazing career pick up an August copy of Hassocks Life.