Briggs, Jon

Jon Briggs is a London-born broadcaster and voiceover artist whose career has spanned radio, television and digital media over four decades.

Briggs began his broadcasting career at BBC Radio Oxford, where he worked from approximately 1983 to 1989, presenting the breakfast programme Oxford AM between 1985 and 1987.

He returned to the station for a further stint from 2011 to December 2012.

His first national radio assignment came in 1984 as a reporter for BBC Radio 4’s The Chip Shop.

When BBC Radio 5 launched in August 1990, Briggs was selected as co-presenter of Morning Edition alongside Sarah Ward, a role he maintained until 1992.

During that year, he also fronted Saturday Edition and Five Aside, both on BBC Radio 5.

His Radio 4 work continued with reporting duties on Going Places in 1993, and he was later featured in an Archive on Four documentary in 2019.

Between 1992 and 1997, Briggs served as an announcer across multiple BBC radio networks, including Radio 4 (1992–1993) and Radio 2 (1992–1997).

He also read overnight news bulletins on BBC Radio 1 from 1993 to 1995.

On Radio 2, he presented the late-night programme Night Ride from July 1993 to February 1995, and returned to the same timeslot with a show under his own name in 1997.

Briggs enjoyed a lengthy association with LBC, presenting news, sport, political and entertainment programming from 1996 to 2013. Notably, he was broadcasting live during the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

He later provided cover for Steve Madden’s programme in 2011 and for Howard Hughes on BBC Radio Berkshire in 2016.

His television career began in 1987 when, at a notably young age, he became an announcer for Channel 4 – a position he held until 1990. This was followed by voicing promotional trails for BBC Television between 1991 and 1995, and for Sky Movies from 1993 to 2000.

Briggs made his on-screen television debut presenting Homewise on BBC One in 1991 alongside Anne Gregg – widely recognised as the first property lifestyle programme on British television.

In 1993, he became the inaugural presenter when QVC launched its UK operations, remaining with the shopping channel throughout its first year on air.

For seven years, Briggs worked as a reporter for EuroNews, creating profiles of rapidly expanding corporations. This assignment took him across Western Europe, Russia, the Middle East, the Far East and North America.

In the voiceover sphere, Briggs achieved particular prominence through his work on more than 1,800 episodes of BBC Television’s The Weakest Link between 2000 and 2012.

His synthesised voice also featured at the opening of Pendulum’s drum and bass track Blood Sugar, and he provided match commentary for the inaugural Pro Evolution Soccer video game, PES 1.

Perhaps his most widely recognised work came in 2011 when he became the original male voice for Apple’s Siri application in the United Kingdom.

His voice remains available on all Apple devices under the name “Daniel”, serving as the default speech voice for applications that do not employ proprietary voices.

Briggs has made occasional television appearances, including on Celebrity Eggheads alongside other recognisable voices in 2010 on BBC Two, and on Pointless Celebrities on BBC One in 2017.

In 2020, he launched two podcasts: You’re on the Air and the DateAdvisor Podcast.

He also presents and produces Jon Briggs’ Christmas Ghost Stories, thought to be the only annual podcast of its kind, released each Christmas Eve.

Beyond broadcasting, Briggs works as a conference moderator and facilitator, having interviewed numerous prominent figures on stage, including President Bill Clinton, Sir John Major, Buzz Aldrin, Sir Richard Branson and Alan Greenspan.

From 1996 to 2020, he owned and operated Excellent Talent Ltd, a London-based artists’ agency.

Correspondence

Paul R. Jackson corresponded with Jon in July 2025 about his long broadcasting career.

How did you get into broadcasting and was BBC Radio Oxford your first job?

“Yes, Radio Oxford was my first media job. I blagged my way in and nagged them to let me have a go. Eventually they caved in and I became the tea boy made good!

“Starting on air with Timmy Mallett – writing and voicing Mr Wiggleknuckle – the useless salesman from Trannyoid Products in April 1982 (while still at school). I was given my own show the summer I left school in 1983 – leaving in 1989.

“With a brief stint on Saturday mornings when I was invited back as you identify above.”

How did the move from local radio to network radio come about?

“I applied for the advertised job as reporter on The Chip Shop.

“Barry Norman was the presenter and it was the BBC’s first foray into IT.

“Radio 5 was just a case of badgering the editor Gaynor Vaughan-Jones, until she got me in for an audition.”

How did you get to join BBC Radio 5 and what are your memories of being the launch co-presenter on Morning Edition and working with legendary broadcaster Sarah Ward?

“Morning Edition was a great programme.

“However the BBC didn’t like this young upstart that had created a hybrid between studio managers and producers – people who created the programmes and would also be the tech ops for them.

“Coming from local radio, where you did everything, it all made perfect sense to me – but it made a big hole in the union set up in BH.

“So, we didn’t get given any of the Radio 4 correspondents when trying to cover the first Gulf War. So we created our own list of journalists that would report for us – people that subsequently went on to work for R4 and many other outlets of the BBC as they were so good.

“So, we had to be highly creative to provide a breakfast news service.

“Sarah and I didn’t really see eye to eye. There was a significant age difference, but we found a way to work together.

“We were never close friends, however, and I enjoyed the Saturday morning show more as it was my own – in fact the UK’s first sports breakfast show as that’s what we concentrated on.”

How did you move into Presentation and who were your announcer colleagues on Radio 1 and Radio 2?

“The move into Pres was partly because I had been offered a job at the end of The Chip Shop in Radio 4 Pres.

“But at the same time I was offered the breakfast show back in Oxford.  Aged 20 I wanted to be on a breakfast show, so took that. How things could have been so different!

“R4 Pres didn’t like me much – Peter Donaldson hauled me over the coals for reading the Haitian capital with a French pronunciation of Port au Prince – and I never read news for R4 again but did continue in the continuity booth.

“Peter was not the cuddly old codger that many people talk about.

“As I had read the news bulletins for Radio 5 during the breakfast show and then stayed on to read the rest of them until midday, it was an easy move to read for Radios 1, 2 and 4.

“I read again for Radio 5 Live in the early 2000s when the station was based at TVC.”

What dates did you work at LBC and what programmes did you present?

“I started sitting in for Frank Bough in around 1996 – and was then given a Sunday morning political discussion show in 1997.

“And later a lunchtime show, where we would get London restaurants to cook a Sunday lunch and bring it in for all the guests to share.

“This was followed by a Saturday mid-morning show from 1999 to 2003 when Chrysalis bought the station and sacked pretty much everyone apart from Nick Ferrari and Steve Allen.

“James O’Brien used to dep for me!”

How did the Channel 4 job come about and move into TV?

“Channel 4 was a straightforward advert and application.

“I didn’t get the job immediately but they had another announcer leaving four months later and asked me to join for that.

“We were all working on the same floor – divided into four teams with an editor who ran and managed each team in four-week cycles.

“We were run by CATS – Computer Aided Transmission System – so we wrote everything in advance into that and had to make sure we hit certain points such as the seven o’clock news junction.

“The computer added up our script timings and we were partly responsible for ensuring everything kept to time within the script.

“The computer also opened and closed our microphones – so woe betide you if you hadn’t finished speaking by the time the count in your ear went ‘zero’.

“We also watched everything beforehand (everything that was available) on VHS to monitor content and be able to write in that offbeat C4 style.

“Several of mine got into the newspapers – including my intro to the Billionaire Boys Club (‘what goes yuppy – must come down’) and an intro to Treasure Hunt (‘what’s got a trim waist, two legs and flies – no not Anneka Rice – it’s Kenneth Kendall’s trousers!’) – which also got reported to the duty office by one caller, who described it as ‘pure smut’!”

Any memories of working in BBC Presentation voicing trails?

“Yes, Deadly (Alan Dedicoat) and I voiced the trailers – primarily because we sounded pretty similar and had a good range.

“In those days, you’d do a couple of dramas, a quiz show, some comedies and maybe a documentary or two all in the same session.

“The flexibility to vary our styles meant we could cover them all off.

“I voiced the 1993 BBC Christmas campaign – three weekends voicing 206 trailers.

“The other factor that made them use us was we were very good at repeating what we had just done – and as we recorded on 1” and needed to repeat 5 versions of each trailer exactly the same but with a different ending (‘next Friday’, ‘on Friday’, ‘tomorrow’, ‘today’, ‘in half an hour’), we would make it all very simple and quick.

“Once we went digital of course, you would do one version and add five tags that they edited on afterwards. No skill required. All recorded in Pres B in the afternoon before people like Phillip Schofield needed to come in and do the broom cupboard.”

How did you get the Homewise job and what was it like working with another wonderful broadcasting legend, Anne Gregg?

“Homewise was done while I was also doing Radio 5 breakfast. The job was found by my agent.

“But as the reporter on pre-recorded location, I only met Anne once, so I couldn’t really tell you. She seemed very pleasant on the one occasion we did meet.”

What are your memories of the launch of QVC and who were the other launch presenters?

“QVC was tough – 18 hours of live unscripted TV a week and no guests (not like now where every hour has an expert).

“We had no idea what to expect as it was the first ‘selly telly’ outside of the US anywhere.

“There were seven of us if I remember correctly – Julia Roberts (who is still there I believe). who appears on the launch video with me, Paul Lavers, Kara Tritton, Steve Whately, Suzanne Evett and Katy John.

“I was the only one with a large amount of broadcast experience – so they gave me the first hour and the first product (a Volkswagen Beetle alarm clock) and we made News at Ten that night. Such was the interest.”

When recording The Weakest Link, were you in the studio or in a sound booth?

“We started doing it in a London studio as post-production – and then after series three, I would record the links in my own home studio and send them the files to be edited in.”

Any anecdotes of when things went wrong during your long broadcasting career?

“Very early on in my career, aged 17, on Timmy Mallet’s show, I told a joke about there being a four-letter word at the bottom of my budgie’s cage – to which Timmy would go – oh yes what’s’ that

“The response should have been ‘grit’ – but somehow that didn’t come out and I said ‘sh*t’ instead.

“I thought my fledgling broadcast career was over.”

Re conference work: you have interviewed many interesting names – any stand out that you particularly enjoyed meeting?

“Well Bill Clinton was pretty fascinating – also watching him work the room and schmooze. A very clever user of status and how it can influence people.

“Buzz Aldrin was very factual about his amazing feat of walking on the moon – but then these were all military guys.

“Highly trained fighter pilots, whose job was not to go all misty eyed about the emotion of the experience – which is why they sound so calm when landing at Tranquility Base with only 20 seconds of fuel remaining, before they plummeted into the moon’s surface, never to return.”

 

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