Greg James

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.

Gregory James Alan Milward (born 17 December 1985) is an English broadcaster and author.

James was born to Alan and Rosemary Milward on 17 December 1985 in Normanby, Middlesbrough.

His parents were both teachers; Alan a headteacher, and Rosemary a special-needs teacher.

He has one sister, Catherine.

As a baby, he received three life-saving blood transfusions and was in an incubator for a week.

James used to play cricket for Hertfordshire Under-18s.

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.

James is an alumnus of The Bishop's Stortford High School, where he was deputy head boy.

He studied drama at the University of East Anglia in Norwich and achieved a 2:1.

At university he lived with comedians John Kearns and Pat Cahill.

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.

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.

He won 'Best Male Presenter' at the Student Radio Awards 2005.

During university holidays he presented stints on Galaxy North East.

He has been a presenter on BBC Radio 1 since 2007, hosting shows including his old drive-time show and the station's flagship breakfast show.

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 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 hosts the weekly podcast That's What He Said with BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat presenter Chris Smith.

The podcast features the best elements of James' show each week, guest interviews, and special bonus content just for the podcast.

Greg and Chris play 'Cheeseball' each week - a game which involves throwing Babybell into the centre of a cheese 'court' and the closest to the centre wins.

The pair also do birthday, engagement, and wedding announcements to the theme of Jurassic Park.

Each podcast also comes with an e-mail from Julia from Germany - the show clerk - who provides the pair with a weekly agenda.

More recent podcast features include 'Friendly Foreigners', 'Julia's word of the week' and 'Dr. Tiny's Science fact'.

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 Guest hosted the edition of 16 February 2013 of the 5 Live comedy sport programme Fighting Talk, standing in for Colin Murray.

Since 2017, James has co-hosted the BBC's cricket podcast Tailenders alongside the England cricketer James Anderson and former guitarist for the Maccabees, Felix White.

He's also a children's author, most notable for the Kid Normal book series with Chris Smith.

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.

Features include 'General Cricketing Sadness', 'Mattchin's Quiz' and 'Black Wednesday/Xmas Show/App Launch'.

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.

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.