Johnny Vaughan

Jonathan Randall Vaughan was born in Barnet, London, on 16th July 1966 during the England V Mexico match - his dad had to deliver him as Bobby Charlton scored. He went to boarding school in Uppingham, Leicestershire (where Stephen Fry went).

After school Johnny came to London and got a series of casual jobs and formed Two's A Crowd Theatre Company. He then trained as a journalist and worked on The Rutland Herald. It is a little known fact that Johnny served a prison sentence for drug offences. While in jail he wrote and directed the prison pantomime that was so good its run was extended! He also dabbled in running a boxer shorts business from Thailand not realising that sizes in Thailand are different to the UK - apparently even children found the largest size a squeeze.

His big break came when he presented a pilot music show for Rapido Television. Two days later he was presenting Moviewatch for Channel Four. After Moviewatch he hosted BBC 2's 'The Fall Guy' and had his own show 'Here's Johnny'. He started presenting the Big Breakfast in July 1997. Since then its ratings soared as viewers were attracted to his ramblings about Bulldogs, British Beef, Mutton Chops & Tabards.

One of viewers highlights was Johnny's brilliant daily look at the papers including his obsession with the Daily Mail's Straight To The Point column (which he soon became the focus of!) In his spare time, Johnny loves reading, films and football. (He supports Chelsea) He married Antonia, a costume designer in August 1999 and owns a pet bulldog called Harvey. He featured in adverts for Strongbow Cider proclaiming 'Live Life To Loaf'

At Xmas 1999 Johnny released his first video 'Johnny Vaughan's All The Rage' featuring clips of people 'seeing red' it features a guest appearance of his beloved bulldog Harvey.

• When a fortune teller came on the show in June '99 he said he saw a baby boy for Johnny in 18 months time, strange then that JV announced that Antonia was pregnant in January 2000

• Also in January 2000 Heat magazine ran an interview with Johnny Vaughan saying that he has a deal with a Hollywood studio in the pipeline who'll have first refusal on any scripts that he writes.

• In September 2001 Johnny's sitcom 'Oribble aired to dissapointing reviews and only one series. JV returned to television in 2002 with his own BBC 3 evening talk show Johnny Vaughan Tonight. This lasted two series before being replaced by Live at Johnnys.

• In April 2004 Johnny took over from Chris Tarrant's breakfast slot on Capital FM.

• Johnny's favourite type of shoes are 'The Journey' - a desert boot that's had sex with a sneaker!?

In 2000 we posed a few questions to Johnny. Read the transcript here.

Today Johnny hosts the daily drive time show on Radio X which continues to feature his familiar world view on topical news and his latest bulldog Jeff.