Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Peter Snow
Peter John Snow CBE (born 20 April 1938) is a British radio and television presenter and historian. Between 1969 and 2005, he was an analyst of general election results, first on ITV and later for the BBC. He presented Newsnight from its launch in 1980 until 1997. He has presented a number of documentaries, including some with his son, Dan Snow.
Snow was born in Dublin, the son of John FitzGerald Snow and Margaret Mary Pringle.[citation needed] He is the grandson of First World War general Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow; first cousin of Jon Snow, the presenter of Channel 4 News from 1989 to 2021; nephew of schoolmaster and bishop George D'Oyly Snow; and brother-in-law of historian-writer Margaret MacMillan. He is the father of fellow TV presenter Dan Snow.
He spent part of his early childhood in Benghazi, Libya, where his father was stationed. His father became deputy Fortress commander at Gibraltar in 1956.
Snow was educated at Wellington College, an independent school in the village of Crowthorne in Berkshire, and subsequently studied Greats at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was taught by classicist and ancient historian Russell Meiggs and moral philosopher R. M. Hare. From 1956 to 1958 he did National Service as a junior officer in the Somerset Light Infantry, serving in Plymouth and Warminster.
Snow was a foreign correspondent, Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent, and occasional newscaster for Britain's Independent Television News (ITN). He also appeared as an election analyst and co-presenter of ITN's General Election programmes throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. He joined the organisation in 1962. He gained a much higher profile after he was recruited in 1979 to be the main presenter of the new late evening BBC 2 in-depth news programme Newsnight, which began almost a year later than planned, in January 1980. He left Newsnight in 1997 and presented Tomorrow's World (with Philippa Forrester) and the BBC Radio 4 quizzes Masterteam and Brain of Britain, amongst other projects. At the Royal Television Society in 1998, Snow won the Judges' Award for services to broadcasting.
Snow has been involved as an election analyst and co-presenter in the live General Election results programmes for many years, first at ITN for five General Elections (1966–1979) and later at the BBC for a further six (1983–2005). He presented in-depth statistical analyses of the election results at both ITN and the BBC, and at the BBC took over responsibility for this in 1983, following the death of Robert McKenzie, and became largely associated with McKenzie's BBC "Swingometer" when it was reinstated in 1992. In his presenting, he often made use of props and graphics. During the Falklands War in 1982 and the First Gulf War in early 1991, he used a sandpit to illustrate the progress of the combat. In 1994, he parodied his election role by providing analysis of the entries for the Eurovision Song Contest in the BBC's two contest preview shows ahead of the final in Dublin. His data analysis predicted that either France or the United Kingdom would win. They finished seventh and tenth respectively.[citation needed]
Snow survived a plane crash at Port Blakely, Bainbridge Island, Washington on 1 October 1999 when the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, registration number N9766Z, in which he was a passenger hit trees during a film project for the BBC.
Along with his son, Dan, Snow presented 'Battleplan: El Alamein' for the BBC in October 2002 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the allied defeat of Rommel's Afrika Korps. They then went on in 2004 to make the eight-part BBC series Battlefield Britain, covering battles on British soil from Boudicca's struggle with the Romans to the Battle of Britain. They demonstrated the hardships that the much smaller soldiers must have faced (Peter is 6'5" and Dan is 6'6"). They reunited to host 20th Century Battlefields for BBC 2 and the Military Channel in 2006. This covered battles all around the world from the Battle of Amiens in the First World War in 1918 to the Gulf War of 1990–1, and was presented in similar fashion to the first Battlefield Britain. Peter and Dan Snow authored BBC books with the same titles to coincide with the TV shows.
Hub AI
Peter Snow AI simulator
(@Peter Snow_simulator)
Peter Snow
Peter John Snow CBE (born 20 April 1938) is a British radio and television presenter and historian. Between 1969 and 2005, he was an analyst of general election results, first on ITV and later for the BBC. He presented Newsnight from its launch in 1980 until 1997. He has presented a number of documentaries, including some with his son, Dan Snow.
Snow was born in Dublin, the son of John FitzGerald Snow and Margaret Mary Pringle.[citation needed] He is the grandson of First World War general Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow; first cousin of Jon Snow, the presenter of Channel 4 News from 1989 to 2021; nephew of schoolmaster and bishop George D'Oyly Snow; and brother-in-law of historian-writer Margaret MacMillan. He is the father of fellow TV presenter Dan Snow.
He spent part of his early childhood in Benghazi, Libya, where his father was stationed. His father became deputy Fortress commander at Gibraltar in 1956.
Snow was educated at Wellington College, an independent school in the village of Crowthorne in Berkshire, and subsequently studied Greats at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was taught by classicist and ancient historian Russell Meiggs and moral philosopher R. M. Hare. From 1956 to 1958 he did National Service as a junior officer in the Somerset Light Infantry, serving in Plymouth and Warminster.
Snow was a foreign correspondent, Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent, and occasional newscaster for Britain's Independent Television News (ITN). He also appeared as an election analyst and co-presenter of ITN's General Election programmes throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. He joined the organisation in 1962. He gained a much higher profile after he was recruited in 1979 to be the main presenter of the new late evening BBC 2 in-depth news programme Newsnight, which began almost a year later than planned, in January 1980. He left Newsnight in 1997 and presented Tomorrow's World (with Philippa Forrester) and the BBC Radio 4 quizzes Masterteam and Brain of Britain, amongst other projects. At the Royal Television Society in 1998, Snow won the Judges' Award for services to broadcasting.
Snow has been involved as an election analyst and co-presenter in the live General Election results programmes for many years, first at ITN for five General Elections (1966–1979) and later at the BBC for a further six (1983–2005). He presented in-depth statistical analyses of the election results at both ITN and the BBC, and at the BBC took over responsibility for this in 1983, following the death of Robert McKenzie, and became largely associated with McKenzie's BBC "Swingometer" when it was reinstated in 1992. In his presenting, he often made use of props and graphics. During the Falklands War in 1982 and the First Gulf War in early 1991, he used a sandpit to illustrate the progress of the combat. In 1994, he parodied his election role by providing analysis of the entries for the Eurovision Song Contest in the BBC's two contest preview shows ahead of the final in Dublin. His data analysis predicted that either France or the United Kingdom would win. They finished seventh and tenth respectively.[citation needed]
Snow survived a plane crash at Port Blakely, Bainbridge Island, Washington on 1 October 1999 when the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, registration number N9766Z, in which he was a passenger hit trees during a film project for the BBC.
Along with his son, Dan, Snow presented 'Battleplan: El Alamein' for the BBC in October 2002 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the allied defeat of Rommel's Afrika Korps. They then went on in 2004 to make the eight-part BBC series Battlefield Britain, covering battles on British soil from Boudicca's struggle with the Romans to the Battle of Britain. They demonstrated the hardships that the much smaller soldiers must have faced (Peter is 6'5" and Dan is 6'6"). They reunited to host 20th Century Battlefields for BBC 2 and the Military Channel in 2006. This covered battles all around the world from the Battle of Amiens in the First World War in 1918 to the Gulf War of 1990–1, and was presented in similar fashion to the first Battlefield Britain. Peter and Dan Snow authored BBC books with the same titles to coincide with the TV shows.