Jonathan Ross: the broadcaster who made the chat show his own

Jonathan Ross has spent much of his career in conversation: interviewing film-makers and musicians, presiding over celebrity chat shows and bringing an informal, comic sensibility to British television and radio. His breakthrough came with Channel 4’s The Last Resort in 1987. Later, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross made him one of the BBC’s most prominent presenters, before he took a new chat show to ITV. His work has ranged well beyond the studio sofa, taking in film criticism, documentaries, radio, comic books and popular entertainment.

From east London to Channel 4

Ross was born on 17 November 1960 in St Pancras, north London, and grew up in Leytonstone. His mother, Martha, was an actress; his younger brother Paul became a journalist, television editor and broadcaster. As a child, Jonathan appeared in television advertisements, including one for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies in 1970. He attended Norlington School for Boys and Leyton County High School for Boys, then studied at Southampton College of Art before taking a degree in Modern European History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, now part of University College London.

His first television work was behind the camera. He became a researcher on Channel 4’s Loose Talk, then worked on other programmes, including Soul Train, which became Solid Soul. There he met fellow researcher Alan Marke. Together they devised The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross, drawing on the American late-night format of Late Night with David Letterman. Ross had not set out to present it, but he hosted the programme from its debut in January 1987. Its success established him as a distinctive Channel 4 personality, while the production company Channel X gave him and Marke a stake in making the work.

Ross soon broadened his interests on screen. His documentary series The Incredibly Strange Film Show introduced British viewers to cult film-makers including Sam Raimi and Jackie Chan. In Jonathan Ross Presents for One Week Only, he profiled directors such as Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch and Aki Kaurismäki. He also presented the British Comedy Awards for many years, and became a regular panellist on the sports-comedy quiz They Think It’s All Over. These projects showed a presenter moving between popular entertainment and subjects he pursued as a critic and enthusiast.

Film, radio and a BBC flagship

In 1999, Ross took over the BBC’s long-running cinema review programme, then called Film. He also began presenting a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2 that year, continuing until 2010. The two roles gave him different kinds of access to audiences: one built around close attention to cinema, the other around music and live conversation. His interest in film extended to television documentaries, including programmes about cult cinema and the film industries of Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.

In 2001, he began hosting Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on BBC One. The programme brought celebrity interviews and musical performances into a lively studio format, with Ross’s humour and curiosity setting its pace. It ran until 2010 and earned him three British Academy Television Awards for Best Entertainment Performance. He also continued to present the BBC film programme and his Radio 2 show, while taking on other projects, including Japanorama, which explored Japanese culture, and Comics Britannia, a series on the history of British comics.

His interests were not confined to presenting. Ross made documentaries about subjects including punk rock and Japanese film, and produced television through his company Hot Sauce. A long-standing comic-book enthusiast, he presented In Search of Steve Ditko and later wrote Turf, a comic book illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards and published in 2010. His BBC work also included coverage of Live 8 and Comic Relief. In 2005, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to broadcasting; the following year, University College London made him a fellow.

Sachsgate and the end of his BBC contract

Ross’s BBC years included controversy as well as acclaim. In 2008, he and Russell Brand left lewd messages on actor Andrew Sachs’s answering machine during a recording of The Russell Brand Show; the messages were broadcast. The BBC Trust later described the calls as a deplorable intrusion with no editorial justification. Ross was suspended without pay for 12 weeks, and the BBC was fined by the broadcast regulator. Brand resigned from the BBC. Ross returned to work in January 2009, and the episode became a major public and institutional reckoning over the programme’s conduct and editorial judgement.

The incident was not the only occasion when Ross’s on-air language attracted criticism. In 2008, the BBC Trust ruled that a sexually explicit remark to guest Gwyneth Paltrow on Friday Night was gratuitous and unnecessarily offensive, and said the programme should not have been broadcast uncensored. These findings form part of the record of his career; they should not be softened into a story of simple redemption or treated as a footnote to his popularity.

In January 2010, Ross announced that he would leave the BBC when his contract ended. His final Friday Night programme aired in July, followed by his last Radio 2 show. He also left the film-review programme. He described the decision as one not motivated by money, and continued to take part in occasional BBC specials. His departure closed a period in which he had become a leading presence across the corporation’s television and radio output.

ITV, comics and continuing variety

Ross’s next regular chat show, The Jonathan Ross Show, began on ITV in September 2011. It carried forward the celebrity-interview format in a different broadcaster’s setting, and became a long-running part of ITV’s entertainment schedule. He also presented Penn & Teller: Fool Us, hosted programmes about toys and film, and continued to appear in panel and comedy shows. In 2020, he joined the judging panel of ITV’s The Masked Singer; he also judged its spin-off, The Masked Dancer.

Radio remained part of his working life after the BBC contract ended. He returned to Radio 2 for occasional cover and an arts programme, and in 2023 began presenting Saturday Night at the Movies on Classic FM. His projects beyond broadcasting have included comic-book writing and public appearances at entertainment events. This breadth reflects a career built not around one programme alone but around a recognisable interest in film, popular culture and performers.

Ross has received public recognition for that work, including a Special Recognition award at the National Television Awards in 2012. His career has also shown how the informality of a chat show can be both its appeal and its risk: the same loose, irreverent style that makes for spontaneous television can cross lines, with consequences for guests, broadcasters and public trust. A fair account of his place in British broadcasting holds both aspects in view.

Why Jonathan Ross deserves a place in British Legacy

Jonathan Ross merits a place in British Legacy because his career captures several important strands of modern British broadcasting. His first major break came on Channel 4, where The Last Resort helped establish a different kind of late-night television: conversational, comic and driven by a host willing to shape the programme’s personality. He then carried that presence into BBC television and radio, most notably through Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, while also presenting film criticism, documentaries and programmes about comics and Japanese culture. The record is not simply one of celebrity interviews; it shows a broadcaster moving between entertainment and sustained interests in film, music and popular culture.

His story also offers a useful account of broadcasting’s responsibilities. Ross’s work earned major awards and brought him a prominent role in national television, but the Sachsgate broadcasts and the BBC Trust’s ruling over his interview with Gwyneth Paltrow exposed the limits of an informal, provocative style. Those episodes mattered because they prompted formal scrutiny and consequences, not because controversy should be used as a substitute for assessing his work. Remembering Ross in British Legacy means recognising both his contribution to the shape and tone of British chat shows and the standards that broadcasters must uphold. His varied career, from Channel 4’s early breakthrough to continuing work across television and radio, makes that history concrete.

Sources

Jonathan Ross — Wikipedia, revision 1377027199

Adapted in part from Jonathan Ross by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.