Education
Ampleforth College; London School of Economics.
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James O'Brien
Edit ProfileCareer
Politically, O'Brien has been described as "coming from the left". Journalism
Prior to his broadcasting career O'Brien was an editor of the Daily Express gossip column written under the pseudonym William Hickey, and has had work published in Cosmopolitan (magazine) and The Spectator. He reviews video games and films for the Daily Mail.
Broadcasting
From 2000-2002, O'Brien was a key panelist on the Channel 5 programme The Wright Stuff. In early 2001, O'Brien presented A Knight with O'Brien, a talk show on Anglia Television. Other regular appearances include: Sky News, The Big Questions (BBC One), and The Alan Titchmarsh Show (ITV).
O'Brien was a guest presenter on the BBC Two programme Newsnight on 6 and 7 August 2014. O'Brien first appeared on LBC during 2002 as a holiday cover presenter. His own weekly programme began in January 2003 and he became a full-time presenter in 2004.
Regular features of his show include the "Mystery Hour", in which listeners phone in with various things that puzzle them and other callers attempt to give a solution. O'Brien made national headlines in April 2009 when football player Frank Lampard phoned his show to object strenuously to tabloid stories about his private life and O'Brien's discussion of them. Lampard's former fiancée, Elen Rivas, had alleged that Frank Lampard had turned their home into a bachelor pad while she and Lampard's children were living in a rented flat.
Lampard phoned in, objecting to the assertion that he was "weak" and "scum" and said that he had fought "tooth and nail" to keep his family together. Public comments on Lampard's reaction praised Lampard's "brave" and "articulate" handling of the situation. In 2015, James presented his own ITV chat show called O'Brien which aired for ten episodes in a daytime slot.
It was canceled due to low ratings for the time slot. O'Brien is also a presenter of BBC news analysis programme 'Newsnight'.
Politics
He was educated at the independent Ampleforth College and the London School of Economics, describing himself as a "champagne socialist" sometimes in jest. With his wife, Lucy (McDonald) O'Brien, he fronted Channel 5's 2001 general election talk show 5 Talk, securing a review from Clive James, who wrote: "James, in particular, is a pink-shirted walking encyclopedia of political savvy". The exchange later earned O'Brien, who defended his conduct in an equally heated exchange with Kay Burley on Sky News, a Bronze Award in the Best Interview category of the 2010 Sony Radio Academy Awards.
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