Jane Garvey (broadcaster)

Early life and Education

Garvey was born in Liverpool in 1964, her father is Ray Garvey, and her mother was a hospital receptionist. She was educated at Merchant Taylors' Girls' School in Crosby, an independent school in Merseyside. She is a graduate in English of the University of Birmingham.

Work

Jane Garvey was employed as a medical records clerk in a finance company, as a trainee for an advertising agency and as a receptionist, before becoming a promotions assistant for Radio Wyvern, where she later became news editor before leaving in 1988 to join BBC Hereford and Worcester as a reporter. The station began in February 1989. In 1989, Garvey was presenter of The Breakfast Show at BBC Hereford and Worcester, where Ben Cooper (later head of daytime programmes at Radio 1) worked as her assistant.

Garvey's was the first voice on BBC Radio 5 Live when it launched at 5:00 am on 28 March 1994. She became the co-presenter of 5 Live's award-winning breakfast programme in 1994, and also presented the Everywoman programme on the BBC World Service. She was also the presenter of the relaunched Midday show on BBC Radio 5 Live, (during which the award-winning "Postcards from the Street" series by Stan Burridge was broadcast). Her final long-term assignment on 5 Live was as co-presenter of its Drive show on weekday afternoons with Peter Allen. She and Allen have won four Sony Gold Awards and their relationship on air was described in The Times in 2002 as "a marriage made in radio heaven".

In September 1997, Garvey was a passenger on the Swansea train in the Southall rail crash and received praise for her on-the-spot reports.

In May 2007 in a discussion on the tenth anniversary of the Labour Party gaining power in the United Kingdom Garvey unwittingly revealed an apparent pro-Labour bias at the BBC. Garvey reminisced how in the morning after the general election "the corridors of Broadcasting House were strewn with empty champagne bottles – I will always remember that", though adding that the BBC had "perhaps fallen out of love with Labour" in more recent years.

In September 2007, it was announced that she would leave 5 Live after 13 years and on Monday 8 October 2007 she joined BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme as the second principal presenter, succeeding Martha Kearney in the role. She created a minor stir in February 2008 in a Guardian interview, describing Woman's Hour as too middle-class and fixated on cooking. She returned briefly to BBC Radio 5 Live in November 2011 as a stand-in presenter on the Double Take programme.

In June 2016, it was announced that Garvey would be reunited with Allen on BBC Radio 5 Live, for a new Sunday evening programme.

Personal life

Garvey describes her childhood as 'cosy, predictable and loving', and thinks the fact her maternal grandmother lived with her family while she was growing up contributed to the fact she now loves interviewing older women. Politically, she identifies as a feminist.

Garvey married the television presenter Adrian Chiles in September 1998 in Swansea. They lived in Shepherds Bush, west London and have two daughters, both born in Hammersmith and Fulham, London: Evelyn Katarina (born January 2000) and Sian Mary (born March 2003). Chiles is a well-known dedicated West Bromwich Albion fan, and when asked whether West Brom would be promoted that season, Garvey commented: "I flaming hope not. Last time Albion got promoted, I gave birth nine months later."

In June 2008, Chiles and Garvey separated; they divorced in October 2009.