Alan Connor (born 1972) is a British writer, journalist and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people ...

. First seen on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's youth entertainment programme '' The Word'' in 1995, he later appeared on ''

The Big Breakfast ''The Big Breakfast'' is a British breakfast light entertainment television programme that was broadcast on Channel 4 from 1992 to 2002, and as a revival from 2021 to 2022. The show had various presenters, starting with Chris Evans (presenter), ...

'' and

BBC Radio Five Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in ...

and was a

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

correspondent, appearing on

BBC News 24 The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air Public broadcasting, public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London, West End of ...

and '' The Daily Politics''. His scriptwriting credits include the comedy-drama '' A Young Doctor's Notebook'', starring

Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. Radcliffe rose to fame at age twelve for portraying the title character in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He starred in all eight films in the series, from '' Harry Potter a ...

and

Jon Hamm Jonathan Daniel Hamm (born March 10, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Don Draper in the period drama series '' Mad Men'' (2007–2015), for which he won numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and tw ...

, the mockumentary ''Nigel Farage Gets His Life Back'' and the BBC film ''The Rack Pack''. He was also the "puzzle consultant" for '' Ludwig'' (2024). Connor has worked as a writer for programmes including ''

Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe ''Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe'' was a British television review programme created and presented by Charlie Brooker. The programme was an amalgam of the earlier ''Wipe'' series, with reviews of current television programmes, news events, games, ...

'', ''

The Jonathan Ross Show ''The Jonathan Ross Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on ITV on 3 September 2011 and airs on Saturday evenings following the conclusion of Ross' BBC One chat show, ''Friday Night with Jona ...

'' and '' This Week'' and writes journalism for ''

'' and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. He was the question editor for BBC Four's lateral thinking quiz '' Only Connect'' for series 9–12, having taken over from

David J. Bodycombe David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the Kings of Israel and Judah, third king of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stel ...

at the start of series 9. He is also the crossword editor for ''

'' and sets the Everyman

cryptic crossword A cryptic crossword is a crossword, crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, as well as Ireland, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth ...

for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

''.

Books

In 2013, Penguin published ''Two Girls, One on Each Knee: A History of Cryptic Crosswords''.Connor, Alan. ''Two Girls, One on Each Knee: The Puzzling, Playful World of the Crossword''. London: Penguin Books, 2016; In 2014 Gotham Books published ''The Crossword Century: 100 Years of Witty Wordplay, Ingenious Puzzles, and Linguistic Mischief''.Connor, Alan. ''The Crossword Century: 100 Years of Witty Wordplay, Ingenious Puzzles, and Linguistic Mischief''. New York: Gotham Books, 2014; In 2016 Penguin Books published ''The Joy of Quiz''.Connor, Alan. ''The Joy of Quiz''. London: Penguin Books (2016);

References

External links

* * * Living people Scottish comedy writers Scottish male journalists Scottish television writers Scottish journalists Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford 1974 births Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) British male television writers {{BBC-tv-bio-stub