Richard Philip "Rick" Edwards (born 20 May 1979) is an English television presenter, journalist, and author. Edwards presented T4 for four years, and has also presented '' Tool Academy'', ''

Freshly Squeezed ''Freshly Squeezed'' is a British breakfast television programme which was broadcast every weekday morning on Channel 4 from August 2006 to December 2012. Format The programme took the format of a music-based breakfast show, featuring studio ...

'', '' E4 Music'', and much of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

2012 Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

coverage. Edwards also hosted the "Fighting Talk" radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live. As a journalist, he has written for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'', the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' and ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

''. From 2017 to 2021, he has been the presenter of the BBC quiz show '' Impossible'', and since November 2021 he has co-hosted the BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast show (replacing Nicky Campbell), usually alongside Rachel Burden.

Early life

Edwards was born on 20 May 1979 at Enfield to Philip G. Edwards and his wife Patricia A. nee Galloway He went to

Portsmouth Grammar School The Portsmouth Grammar School is a co-educational independent day school in Portsmouth, England, located in the historic part of Portsmouth. It was founded in 1732 as a boys' school and is located on Portsmouth High Street. History In 17 ...

and later attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, studying mathematics originally before changing to natural sciences after his first year. He performed stand-up and sketch shows during his time at university.

Career

Edwards hosted a Saturday evening radio show on

XFM Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2015 ...

entitled ''The Weekender'' for several years, hosting his last show on 10 January 2009. He also formed part of the BBC presenting team for their coverage of the Reading and Leeds Festival. In 2011, Edwards began hosting E4's '' Tool Academy'', a reality TV show about fed-up girlfriends who have enrolled their underperforming other halves in a school in which "tools become men". During the

, Edwards formed part of the

commentary team as well as co-presenting ''That Paralympic Show'' with Ade Adepitan. In 2013, Edwards began co-presenting political discussion show ''Free Speech'' for

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, cov ...

alongside

Tina Daheley Tina Daheley (born ) is a British journalist, newsreader and presenter who works for the BBC, both on television and radio. She currently reads the news on '' The Radio 2 Breakfast Show'' with Zoe Ball, often contributing to discussions during ...

. During the 2015 general election, they presented a series of ''Free Speech'' specials. As a writer, his original film, Burger Van Champion, was commissioned as part of C4’s Coming Up strand in 2013 and was described by the Observer as ‘a remarkable debut’ and by Time Out as ‘funny, touching ndsuperbly written’. In July 2015, Edwards began presenting

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial station ...

panel show, ''

Safeword In BDSM, a safeword is a code word, series of code words or other signal used by a person to communicate their physical or emotional state, typically when approaching, or crossing, a physical, emotional, or moral boundary. Some safewords are use ...

'' which returned for a second series in 2016. Edwards currently hosts the podcast Science(ish) alongside Dr Michael Brooks, which delves into the science behind popular films. The series proved such a hit that the duo were commissioned by Atlantic to write a book of the same name, ''Science(ish): The Peculiar Science Behind The Movies'', which was published in October 2017 and ranked number 1 in the Physics, Cosmology, and Humorous Essays Amazon charts for several weeks as well as achieving a position of 21 in the overall book charts. The podcast itself has topped the iTunes Science & Medicine chart. In March 2016, Edwards landed the anchor role on Sky's ''DC Fancast'' alongside Bec Hill. He claims this is a true highlight of his career. In January 2017, Edwards began presenting '' !mpossible'', a daytime

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...

quiz show. From March 2019, Edwards costarred in

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

's miniseries ''River Hunters'', alongside

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...

and river-hunter Beau Ouimette. In September 2021 BBC Radio 5 Live announced that it had hired Edwards to host its new breakfast show alongside Rachel Burden. The new-look 5 Live Breakfast launch took place on 8 November 2021 following Nicky Campbell’s move to a slot later in the day.

Personal life

Edwards has said that he has a very poor sense of smell due to sniffing pure

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogeno ...

while in school. Edwards supported green organisation Global Cool in 2010 as part of their Traincation campaign, along with his friend

George Lamb George Martin Lamb (born 20 December 1979) is an English radio and television presenter, currently presenting ''Football Tonight'' on BT Sport. In 2012, Lamb presented the Channel 4 game show '' The Bank Job''. Lamb is the son of actor Larry La ...

. Edwards married '' EastEnders'' and ''

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuiti ...

'' actress Emer Kenny in 2016.

Filmography

Bibliography

*''Science(ish): The Peculiar Science Behind the Movies'' (2017, ) *''None of the Above'' (2015, ) *''Birds of pray'' (1998, )

References

External links

*
''5 Live Breakfast''
(BBC Radio 5 Live)
Rick Edwards Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Rick 1979 births Living people Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge BBC Radio 5 Live presenters BBC television presenters English game show hosts English radio personalities People from Enfield, London Television personalities from London