Peter Snow Biography

Peter Snow Peter John Snow, CBE (born 20 April 1938) is a British radio and television presenter and historian, best known as an analyst of election results. He is the grandson of First World War general Sir Thomas D’Oyly Snow; cousin of Jon Snow, the presenter of Channel 4 News; nephew of schoolmaster and bishop George D’Oyly Snow; and brother-in-law of historian-writer Margaret MacMillan. Also, he is the father of fellow TV presenter Dan Snow.

Peter Snow Age

He was born on April 20, 1938, in Dublin, Ireland. He is 81 years old as of 2019.

Peter Snow Wife

Snow has been in two marriages and has six children from three relationships. His eldest son, French citizen Matthieu, was born before his first marriage, although Snow was not aware of his existence until he was an adult. In 1964 he got married to Alison Carter and the couple had a son (Shane) and a daughter Shuna. The relationship did not work out well and they got divorced nine years later.

He later got married to  Ann MacMillan in 1976 of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation since 1981, with whom he has a son, Dan, who is married to the daughter of the 6th Duke of Westminster, and two daughters, Rebecca and Kate. His wife and sister-in-law are great-granddaughters of former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

Peter Snow Son

He has three sons Dan Snow MBE is an English popular historian and television presenter, Matthieu Snow and Shane Snow.

Peter Snow Career

He was a foreign correspondent, Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent, and occasional newscaster for Britain’s Independent Television News (ITN). He also appeared as an election analyst and co-presenter of ITN’s General Election programmes throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. He joined the organisation in 1962. He gained a much higher profile after he was recruited in 1979 to be the main presenter of the new late evening BBC 2 in-depth news programme Newsnight, which began almost a year later than planned, in January 1980.

He left Newsnight in 1997 and presented Tomorrow’s World (with Philippa Forrester) and the BBC Radio 4 quizzes Master team and Brain of Britain, amongst other projects. At the Royal Television Society in 1998 Snow won the Judges’ Award for services to broadcasting. He has been involved as an election analyst and co-presenter in the live General Election results in programmes for many years, first at ITN for five General Elections (1966 – 1979 inclusive) and later at the BBC for a further six (1983 – 2005 incl.).

He presented in-depth statistical analyses of the election results at both ITN and the BBC, and at the BBC took over responsibility for this in 1983, following the death of Robert McKenzie, and became largely associated with McKenzie’s famous BBC “Swingometer” when it was reinstated in 1992. He is known for his somewhat excitable style of presentation and ever-more elaborate props and graphics, though perhaps his most famous prop was the most basic – a sandpit which he used to illustrate the progress of the First Gulf War in early 1991.

In 1994, he parodied his election role by providing analysis of the entries for the Eurovision Song Contest in the BBC’s two contest preview shows ahead of the final in Dublin. His data analysis predicted that either France or the United Kingdom would win. They finished 7th and 10th respectively. Snow survived a plane crash at Port Blakely, Bainbridge Island, Washington on 1 October 1999 when the De Havilland DHC-2 Mk1, registration number N9766Z in which he was a passenger hit trees during a film project for the BBC.

Peter Snow Books

• When Britain Burned the White House: The 1814 Invasion of Washington
• The Battle of Waterloo Experience
• War Stories: Gripping Tales of Courage, Cunning and Compassion
• The Battle of Waterloo: Additional Particulars
• To War with Wellington: From the Peninsula to Waterloo
• Battlefield Britain: From Boudicca to the Battle of Britain
• 20th Century Battlefields
• Hussein: A Biography
• Oxford observed
• Political forces in Argentina
• The United States: A Guide to Library Holdings in the United Kingdom
• The Penny-a-line Man
• British Military Greats
• The United States, a Guide to Library Holdings in the UK

Peter Snow Twitter

Tweets by peterjohnsnow

Peter Snow Interview

The 5-minute Interview: Peter Snow, Journalist, and broadcaster

Peter Snow, 69, has presented the ITN news, and, for the BBC, ‘Newsnight’, ‘Tomorrow’s World’ and the Radio 4 quiz ‘Master-team’. Until 2005 he ran the ‘swingometer’ on general election nights, first on ITN then on BBC. He also presented ‘Battlefield Britain’ with his son, Dan. An Audience with Peter and Dan Snow is at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, tomorrow.

I passed on the Swingometer torch because …

In 2005 it seemed to me I should pass the job of covering general election results live on to someone younger. That doesn’t mean I will give up presenting explanations of great events and using graphics to do it.

If I weren’t talking to you right now I’d be …

Getting ready to go for a sail across the Channel with a friend to France. My family and I are going to charter a large yacht and cross the strait of Georgia. Dan is a vital member of the team. We took our yacht across the Atlantic together in 2001.”Wonderful weather”. For those who understand, it means that I wonder if I really believe what a person is saying.
I wish people would take more notice of …

Life. To value it and enjoy it. Too many people go around worrying about too many things when they should lighten up if possible. The other thing I would say is learning and getting out and doing things.

The most surprising thing to happen to me was …

When I was in a plane crash in the Washington state of America while filming for Tomorrow’s World. Most planes don’t fall out of the sky, but this one did. It came down in some trees in Seattle. The tailplane came off, the fuselage slammed down on to the ground but the plane was slowed down by the branches. We were all very lucky.

A common misperception of me is …

I suspect people think I am a maniacal character always running around the house. I am extremely anxious not to waste time. I am over-energetic, but it’s all for a purpose. I’m obsessed with getting things done which probably makes people think I am over-frenetic. I am actually very controlled and programmed. It is the people around me who are moving too slow.

I am not a politician but …

I greatly admire what they do and sympathize with the way they are lambasted in the press – although some deserve to be taken to the cleaners.

I’m good at …

Communicating complicated subjects to people.

I’m very bad at …

Relaxing.

The ideal night out is …

Good theatre provided I am very close to the front of the stalls so I can hear every word.

You know me as a TV journalist but I may also have been …

Probably a model railway enthusiast. I’m a journalist. Writing and reading and learning is my trade.

The best age to be is …

Of course 69 which I am now. It’s wonderfully satisfying. You have grandchildren coming along and you know what you like doing.In a nutshell, my philosophy is this:

Learn something new every day.

Sara Newman

Source:www.independent.co.uk