Jeremy Paxman is a founding member of the Movers and Shakers and also, in a sense, its host. For the pub where it's recorded, the Ladbroke Arms, is his local and where Derek his dog ends his walks.  Before this latest journalistic endeavour he was a familiar and much-loved face on British TV screens, celebrated for his incisive, some might say ruthless, interviewing style and sardonic wit. For a quarter of a century he was the main presenter of BBC Two's Newsnight programme, where he interrogated every major political figure of the time. He once asked the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard, the same question twelve times and he still didn't get a straight answer!

Paxman got plenty of answers from undergraduates however, as the fearsome quizmaster of University Challenge from 1994 to 2023. The answers were often wrong and provoked acerbic asides, raised eyebrows and that trade-mark snort. By his last show he had mellowed so much the Guardian remarked "such was the change that this Paxman looks as warm and cuddly as the mascots the colleges traditionally prop up on their desks." Snort. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2021 and made the film "Putting up with Parkinson’s" the following year.

Since starting his career at BBC Brighton in 1972, Jeremy went on to work for the BBC's Tonight and Panorama. As a foreign correspondent he covered conflicts in Lebanon, Uganda and Central America. In total Jeremy has won five Royal Television Society awards and took the award for International Current Affairs in 1985. He has also won TV journalism interviewer/presenter of the year four times. 

Jeremy has published several books on British history and politics, among them: "Friends in High Places: Who Runs Britain?" (1991); "The English: A Portrait of a People" (1999); "On Royalty" (2006) and "Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British" (2011). His most recent work is "Black Gold", a history of coal. 

A self-confessed "gloomy bugger", his mordant humour and frequent expletives keep the rest of the Movers & Shakers in check.