Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British writer and television and radio presenter. He has co-presented both The One Show (2007–2010) and Daybreak (2010–2011) with Christine Lampard. He was also the chief presenter for football coverage on ITV Sport from 2010 until 2015. His journalistic training and love of football resulted in him presenting business programmes such as Working Lunch and The Money Programme as well as sports programmes like Match of the Day 2. He currently works for BBC Radio 5 Live.
Early life and career Chiles was born in Quinton, Birmingham, to an English father and Croatian mother. The family moved a few miles away to Hagley, Worcestershire, when he was four years of age.Soccer's biggest transfer target The Observer (London), 16 March 2008 His Birmingham accent is a feature of his presentations. He also speaks Croatian, despite having a self-confessed "imperfect" understanding of the language's verbs, declensions, and cases. Chiles attended Haybridge High School, and then worked in his father's scaffolding business, before graduating with a degree in English literature from the University of London (studying at Westfield College, now part of Queen Mary, University of London).
Before going to university he was a keen amateur actor, appearing in the Crescent Theatre's musical production of Mary O'Malley's Once A Catholic and Sandy Wilson's The Cheese. After university, while waiting for his broken leg to heal from an amateur football incident, he applied for and failed both Civil Service exams, before being asked to apply for MI5 — he failed the second interview. He studied journalism at Cardiff and then worked as a sports reporter for the News of the World.
Television BBC Chiles joined the BBC, originally for work experience on Business Breakfast.
Chiles's experience from Financial World Tonight led to him fronting the BBC Two business show Working Lunch, where he came to popular notice.
He has since created, scripted and fronted a variety of other programmes for the BBC including, for BBC Two, the 2003 series So What Do You Do All Day? – a look at the lives of the rich and famous – and Asian Millionaires. For BBC One he created and fronted Royal Millions, an investigation of the Queen's finances, as well as reports for Panorama and various documentaries.
From 2006 until 2009, Chiles presented the spin-off series of the popular UK television show The Apprentice called The Apprentice: You're Fired! in which he interviews the latest candidate to be fired.BBC One Winter/Spring 2007 BBC Press Office He left the BBC in 2009, and was replaced by Dara Ó Briain.
During August 2006 Chiles co-presented a pilot of a new BBC One early-evening magazine programme, The One Show. The programme was re-commissioned for 2007 with Chiles returning as host, leaving Working Lunch. Chiles's last appearance on The One Show was on 30 April 2010 and his favourite guest from the programme, rock singer Robert Plant, appeared again.The One Show 30 April 2010 BBC OneLed Zeppelin legend joins Adrian Chiles for farewell, Express and Star, 1 May 2010 His final show also saw video tributes to an emotional Chiles from Prime Minister Gordon Brown and political leaders David Cameron and Nick Clegg.Adrian Chiles bids farewell in final appearance on The One Show, The Daily Telegraph (London), 1 May 2010Adrian Chiles leaves The One Show with hug for Christine Bleakley, Daily Record (Glasgow), 1 May 2010
In April 2007, Chiles was a guest host of BBC One's satirical news quiz, Have I Got News for You.Have I Got News for You, broadcast 20 April 2007
In January 2016, Chiles returned to BBC television, where he fronted a two-part religion/travel series My Mediterranean with Adrian Chiles for BBC Two. In July 2016, he presented a special edition of Panorama called "Why We Voted to Leave: Britain Speaks" for BBC One. On 1 January 2019, he hosted a follow-up programme on BBC Radio 4 called Brexit: bewitched, bothered or bewildered? in which he spoke again to the same people, more than two years on, on how they now felt about Brexit. In November 2016, he fronted one-off documentary Whites v Blacks: How Football Changed a Nation for BBC Two.
Chiles co-presented Christine and Adrian's Friendship Test, a three-part documentary series with Christine Lampard. The series was broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland in November 2017.
In August 2018, Chiles presented a BBC Two documentary entitled Drinkers Like Me in which he admitted to regularly drinking in excess of 100 units of alcohol per week and investigated why alcohol had become such a big part of his life. As part of the programme, a doctor carried out a Fibroscan liver test on him, which produced a score of 8.9, indicating mild/moderate fibrosis of the liver and significant hepatic steatosis.
In December 2018, Chiles participated with four other celebrities, in series one, episode five of I'll Get This, for BBC Two which involved part quiz, part peer vote, with the losing celebrity paying the entire restaurant bill for their table.
In December 2023, Chiles presented the second series of My Life At Christmas (the first series was presented by Sally Phillips). The programme was commissioned by the BBC's Religious department, and saw him interviewing Oti Mabuse, John Simpson, and Martin and Shirlie Kemp.
BBC Sport When the BBC won back the rights to Premier League football highlights, Chiles became the host of Match of the Day 2 on Sundays. In the run-up to the 2006 World Cup, he was an integral part of BBC Three's African Cup of Nations coverage. He was also a member of the BBC's World Cup presenting team, often bringing viewers late night highlights. He was a main presenter of the BBC's Euro 2008 coverage and anchored the morning coverage of the 2008 Olympics from Beijing alongside Hazel Irvine.
ITV After news media speculation suggesting that the BBC wished to increase the popularity of The One Show on Fridays by introducing Chris Evans alongside Christine Bleakley in an extended one-hour format, Chiles was said to be discussing a contract with ITV. After Evans was confirmed as the new Friday presenter in a revamped one-hour format, Chiles left the BBC for ITV in a four-year contract golden handcuffs deal worth £6 million over four years ending on 20 April 2014. Chiles left the BBC on 30 April 2010.The One Show host Adrian Chiles quits BBC BBC News, 19 April 2010
From May 2010, Chiles fronted ITV's football coverage. He made his ITV debut on 24 May 2010, presenting the England v Mexico friendly at Wembley (England won the match 3–1).England Internationals ITV Press Centre, 12 May 2010Adrian Chiles makes the switch to sofa at ITV without blowing fuse The Guardian, 25 May 2010
On 6 September 2010, he made his first appearance on Daybreak, ITV's new breakfast television programme.New Daybreak show debuts on ITV BBC News, 6 September 2010 The show failed to capture a larger market share than its competitor BBC Breakfast, and on 18 November 2011 it was announced that Chiles would be axed from the show. He was replaced by Dan Lobb.
In January 2011, Chiles began presenting That Sunday Night Show on ITV, which returned for a second series in September 2011 and a third in January 2012.
With his ITV contract ending on 20 April 2014, Chiles signed a new contract to host and anchor ITV's football coverage, including the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The revised contract amounted to £500,000 per year, allowing Chiles to pursue other non-sport ventures.
On 23 January 2015, it was announced that Chiles had left his ITV Sport role as football host with immediate effect. He has not returned to the channel since and says he was "booted off" but he saw it coming due to self-medicating with alcohol and the antidepressant citalopram. He said that he had hoped it "could have ended with a handshake" instead of the way it did.
Radio In his early career at the BBC, Chiles became an assistant producer; by 1993, he was presenting Radio 4's Financial World Tonight.
He began presenting and producing his own show Chiles on Saturday for Radio 5 Live, which was awarded the sports category gold medal at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in 2002.
In November 2013, Chiles returned to Radio 5 Live, co-presenting Drive on Fridays with Anna Foster.
In October 2014, he became the Monday and Tuesday host of new programme 5 Live Daily from 10am to 1pm; with Peter Allen, and subsequently Emma Barnett, hosting Wednesday to Friday.
In January 2018, he was moved to Fridays only and the title was changed to Chiles on Friday, with Emma Barnett hosting from Monday to Thursday under the title The Emma Barnett Show, although the content remains essentially the same. From January 2021, Chiles also presented the programme on Thursdays as Naga Munchetty took over the show on Mondays to Wednesdays.
From September 2025, Chiles will become the new presenter of Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4, replacing Nikki Bedi and presenting the show solo from Cardiff.
Writing In February 2019, Chiles began writing a twice weekly column at The Guardian focused on subjects that Gabriella Paiella of GQ called “the banalities of everyday life” and “a gentle and delightful respite from the daily cesspool of takes and terrible news.”
The column features headlines like We can go to the moon – so why can’t we stop my glasses sliding down my nose?, Who are these people who love to feel sand between their toes? I hate it, You’re never too old to climb a tree – and I should know, At Easter I had a fall. The wild garlic smelled lovely, but I didn’t want to die there, I found a witch supply store opposite a Nisa Local. It's the start of a magical journey, and My dad has died but his watch ticks on. Why does that feel so heartless?.
The column has proved popular, particularly on Twitter, leading Chiles to be called “Britain’s greatest columnist” by journalist Frances Ryan and “The greatest columnist of our time” by MSNBC’s Clarissa-Jan Lin.
Chiles wrote the non-fiction book The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less, published in October 2022.The Good Drinker: How I Learned to Love Drinking Less Amazon
Other activities Chiles was the World Record holder for highest number of kisses received in 60 seconds from 2007 until 2009, with 78.The One Show, BBC One, broadcast 9 November 2007Most kisses in one minute-world record set by DJ Paul Winstanley World Records Academy, 6 March 2009
In 2004, Chiles appeared with Johnny Vegas and Mackenzie Crook in the film Sex Lives of the Potato Men in a cameo role as himself, the host of a sex party.
He appeared on the second series of Al Murray's Happy Hour as himself, and also had a cameo as himself in Series Two of That Mitchell and Webb Look.
On 23 November 2009, Chiles released a 2 Good 2 Bad: The World Cup DVD based on the popular segment from Match of the Day 2.DVD of the month: Adrian Chiles's 2 Good 2 Bad The Observer (London), 15 November 2009
In 2020, he participated in ('Language Road Trip'), a show for S4C where he and several other celebrities learned Welsh, broadcast in April 2020. An extra episode, ('Language Road Trip: Christmas') was broadcast at the end of 2020, interviewing each of the celebrities about whether they were still making use of their Welsh and the opportunities they had had to use Welsh during lockdown.
In 2022, Chiles appeared as a guest in the second "New Year's Treat" special of Taskmaster alongside Claudia Winkleman, Jonnie Peacock, Lady Leshurr, and Sayeeda Warsi. He won the special.
Personal life Chiles married Jane Garvey, a former regular presenter of Radio 4's Woman's Hour, in September 1998 in Swansea. Chiles and Garvey have two daughters. In June 2008, the couple separated and they divorced in October 2009.Open Book Radio Show, BBC Radio 4, broadcast 26 August 2007. Chiles married Guardian editor Katharine Viner in 2022.