Anthony Browne

The Peter Jay I knew: the BBC’s aloof, brilliant economics editor

Peter Jay became economics editor at the Times at the age of 30 (Getty)

I was the junior researcher, and he was the living legend. When I started working at the BBC on the Money Programme, I was assigned to work with Peter Jay, who was presenting various documentaries, and I had never previously met anyone quite so aloof. I had no idea if he even knew my name, and it was many months before I had evidence that he did. But in the end, my entire career at the BBC, ultimately as economics correspondent appointed by him, was interwoven with his, and I developed a certain fondness.

Jay was ferociously bright, which often manifested itself in slightly strange ways

Peter always had an otherworldly sense of being rather helpless. I remember sitting in the BBC office in London taking a call from him while he was out filming in South Africa, and he wanted to know where he was. How was I meant to know? We did a studio show with an audience in the North of England and he seemed visibly uncomfortable.

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Written by
Anthony Browne

Anthony Browne was MP for South Cambridgeshire. He is a former Europe correspondent at the Times and environment editor at the Observer

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