Amol Rajan

FOR many people in public life, broadcaster Amol Rajan is a familiar face. He is one of the country’s foremost figures in both radio and television. Mostly but not exclusively employed by the BBC, he has several TV shows and a prominent radio slot as one of a handful of top line interviewers on the BBC Radio 4’s flagship daily news programme, Today. He is also one of the broadcasters’ highest paid – earning in the range of £335,000- £339,000 as indicated in the most recent official pay disclosures made in July 2023. He was 15th in the overall list and he was employed to present, besides Today, Radio 4’s ReThink, Amol Rajan Interviews (BBC2), TV documentaries (unspecified), and was the station’s media editor until December 2022. On paper alone, this is hugely impressive and his most recent prominent gig, if we can call it that, is not even listed in the BBC Pay, which is published alongside the corporation’s annual report. It was announced in 2022 that he was to take over the reins of University Challenge – the undergraduate quiz programme, which is broadcast by BBC2 but produced by the independent ITV Studios, commercially. Programmes made by independent production companies are not covered by the public BBC pay register. His time at University Challenge has already been welcomed but considering its only two other presenters lasted more than 20 years – some might say it was too early to be utterly conclusive on the matter. One phrase of his from the show has already gone viral and these days that is enough to suggest he is a figure of cultural power. But to appreciate his influence you have to look more extensively at the range and scope of his work for the BBC – his main employer. Though shown on BBC 2, his Amol Rajan Interviews often make it to the main TV news broadcasts. In the last two years since the programme began, he has interviewed a number of very high profile and often hard to access figures. His very first Amol Rajan Interviews began with Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer of a company many of us use every day – Goole. It is near one-hour-long probe. Since that time for the same programme, Rajan has also interviewed tennis icon Novak Djokovic – with the star breaking his silence about being deported from Australia for not having the Covid-19 vaccine in 2022 (and ending any participation in the Australian Open at that time). And the list of his interviewees continues to be extraordinary – Greta Thunberg, Bill Gates, and Watergate Scandal journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. These are all international figures who can command much of the world’s quality media attention at any one time and so for Rajan to get access suggests he and the BBC have a strong formula and much of that is from Rajan himself.

On the Today programme, he gets to quiz some of the world’s most important figures and it’s a news radio show that attracts millions and almost any and every politician, from the PM to your humble local MP has to take cognisance of it – though the media landscape and spheres of influence have been utterly transformed by social media these days. University Challenge is an institution in itself and has become so under two outstanding previous presenters, the original and inimitable Bamber Gascoigne and one-time Newsnight rottweiler Jeremy Paxman – who departed from the show after 29 years in the hot seat. The programme began with him at the helm in the Autumn of 2023 and the reaction has been warm and positive. On social media, viewers praised his presentational style and critics were impressed - with many noting how he had slowed down his delivery – some critics say he speaks too fast. The quiz programme pits students from different universities up against each other in two teams – and the questions are often academic and esoteric – the populist view is that the pro[1]gramme is for self-declared ‘boffins’. At one time, it might have also been said it was for toffs and elites that mostly wound up running the country or its professional bodies. That criticism isn’t so widely shared these days with the state educated but Cambridge University-educated Rajan at the helm now. Some would say that his role on University Challenge has put him in the spotlight for a generation of possible thought leaders. He certainly brings a populist mantle to proceedings and that is no bad thing for a programme which can divide people quickly. He revisited his own student days and how different his life was now – all prompted by a response to an incorrect answer on University Challenge. In January of this year, he gained attention when a question he posed on the show went viral, inspiring the jungle music community. The phrase “We need jungle, I’m afraid”, instantly became a meme in the rave scene, showcasing the unexpected crossover between a highbrow quiz and the music community. Some prominent musical figures got involved – veteran DJ and widely referred to as ‘the godfather of reggae’, David Rodigan encouraged fellow DJ, musician and actor Goldie to get involved – Goldie said he would sample it. “Soon I was getting texts from friends in Jamaica. Major artists got involved. By the time Hospital Records, Ministry of Sound, MixMag, and others were posting, I was feeling rather emotional,” wrote Rajan on BBC blog post.

He said it was so – because he has four young children, and while feeling blessed for that – “(it) does rather diminish my capacity of raving”, he added. In his own BBC Two documentary in 2022, he posed the question, How to Crack the Class Ceiling, and asked working class students whether they could break into professions, often dominated by people with money and influence and - who have invariably been educated privately. He is in some ways the face of the modern BBC – and started his media career on Channel 5’s The Wright Show. He joined The Independent after reportedly asking occasional show guest and Indy (as it is known colloquially) editor Simon Kelner, whether there were any vacancies at the paper. Joining the Independent in the summer of 2007 he assumed a number of different reporting roles, rising to the role of editor at just 29 in 2013. He was both the youngest broadsheet editor and the first from an ethnic minority in more than a century at the time. Prior to his elevation at the Indy, he was media advisor to the newspaper’s then proprietor Evgeny Lebedev and the paper went totally online 2016 and Rajan oversaw the transition. He has published two books – Twirlymen: The Unlikely History of Cricket’s Greatest Spin Bowlers (2013) and Rethink: How We Can Make a Better World (2022) – a spin off from the BBC podcast series of the same name which asked prominent international figures how they might picture a post pandemic world and address important global issues. It has contributions from Pope Francis on poverty and the Dalai Lama on the role of ancient wisdom. Born in Kolkata, India and raised in England, Rajan completed his secondary education at Graveney school in Tooting, south London. He read English at Downing College, Cambridge, after spending his gap year at the then, Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Married to academic Charlotte Faircloth, he also assists with Key Sessions – a charity that seeks to aid the career aspirations of inner city teenagers. He turned 40 in July last year and describes himself on his blue-tick Instagram account as a ‘Reithian Rascal’.