Jonathan Swain

Jonathan Swain Jonathan Swain (born 4th May 1973) is an English journalist and broadcaster who is currently a Senior News Correspondent for Good Morning Britain on ITV. He is the television correspondent who famously tried to interview Boris Johnson, during the 2019 general election campaign that led to the Conservative leader appearing to hide in a fridge whilst visiting a dairy in Yorkshire. It became known as 'Fridgegate'.

Education & Early Career

Swain was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire and educated at Etone School, Nuneaton before studying for his A-levels at King Edward VI College, Nuneaton. He regularly represented his school, town and county at rugby union. He gained a B.A(Hons) degree in Geography from the University of Kent in 1995.

Whilst still studying at school, at the age of 14 Swain had his first journalistic work published when he became a freelance reporter for Motoring News, often filing reports on motor sport rallies from around the UK. When aged 15, he embarked on his first role in broadcasting when he worked as a production assistant on the Saturday afternoon sports programme at BBC Radio Leicester, where Jonathan Agnew was the presenter. He transferred to BBC CWR (Coventry and Warwickshire Radio) when the new station opened in 1990, where he became a freelancer sports reporter and producer. He also became a co-presenter on the station's first programme aimed at a youth audience. Whilst at university for 3 years he regularly worked for BBC Radio Kent as a freelance presenter, sports reporter and production assistant.

TV Career

Having gained experience and training in BBC local radio for many years, Swain worked as a freelance for the television news agency WTN, based at Camden Lock in London during the summer of 1995 when he left university. In October 1995, he began his first full-time television role at Westcountry Television, the ITV franchise for the South West of England that was based in Plymouth with five regional newsrooms around the region. Swain was based in Barnstaple, north Devon where he wrote and produced a daily news bulletin for the regional opt-out and often he would also regularly present the news bulletin. In 1997, he moved to Central Television, based at their Abingdon studio in Oxfordshire. His primary role was a reporter covering stories such as the Foot & Mouth crisis but he became the interim sports editor and presenter for 6 months where he presented from national sports events such as the British Grand Prix and Cheltenham race festival. He also regularly co-anchored the regional evening news programme. Alongside working for Central Television, he was seconded to ITN, which produces national news bulletins for ITV network. As a result, he became a freelance reporter for ITV News, and on the 5th October 1999 he was one of the first journalists to arrive at the scene of the Paddington train crash which killed 31 people and injured 417.

ITV breakfast television

In October 2000 Swain began work for GMTV, the breakfast television franchise on ITV. Since beginning his career as a national television correspondent he has had a front-seat at some of the world's biggest news stories. In April 2003, he travelled to Iraq to report on the US-led invasion of the country. After camping in the desert on the Jordanian-Iraq border on the night of 8 April 2003, the following morning Swain joined a convey of international journalists and drove across the Iraqi desert to reach Baghdad just as US forces entered the city and pulled-down the statue of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. In 2004 he was dispatched to Thailand to cover the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In 2006, he spent 5 weeks covering England's progress in the FIFA World Cup hosted in several German cities.

With the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan from 2001-2014 Swain was embedded with the Royal Air Force (RAF) for 10 days in 2008 where he and his cameraman were based at the coalition's Kandahar military base and also travelled to Camp Bastion in Helmand Province. In May 2007 Swain became one of the programme's main contributors on the missing child Madeleine McCann from Praia du Luz resort in Portugal. Swain interviewed her parents Kate and Gerry McCann on several occasions and investigated several reported sightings of the toddler around the world. He followed up sightings of Madeleine McCann in Morocco and then travelled back to the country with her parents in June 2007 when meetings were arranged with the Moroccan authorities who offered help with the search.

Swain became a Senior News Correspondent when the Daybreak was launched on 6 September 2010, the British morning television show that replaced GMTV. With various assignments around the world, his most dangerous was in February 2014 when in Kiev, Ukraine to report on the Ukrainian Revolution. Following days of violent protests, he was reporting live from Maiden Square on the morning of 20 February when a deadly massacre took place. He and his cameraman were caught in the middle of sniper-fire and live ammunition from riot police. He escaped under-fire to the nearby Hotel Ukraine which later became a field hospital and temporary morgue for victims of the shooting. 67 people were killed and 562 injured during a day of violence.

Swain became the Senior News Correspondent for Good Morning Britain when it launched on ITV on 28 April 2014. Continuing to travel around the UK and globe for various assignments one of his continued investigations was the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe. In 2015 Swain and his team travelled from the Mediterranean coast through Europe reporting on the migrants journey. On 26th November 2018 he was one of the first television reporters to witness migrants crossing the English Channel at night in dinghies from France to the UK. This sparked international news coverage. With a keen interest in sport, Swain was assigned the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, spending many weeks travelling around the country until England were knocked out of the tournament in the semi-finals. In 2019 he was reporting from Japan on the Rugby World Cup following the progress of England, Wales and Scotland. He remained until the final where England were beaten by South Africa.

Fridgegate

With various successes at 'doorstepping' notable figures throughout his career, a journalistic term for trying to get an interview while waiting for someone, Swain famously had a confrontation with Boris Johnson, the Conservative party leader, and his team during the general election campaign of 2019. While Mr Johnson was visiting a dairy in Yorkshire for a photo-opportunity on the morning of 11 December 2019, Swain appeared at the dairy and asked Mr Johnson if he would be interviewed on Good Morning Britain. An aide of Mr Johnson's could be heard swearing on live television as Swain appeared with his television crew. Swain pursued Mr Johnson, as he was loading a van with milk bottles, and politely asked qustions to the party leader who could be heard saying he would speak to him and the show's presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. When Swain offered Boris Johnson an ear-piece for the interview Mr Johnson was filmed walking into a fridge. It was an incident the captured national media attention, it was trending on social media and became known as 'Fridgegate'.

Personal Life

Jonathan Swain has been married to Nicola Swain since 2002. They have two children Imogen and Harry Swain. They live in London.

References

This article "Jonathan Swain" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Jonathan Swain. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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