Peter Allen

Peter Edwin Allen (born 4 February 1946) is an English radio broadcaster with 40 years' experience in journalism. He has been with BBC Radio 5 Live since it started in 1994, and co-presented the Drive programme for 16 years from 1998 to 2014. Early life Allen was born in Rochford, Essex, and attended the independent Brentwood School. At 18 he left school and started work with his local newspaper. He emigrated to Australia and worked for the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Broadcasting career In the 1970s Allen switched to working in radio, joining Independent Radio News, the newly launched news service for UK commercial radio. He eventually became the network's political editor while working at Westminster. He also worked as a presenter at its sister radio station LBC, the London news and talk station. Allen then switched to television and was ITN political correspondent until 1992, when he was one of "a string of high-profile resignations" following the company's budget cuts. He then joined London News Network. On 1 March 1994, the BBC announced that Allen was to host its new Breakfast programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. In 1997 Breakfast was extended by half an hour. Also in 1997, The Times described the "witty repartee" of Allen and co-presenter (and future protagonist) Jane Garvey as the best illustration of the station's tone, "friendly, informal, brisk, and mercifully, not terribly politically correct". Garvey describes him as "the legendary Peter Allen who taught me a lot about broadcasting, and even more about confectionery".