Tom Heap
Born
Thomas John Gillespie Heap

(1966-01-03) 3 January 1966 (age 58)
Hertford, Hertfordshire, England
EducationOakham School, Rutland[1]
Hills Road Sixth Form College
Occupation(s)Journalist, presenter
Employer(s)BBC News, Sky News
Known forCountryfile presenter (BBC One)
The Climate Show presenter (Sky News)
Panorama reporter (BBC One)
Costing the Earth reporter (BBC Radio 4)
Rural Affairs Correspondent for BBC News

Tom Heap (born 3 January 1966 in Hertford, Hertfordshire)[2] is an English television and radio reporter and presenter best known for his contributions to the BBC One programme Countryfile, the BBC Radio 4 programme Costing the Earth and The Climate Show on Sky News.

Early life

Heap is the son of John Heap, a former scientific adviser who became the head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Polar Regions Section (from 1975 to 1992), and Margaret Grace Gillespie Spicer, known as 'Peg',[3] the daughter of Captain Sir Stewart Spicer, 3rd Baronet, of the Royal Navy. He has two sisters.[3]

Education

Heap was educated at Oakham School, a boarding and day independent school in the market town of Oakham in Rutland in central England, where he was trained to abseil by the Lieutenant M.B. Rochester of the Combined Cadet Force (CCF),[4] and received a Bronze Duke of Edinburgh's Award in 1980.[5]

Career

Heap began his broadcasting career with Sky News as a sound mixer. He then joined a News Trainee scheme with BBC News and worked on the Today programme, the BBC News 24 channel and Panorama. He became a correspondent specialising in and around rural affairs, science and the environment and took on a newly created role as the Rural Affairs Correspondent for BBC News. In around 2013 he reported for the BBC live from the Khumbu Icefall on Mount Everest with the broadcasting team covering the 50th anniversary of the conquest of the mountain.[6] After making contributions to Countryfile, in around April 2012 he took over the investigative reporter role on the programme from John Craven.[7] In 2014 he interviewed Princess Anne in this role.[8] Since 2022, Tom has presented The Climate Show on Sky News.

Family

Tom Heap married Tammany Robin Stone in 1992, and lives in Napton on the Hill near the market town of Southam in Warwickshire, south of the city of Coventry. They own the media company Checked Shirt TV.[9]

During an edition of Countryfile screened in November 2014, it was revealed that Heap is the great-nephew of Olympic medallist and soldier Thomas Gillespie who was killed in action at La Bassee, France, in October 1914, aged 21.[10]

References

  1. ^ "The Duke of Edinburgh's Award at Oakham School 1960–2011" (PDF). Oakham School, Rutland. 21 May 2011. p. 30. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  2. ^ "Annual Return 2014 for Checkered Shirt TV". Companies House. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Obituaries: John Heap". The Daily Telegraph. 18 March 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  4. ^ "The Duke of Edinburgh's Award at Oakham School 1960–2011" (PDF). Oakham School, Rutland. 21 May 2011. p. 30. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  5. ^ "The Duke of Edinburgh's Award at Oakham School 1960–2011" (PDF). Oakham School, Rutland. 21 May 2011. p. 101. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  6. ^ "Our reporters | Tom Heap". Panorama. BBC. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  7. ^ Case, Philip (4 March 2012). "Countryfile's Tom Heap promoted as investigative reporter". Farmers Weekly. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  8. ^ "Princess Anne's Countryfile comments on gassing badgers and GM food stoke highly charged debate". Western Daily Press. 5 April 2014. Archived from the original on 9 April 2014.
  9. ^ "CHECKED SHIRT TV LIMITED | People". Companies House. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  10. ^ "Countryfile: World War One Special". BBC Countryfile. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2022.

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