When you’re watching a television show you might assume that the person presenting it has hobbies that revolve around the show itself. For instance, it makes sense that people like Chris Packham or David Attenborough love nature.
There are some presenters out there whose hobbies might surprise you, though. Like all celebrities, they have hobbies outside of their careers. We all have different activities we enjoy to unwind, and some of the presenters you see daily or weekly on your screen have some fascinating hobbies.
Victoria Coren-Mitchell – Poker
This is no surprise to people who followed her poker career, which saw Victoria make a lot of money before she was a famous presenter.
Now, you’ll see her on shows like Only Connect, known for being one of the trickiest trivia quizzes on television. Some other people know Victoria best from panel shows like QI, and some even know her for being married to comedian and writer David Mitchell.
Coren-Mitchell had a glowing poker career and still takes part as a hobby. Her career earnings are in excess of $2,500,000 and you can trawl YouTube for some clips of her playing in pro tournaments.
There are a lot of celebrities who unwind by playing casino games and poker is one of the more popular. It is a game of skill, so people who consider it a hobby can continue to get better at it. The next time you log in to play online poker tournaments for real money you never know who the user over the table is going to be. It could be a celebrity.
Jonathan Ross – Comic Books
Jonathan Ross is a presenter who is very famous in the UK, but not everybody knows that a hobby from his childhood, buying and collecting comics, is still something he is involved in today.
Ross is also a film critic, so the current trend of comic adaptations must be heaven to him. He has named the likes of the Fantastic Four as his favorites and said he used to buy them second-hand as early as the 1960s.
Ross has also been involved in creating a comic book himself, entitled Turf, set in the prohibition-era USA. Jonathan is known as one of the kings of the comic interview format that is popular in the UK and worldwide, but not many people realize what a huge collection of comics he has and how much he cares about this hobby.
Professor Brian Cox – Playing Keyboards
This is one of those pieces of trivia that sometimes crops up in a quiz.
Brian Cox was part of the band D: Ream, who even had a number-one hit in the UK with the song “Things Can Only Get Better”. Cox wasn’t a main member of the band but used to play live with them and has also appeared on stage with many different bands and artists.
Cos is known as a physicist and presenter who has made some insightful shows, but he is also known to love science fiction as well as science fact. He presented a show called “The Science of Doctor Who” back in 2014.
Paul Hollywood – Racing Cars
Paul Hollywood has had quite an interesting career and is known not only in the UK but in all of the countries where “The Great British Bake Off” has been a hit.
Not a lot of people know about Hollywood’s other passion though, and that passion is racing cars, something he has come to later on in his life.
This is not a celebrity hobby that he just dabbles in occasionally, either. Hollywood has raced competitively for Beechdean AMR and has taken part in some big races including the Britcar Trophy. Perhaps most impressively he also took part in the globally-famous Le Mans 24-hour race.
Paul is known to love cars and also has multiple Aston Martin cars in his collection. It seems life is about far more than cakes and bread with Mr. Hollywood.
Trevor McDonald – Historic Books
It is perhaps not a huge surprise that such an intellectual and famous presenter is into history. In an interview, he said he has enjoyed books about the work of Leo Tolstoy as well as the formation and founding of America.
McDonald also says he takes inspiration from these books, using them as inspiration for some of the documentary films he has produced over the years.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you’ve learned something new about the presenters that you see on your screens in this guide. It is often a bit of a shock when we see a celeb involved in something that they are not known for, and not everybody knows that Victoria Coren-Mitchell is successful at poker or that Brian Cox was in a huge band. It is fascinating to get a glimpse of what goes on in their lives.