Peter Snow was born in Dublin, the son of a British army officer and an Irish surgeon.

 

He was at school in England and did his National service in from 1956 to 1958 in the Somerset Light infantry.

 

He then went to Balliol College Oxford where he did a degree in Classics, Ancient History and Philosophy.

 

In 1962 he joined ITN as a script-writer and reporter and began newscasting the same year.

 

He was appointed Diplomatic and Defence Correspondent in 1966, and for the next decade reported from all round the world.

 

In 1970 he wrote Leila's Hijack War with colleague David Phillips, telling the story of the international crisis that was caused by the Palestinianas who hijacked three airliners and blew them up on a desert airstrip.

 

In 1972 he wrote the Biography of King Hussein of Jordan.

 

He also covered elections and other live political programmes for ITN until he left in 1979 to join the BBC.

 

There he was one of the first presenters of Newsnight when it began in January 1980.

 

He went on to cover elections and other live political events for the BBC until 2005.

 

He left Newsnight to present Tomorrow's World in 1997. He presented it until 2001 with filming trips to America, Europe, Japan and New Zealand.

 

In 2001/2, he was involved in a range of BBC programmes – hosting the America's Cup programme for BBC Sport, The Abyss for BBC Natural History and What the World thinks of America.

 

In 2002, he made a programme for BBC TWO with his son, Dan, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Alamein: Battleplan.

 

This led to them both presenting two further series – Battlefield Britain, featuring eight battles from Boudicca to the Battle of Britain which aired in 2004, and 20th century Battles planned for transmission in 2006/7.

 

Peter currently presents Masterteam on BBC Radio 4 as well as Random Edition – a review of the newspapers from a day in history chosen at random.

 

At the Royal Television Society in 1998 he won the Judges' Award for services to broadcasting.

 

Peter is married to Ann MacMillan of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and has six children.

 

He enjoys sailing, skiing, and model railways.

 

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