‘I've learned so much from him’ - Dan Snow talks to Mark Wogan about having a famous father

Virgin Radio

29 Feb 2024, 14:06

In the latest episode of the Spooning with Mark Wogan podcast, Dan Snow speaks about having a celebrity parent.

Spooning is hosted by the son of the late Sir Terry Wogan and owner of Homeslice Pizza. This week, Mark sits down with popular historian and television presenter Dan. You can listen to wherever you get your podcasts and also watch on Virgin Radio’s YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok channels.

Dan is the son of legendary radio/television presenter and historian Peter Snow, who is known as an analyst of general election results and a Newsnight presenter. Speaking about his father, he tells Mark: “The weird thing about my dad is, everyone in the world now does YouTube explainers with facts and figures, dad kind of really pioneered that.

“As soon as computers came out, he went, ‘These are going to be extraordinary tools to visualise information’. He had that kind of brain.”

On how his dad influenced his own successful career, Dan says “I've learned so much from him. He's really good at taking a difficult subject and making it understandable. He loves the written word as well.”

And it turns out the wider Snow family is “obsessed with history” too. Dan explains to Mark: “Me and dad are by far the least impressive historians in my family. My auntie's a Professor at Oxford, my cousin-by-marriage is Avi Shlaim, the famous Israeli historian. It's bonkers.”

He continues: “Mum and dad, both journalists, they were interested in practical history… So, like, Thatcher, Argentina invading the Falklands, Kuwait, things in the 80s and 90s that I remember. They were interested in history, because they wanted to know why those things were happening. 

“So for them to do their job properly as journalists, they had to go and read that. I probably took it one step further… I got interested in random abstract history. I'm so obsessed with 19th century Methodism, you know, like that sort of weird, geeky histories. But deep down, I think that their journalistic fascination with why the world is the way it is really, really started me off.”

The historian tells Mark: “A lot of people think, ‘Oh, that kid says that because of his dad,’ and I have to say I have great sympathy with that critique. I wouldn't be where I am today, if I hadn't been born where I was.” 

Dan studied at Oxford University, where he rowed in the Boat Race three times. On starting his broadcasting career, he says: “Weirdly, when the BBC rang up and said, ‘Do you make a show off the back of one of the boat races?’ Dad actually said no,” he explains. “So in terms of the very short-term ways I got into presenting, it wasn't my dad. But clearly long-term, of course it was. And it was my mum and my grandma that taught me a great love of history as well, my grandpa. I come from a family where all we did was talk about history, try and convince each other of facts and tell each other stories. I'm here thanks to them.”

Read what Mark Wogan told Chris Evans Breakfast about why he blindfolds guests on his Spooning podcast here. 

Spooning is out wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are released every Thursday. Watch along via @virginradiouk on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok.

Previous guests include Claudia Winkleman, Helen Skelton, Gaby Roslin, Beverley Knight, Jimmy Carr, Alfie Boe, The Hairy Bikers, James May, Tom Kerridge and Matt Tebbutt.