SIMON REEVE
Simon Reeve is no ordinary white middle class male. He describes himself as an ‘author’. Which felt to me as classic British understatement. Not because he isn’t an author – he most definitely is, and a very accomplished one at that. But he is also an explorer, an adventurer, an investigative journalist, a counter terrorism expert and last but not least, a post room boy / photocopier expert. More on that later.
We met up this week at Kenwood House in Hampstead for what was supposed to be a very pleasant ramble across a daffodil dappled Hampstead Heath
lit by optimistic Spring sunshine. In fact, it was full on Beast from the East, Baltic conditions, so we abandoned ship and ended up having a very pleasant
fireside chat inside the magnificent House.
Born into a ‘normal’ family in East Acton, Simon found being a teenager tricky. Characterised by some really quite extreme bad behaviour, just the one GCSE and some deep and very serious mental health problems, he ended up on the dole. And then finally, with a job in the post room of the Sunday Times. (That’s where he became the only person in the building who knew how to work the A1 photocopier – apparently you can copy more than just one pair of naked bum cheeks on an A1 copier…...)
It’s a great reflection of both Simon’s ‘say yes to every opportunity’ approach to life, and also the senior team at the Sunday Times in the early 1990s that spotted talent in the lad from the post room and gave him a chance. In what seems like rather Boys Own journalistic stuff, he quite quickly found himself working undercover on cases the Sunday Times were pursuing
including nuclear smuggling, drug crime and terrorism. But it was counter terrorism which really fired him up.
In 1993, a little known terrorist group called al Qaeda exploded a bomb in the parking lot of the World Trade Centre in New York. Although dramatic at the time, the world quickly moved on. But not Simon. He became obsessed with digging into it. He left the Sunday Times in order to research and write a book about it all.
In fact, he was the only non-secret service person anywhere in the world to research this explosion and those behind it. So much so, that he became the leading expert on it. Which was a relatively useless acclaim, until September 11th 2001. The fateful day when two American Airlines jets flew into the Twin Towers.
At home in London that sunny September morning, reasonably destitute and broke, mourning the recent death of his father and split up with his fiancé, Simon could not foresee how his life was about to change forever.
His brother woke him up to alert him to the fact that an airliner had flown into the North Tower at the World Trade Centre in New York. And by the time the South Tower was hit 17 minutes later, his phone had started ringing off the hook.
Turns out his deep dive expertise into the seemingly one-off terrorist attack on the same building 8 years earlier made him the world’s leading commentator into wtf was going on. Satellite vans were literally parking up outside his flat in west London and within hours his expertise was being called on from TV stations
all over the world. Talk about surreal.
Wind the clock forward and the rise to prominence of this once upon a time post room boy, Simon himself says he has his own hair and teeth so started talking with broadcasters about presenting TV programmes. This morphed into his travel documentaries with a distinctive edge that we’ve all come to love - that of an adventurer / explorer / environmentalist. All with such a natural feeling that he’s making it all up as he goes along, that when you watch the series, it’s like being there yourself.
Part of this is Simon’s likeable, just-a-bloke-you-know-from-next-door type persona. He’s like a sponge. Remarkable for a kid with only one GCSE, he has a thirst for learning which is up there with Stephen Hawking. And everything he soaks up, he plays back to the viewer with an enthusiasm and charisma which is as inspiring as it is fascinating and authentic. I’m very proud to call Simon a Friend of Aubin.
I was lucky to get some time with Simon before he heads off on his next trip to start filming the next series of Wilderness. It’s just the coolest job on the planet. If you haven't already, I strongly recommend tuning in to Series 1 on iPlayer.
Pete
Founder
