Viewers ‘wind up’ Reeve when the going gets toff
ADVENTURER Simon Reeve has admitted he gets wound up by viewers who regard him as a ‘toff’.
The BBC presenter, who has visited far-flung locations such as Australia, Cuba, Alaska and the Caribbean, said many people assume anyone on TV must be from a privileged background.
However, Londoner Reeve, who left Twyford Church of England High School in Acton with no qualifications, counts himself lucky.
Confessing that being called a toff ‘did wind me up a little bit’, he said he was sharing his story to make critics realise how easy it can be to take the wrong path.
Reeve, 48, said: ‘I think there is a merit to people knowing, at a time when we’re a very unequal country, that my background was more normal – if you want to put it that way – than most.’ He added: ‘I managed to leave school with basically no qualifications and went on the dole and was in serious risk of falling into long-term unemployment and welfare dependency, and drugs and everything else that you can bloody get when you’re a slightly lost lad growing up on the edge of innercity London. And I was lucky!’
He hopes people will ‘be a little bit more understanding of those who slip off the path and deserve help and guidance to find their way back on’.
Reeve is back on BBC Two this Sunday with Incredible Journeys, which looks back at some of the more remote destinations he has visited.
He said he felt ‘blessed’ by his time on the road, adding: ‘They have been incredible adventures.’