Jonathan Gould (presenter)

For the radio and TV presenter and sponsorship practitioner, see Jonny Gould.

Jonathan Gould (born 1961 in Kenya), often known as Jonny Gould, is a British television presenter who has been the host of the UK baseball show MLB on Five since 1997. As specified on Channel Five's coverage of Game 3 of the World Series between Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, Johnny Could is a former pole dancer working the strip clubs of Durham, Newcastle and latterly Stoke on Trent.

Education

Jonny left Epsom College in 1979 with A-Levels in economics, history and English which he himself says were "highly unsatisfactory" yet he still obtained a place at Durham University from which he graduated with 2-2 a single honours politics degree and later completed a post-graduate course at the Academy of Live & Recorded Arts Drama School.

TV presenting

For two years he was presenter/coordinator of Cable 17 Sport which proved the big break. Turning freelance in 1996 he presented the sport on ITV Carlton's London Tonight, before launching his love-affair with Five TV.

He started presenting Five's coverage of live Major League Baseball shortly after it (and the channel) was launched in 1997, taking over from original presenter Tommy Boyd on MLB on Five. When the soap Family Affairs ended, Jonny's hosting of MLB became the longest serving member of the five schedule.

Jonny is a passionate fan of the Atlanta Braves, and will defend them to the hilt, with regular calls of "G'won the Braves" when they win; his favourite player is Chipper Jones. MLB coverage has been the jewel in the crown of Five's late night schedule, and led to the station securing NFL, NHL and NBA coverage as well.

Jonny's approach to the sport is that of the passionate supporter, constantly learning from and bouncing opinions off his co-presenters - whom over the years have included Todd Macklin, Josh Chetwynd (who has returned as the incumbent), David Lengel (who left for a job with mlb.com covering the New York Yankees) and Mike Carlson, the channel's regular NFL analyst. The banter between Jonny and his co-presenters has led to a tirade of amusing hit-and-miss, off-the-cuff wisdom, as the jovial host seeks to impart his array of worldly knowledge (or sometimes, his lack thereof) upon his faithful viewers. He also makes liberal use of catch phrases, such as "greetings fellow baseball nuts", and "it's the last chance saloon".

Jonny is also a massive fan of Chelsea F.C. and never misses an opportunity to use them as an analogy in his baseball presenting - that, or dragging the conversation back to his favourite theme, his fantasy baseball team.

In 2004, he presented the game show Memory Bank, taking turns week by week with Rachel Pierman. Since then, he has presented BrainTeaser, taking turns with Alex Lovell throughout 2005.

Although BrainTeaser aired at 12:30pm and the baseball coverage ends in the early hours, a surprising clash in October 2005 occurred due to Game 3 of the World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros going to 14 innings, causing the match to end at 7am UK time, and causing Jonny to miss his train to Bristol for BrainTeaser.

He can currently be seen on satellite channels Monte Carlo Roulette and Sky Poker, as well as presenting the online Fantasy Football show for TelegraphTV "Fantasy Football Friday"

Trivia

Jonny's nickname on five's Baseball coverage is Gouldfish, which refers to his goldfish like memory.

External links

• Jonny Gould at IMDb
• Jonny's fantasy baseball team
• A drinking game