Robots Rule - The Presenters

The presenters for Robot Wars are Craig Charles as the main host, Jayne Middlemiss (who took over from Philippa for the Seventh Wars and onwards) as the new pit reporter and Jonathan Pearce as commentator. This page gives you information on each of the presenters.


Craig Charles gets ready to film his bit in Robot Wars The Sixth Wars, probably a link between battles.	Craig Charles

Craig Charles

The main host of the show. He starts the show and then ends it with his Craig's sign off poem. He also does the links in between battles saying how wonderful the battle was and confirming who won unless it goes to a judges decision and he also sometimes interviews the teams after the battle.

Craig has been (and still is) involved in many things. He played Lister in the science-fiction/comedy programme, Red Dwarf. He did eight series of that. He has also been on an Eastenders special, appeared on shows such as The Bill and Through the Keyhole as well as doing Robot Wars which he started doing in the second series after seeing how good it really was. Craig also does the Craig Charles Funk Show on BBC Radio 6 which is full of all the funkiest music around. The Funk show is on Fridays from 20:00 to 23:00 and Saturdays from 18:00 to 21:00.

He loves writing poetry and stories too. Craig is a seasoned actor and in the past he has been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed at the Edinburgh Festival as well as appearing as Dick Whittington in pantomime at the Hull Theatre.


Jayne Middlemiss	Jayne Middlemiss

Jayne Middlemiss

Jayne is the new pit reporter presenter to Robot Wars who took over from Philippa in the Seventh Wars as the new Mistress of Mayhem!

Like Philippa, Jayne has had a very busy career involved in many television shows including presenting The O-Zone with Jamie Theakstone in the early 1990s, then she moved on to present Top of the Pops and many other music related shows. She has also presented her own movie show, Rough Cut and hosted coverage of the Edinburgh Festival back in the year 2000. Again, back to her love of music, she presented BBC Music Live and The Glastonbury Festival.

As well as TV, she has been on the radio presenting an hour long show on Radio 1 but now is on BBC Radio 6 presenting Music Week which rounds up the best of the week's music news. This show is on Friday evenings from 19:00 to 20:00 on BBC Radio 6 (a digital radio station). I get the feeling that Jayne really likes music!

Jayne has had many appearances on many shows on the television and on the radio just appearing on shows and also presenting them. More recently, she will be famous in the robot community for presenting Techno Games a few years ago.


Jonathan Pearce at work at what he does best - commentating. If it is not Robot Wars, he's commentating a football match.	Jonathan Pearce at work.

The very energetic commentator of the show and has been for every single series! He is one of the best commentators in the UK. He loves sports, especially football. His lively voice and knowledge of the sport made him perfect for all his commentary he does on football matches which made him the perfect choice for commentator on Robot Wars.

He trained with Bristol City to become a footballer with them when he was a teenager but when he broke his leg in 1974, he had to go else where.

He joined BBC Radio 5 Live in May 2002 (after leaving Capital Gold Sport) and he did some commentary from Japan in the World Cup.

Don't worry Philippa, even though you no longer present Robot Wars, you will not be forgotten! I will keep you on my site as the Robot Wars pit presenter to remember. Philippa Forrester, famous for doing Robot Wars (and also why so many people watched the show in the first place!) has been pit reporter for many years and many series (and the original pit reporter) so there is no way that I will delete the original queen of Robot Wars off my website even though she no longer appears on the show.

Craig Charles with the former pit presenter, Philippa Forrester. This picture was taken during The Fifth Wars. Now they wear different, more biker-style jackets with a lot of yellow on and not just black.


Philippa Forrester presenting the total solar eclipse programme from Cornwall on BBC 1 television on 11th August 1999 during the total eclipse of the Sun, the first one in 70 years in the UK.	Philippa Forrester at St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital helping the animals there.

The lovely Philippa Forrester has been the pit reporter for every series of Robot Wars, except for when she was pregnant during The Fourth Wars and Robot Wars Extreme, in which Julia Reed took over. Jayne Middlemiss has now taken over the roll of pit reporter because Philippa left. The new presenter started her job as Robot Wars pit presenter from the Seventh Wars onwards.

The pit reporter's job involves going around the pit with her camera crew interviewing the teams before and after each battle seeing their reactions to the damage they suffered from in the last fight (using her damage cam to take up close pics of the damage on the robot) and the reactions of the teams' faces when they find out who they are up against next and they either say "oh dear" or "a piece of cake, bring it on."

Philippa hasn't been in just Robot Wars though, she has had a very busy career with jobs presenting Tomorrows World and Techno Games too as well as CBBC in the early 1990s. In fact, I grew up with watching Philippa on CBBC on weekend mornings! Despite all this, she managed to get a First Class Honours degree in Ecology and Environmental Studies from London University in 1998. Philippa wants to bring her enthusiasm for the natural environment to a range of projects in the Natural History Unit of the BBC.

She enjoys wildlife very much too. Her love of animals has made her want to become vice president of St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital found in the beautiful county of Buckinghamshire. She is now vice president of this organisation and can often be found there helping the animals. Visit their site by clicking here.

There have been other presenters in Robots Wars. These include Julia Reed which took over from Philippa because she was pregnant during the Fourth Wars and first series of Robot Wars Extreme. Jeremy Clarkson also presented Robot Wars but only for the first series.

There have been other presenters for Robot Wars shows made for other countries where someone of that nationality presented the show for that country.