ALEX JONES: Ammanford star leads The One Show’s 20th birthday party

Ammanford’s Alex Jones will lead the celebrations as The One Show turns 20 this month, fronting a week of special programmes on BBC One.

The presenter, born and raised in the Carmarthenshire town, has sat on the programme’s famous green sofa for 16 of its 20 years. Nobody has presented it for longer, and the week builds to an extended anniversary special, One Big Night to Remember, on Friday 14 August, 20 years to the day since the first episode aired.

For Jones, the milestone has brought her back to her childhood. Her pick of two decades of highlights was this year’s 500 Words children’s writing final at Windsor Castle.

“We were in Windsor Castle, which is absolutely gorgeous, with Her Majesty The Queen and we had Paddington singing,” she said. “I had an out of body feeling because I thought it really doesn’t get any better than this.”

Then came the reflection. “When I was a little girl growing up in South Wales, I thought I’d like to be a presenter but I was too scared to say anything because nobody in South Wales became broadcasters, especially not on national television. I really thought about that little girl that day and thought I can’t believe that this is what I do for a job.”

She remembers her first show “like it was last week”, she said in the BBC‘s anniversary interviews. “In many ways it feels like I’ve been here a matter of months, not 16 years, because time flies. Mum and Dad came along and they were nervous thinking, ‘don’t mess this up, is she ready for this?'”

Her first celebrity guest was Whoopi Goldberg. “She was very sweet. I had never met a film star before so meeting her was incredible. It felt like home, it felt like second nature in a way.”

The road to that sofa ran through west Wales. A Welsh speaker, Jones studied theatre, film and television at Aberystwyth University. She then spent a decade on S4C before being named as Christine Bleakley’s replacement in August 2010, when she was little known outside Wales and declared herself “absolutely thrilled to bits”.

Sixteen years on, she says she is not one for being starstruck, with exceptions. “It’s been people like Dolly Parton that make me go ‘wow’. I just absolutely love Dolly and admire her so much. She’s as nice as you’d want her to be too.”

Childhood bedroom walls came into it too. Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan were pinned up there when they married on Neighbours, and Sir Elton John’s posters hung alongside. “Having him on the show was a dream. I invited Mum and Dad along the day Sir Elton was on too.”

Asked for a dream guest now, she admitted the list was running short. “It’s a really hard question because we’ve probably had those people that I loved as a child on already. Superficially, Jacob Elordi! It would also be amazing to have TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales on the show. I think that would be phenomenal. Our viewers would love that.”

She has earned her own place in the programme’s highlight reel along the way. The BBC’s 20 moments include her foxtrot through Buckingham Palace with Matt Baker while Gary Barlow played piano in 2012, her three-day climb of Utah’s Moonlight Buttress for Sport Relief in 2014, and sailing 1,000 miles around the UK coast for the Hell on High Seas challenge in 2016.

Her colleagues are not shy about her either. “I love Alex, I think she’s top dollar,” said co-presenter Vernon Kay, while Roman Kemp called her “one of the best this country has”.

Kemp and Jones will lead the anniversary week from the studio, the BBC said, with familiar faces live across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland revisiting the programme’s most memorable stories. Live moments will range from the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Ireland to the partial solar eclipse due to sweep across the UK during the week.

The green sofa’s guest list over 20 years runs from Meryl Streep, Taylor Swift, Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks to Adolescence star Owen Cooper, who was given his first live television interview on the show, complete with acting advice from fellow guest Robert De Niro.

The programme’s fundraising for BBC Children in Need has raised £57,209,871.14 over the two decades, by the BBC’s count, while its One Big Thank You films have sprung surprises on community heroes across the country.

Jones said the thing she is proudest of is simple. “I’m most proud of the fact that I’m still here because to have a job that you not only love but you’re really proud to do is rare over the stretch of time that I’ve been here. It makes me a bit emotional because I’m so proud of the show.”

Jones last made headlines away from the sofa when she announced the birth of her third child in 2021. The One Show airs weeknights at 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer, with the anniversary celebrations running through the week to the Friday special.