Katie Breathwick

Breathwick was educated at Stoneygate School, Loughborough High School and Uppingham School where she met her husband, Robert Thorogood, the creator of BBC One’s Death in Paradise. As a teenager, she was a chorister at Leicester Cathedral. In 2018 she revealed she once worked as a shop assistant at WHSmith.^[1]

Breathwick read Social and Political Sciences at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she was also a member of the Cambridge Footlights. She toured twice nationally with Footlights, once in Some Wood and a Pie (1993) alongside Thorogood, Mark Evans, Georgie Bevan, Dan Mazer and William Sutcliffe, and The Barracuda Jazz Option (1994) with Robert Webb, Dan Mazer, James Bachman and Liz Hurran.^[2] In her final year at Cambridge she co-presented a spoof radio show on the student radio station 'for a laugh' and discovered what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.^{[citation needed]}

Breathwick began her broadcasting career in 1997 as a reporter at Radio 106 in Nottingham, a brand new independent regional station covering three counties. From there, she moved to local TV reporting and producing at Central News. In 1999 she joined News Direct 97.3, a rolling news radio station owned by ITN and based at Grays Inn Road in London. She has also hosted talk shows on LBC, both as sole host and as co-presenter with Nick Abbot, Richard Mackney, Mark Dolan and a former contestant on The Apprentice, Tre Azam.^[3] In 2005 Breathwick co-presented LBC News 1152 election coverage with veteran Sky News presenter Bob Friend (newscaster).^[4]

In 2008 Breathwick moved to Classic FM as the breakfast newsreader, alongside long-running host Simon Bates. In 2015 she became the host of the overnight show at weekends on Classic FM, becoming the market-share leader for that slot in 2018.^[5][6]

Breathwick hosts Q&As every summer at Garsington Opera held on Mark Getty's estate in Buckinghamshire, Wormsley Park.^[7]

Breathwick is married to Robert Thorogood,^[8] the creator of BBC One’s Death In Paradise, whom she met at school. They have two children.^{[citation needed]} Breathwick and her husband co-own their own production company, Brunswick Street Limited.

In 2015, Breathwick stood as a candidate for the Green Party of England and Wales in the local council elections, securing 7% of the vote. ^[9] In 2024, Breathwick and Thorogood made a political donation through their production company Brunswick Street to Labour Party MP and Treasury minister Emma Reynolds,^[10] an ally of Rachel Reeves on the right of the party.