Andy Zaltzman: “Find Something You Love”

“It’s an extraordinary privilege to be able to do something that you love,” reflects Andy Zaltzman.

 

As someone who developed a lifelong obsession with cricket at the tender age of six and is now a statistician on the BBC’s Test Match Special, it’s evident that he definitely practices what he preaches.

 

“I came into this by luck and circumstance really,” he admits, ahead of his address at LWC’s Speech Day this weekend.

 

Alongside the cricket work, Zaltzman is a hugely successful stand-up comedian, broadcaster and author. He chairs BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, hosts satirical podcast, The Bugle and has a plethora of radio series under his belt, including My Life as a… and Andy Zaltzman’s History of the Third Millennium. For those who enjoy Channel 4’s Taskmaster, he’ll be no stranger – having won series 18, which aired late last year.

 

When we meet, he has just completed the biggest stand-up tour of his career with Zaltgeist; his assessment of the state of planet Earth and the human race. He is looking forward to a summer of ‘cricketing bits’…something of a recurring theme.

 

“If I could tell my 18-year-old self anything,” he muses, “it would be to find a working life that you’re passionate about. School is the place where you’re able to try a variety of different things and discover what it is that you most enjoy.”

 

Andy’s educational journey began at a prep school in Kent, before attending Tonbridge School and then University College, Oxford to study Classics.

 

When asked about his own recollections of speech days gone by, a mischievous grin develops. “I remember them being quite dry affairs,” he reveals. “There were copies of leather-bound Dickens novels handed out, but I don’t ever remember there being guest speakers.” He meanders into the time that former World’s Strongest Man, Geoff Capes visited his prep school and caused quite a stir in doing so.

 

This weekend, Andy Zaltzman will address the LWC community at Speech Day 2025 – a celebration of an extraordinary academic year at the College and an opportunity to send our Upper Sixth Form leavers into a world full of opportunity.

 

“I’m really looking forward to coming to LWC,” Andy admits. “Private education has obviously changed a lot in the three and a half decades since I was in it. It’s really important for young people to not only discover what they’re passionate about, but to keep open that sense of possibility and flexibility.”

 

Andy’s advice is well-placed. A recent LinkedIn report suggested that those entering the employment market today will hold twice as many jobs during their working life as was the case 15 years ago. For those listening to Andy’s words at Speech Day, a much more varied future will almost inevitably beckon, compared to those who have gone before them.

 

Variety is familiar territory for Andy himself. One minute performing to sell-out audiences, the next delivering England wicketkeeper, Jamie Smith his pads during a tour of Pakistan (it really happened last October). The 1200 is next on the list…