Nicki Chapman

blue line

Nicki Chapman is an accomplished TV presenter and broadcaster. She is the face of the nation’s favourite Escape To The Country and it’s two spin-offs, I Escape To The Country and more recently Celebrity Escape To The Country for BBC1. She has become a mainstay of the BBC presenting team, having been a central figure during the RHS Chelsea Flower Show since 2006. As of January 2025, Nicki joined the Magic Radio presenting team and hosts the iconic Mellow Magic every Monday to Thursday.

In the summer of 2024, Nicki’s memoir, So Tell Me What You Want, published by Little, Brown and Hachette, became an Amazon Number 1 Bestseller and was praised for lifting the lid on her fascinating career in the nineties and noughties music scene where she was one of the most influential music publicists overseeing the career of music giants such as The Spice Girls, Prince, Take That, Amy Winehouse and David Bowie to name a few.

Nicki often sat in at BBC Radio 2 for Zoe Ball’s Breakfast Show, Michael Ball’s Sunday Love Songs and Romesh Ranganathan’s Saturday Show as well as presenting three documentaries for the station: The Fuller Picture (an in-depth interview with Simon Fuller), Here We Come – The Monkees at 50 and Let’s Abba Party.

Highlights of Nicki’s career range from being chosen to take part in BBC1’s Sport Relief showjumping programming Only Fools On Horses (eventually coming second), partnering with Christopher Biggins on Let’s Dance For Comic Relief and reuniting with her ex-Pop Idol judges Pete Waterman and Neil Fox to show her comedic side on Peter Kay’s Britain’s Got The Pop Factor. She was also the host of the long running BBC One hit Wanted Down Under as well as it’s follow-up show Wanted Down Under Revisited. In 2024, Nicki hosted the first series of Midsomer Murders Mayhem, the official podcast dedicated to the beloved and best-selling crime drama series.

Delving back into her music roots, Nicki has produced and presented Channel 5’s The Shocking Truth about Talent Shows and The Great Garden Challenge. Her other documentary presenting credits include Operation People Power, Britain’s Home Truths and Holding Back The Years, all for the BBC. She also created and presented the hit podcast Talking Success, where she interviewed some of the biggest names in the media and the arts.

In addition to her television and radio duties, Nicki is a much sought after event host and speaker, having previously hosted at The First Time Buyer Awards, The European Diversity Awards, Malvern Autumn Show and BBC Gardeners’ World Live.

After growing up in Kent plus a stint travelling around Australia, Nicki started her career in the music industry by joining MCA Records as a Promotions Assistant at the age of 20. She quickly progressed, becoming one of the youngest and most successful publicists in the music sector. Three years later, she moved to RCA Records as Head of TV Promotions where she formed a long-time association with Simon Cowell.

From 1995 to 2000, she was a joint partner in the Brilliant! PR Company which launched and/or represented artists including The Spice Girls, Annie Lennox, Charlotte Church, Take That, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Billie Piper, David Bowie, Van Morrison, S Club 7 and Amy Winehouse, as well as providing the PR for the BRIT Awards, various West End Shows and Channel 4’s hit series The Big Breakfast.

It was during this time Nicki was approached by ITV to appear as a judge on the then brand new entertainment show Popstars which proved an instant hit, with winning group Hear’say going on to sell over a million copies of their first single.

Having met with Simon Fuller in the nineties, Nicki joined his management company 19 Entertainment in January 2001 as Creative Director, working with artists and personalities such as David and Victoria Beckham, Will Young and Carrie Underwood.

Nicki continued her TV career on the new ITV/19 Entertainment show Pop Idol alongside fellow judges Pete Waterman and Neil Fox, reuniting with Simon Cowell for a show that regularly had over 10 million viewers per episode and changed the face of Saturday night entertainment.

Nicki is a proud Ambassador for British Dressage and a keen and active supporter of Teenage Cancer Trust, Childline and Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy.  After successful brain surgery in 2019, Nicki is now a passionate Ambassador for The Brain Tumour Charity.

Gallery