In following years, he worked on Tonight and Panorama, becoming a newsreader for the BBC Six O'Clock News and later a presenter on Breakfast Time and University Challenge.

[10][11] Keith Paxman's father was a worsted spinner, who became sufficiently prosperous as a travelling sales representative to send his son to public school in Bradford.

The Dickson family were wealthier, with Keith's father-in-law, a self-made success, paying the Paxman children's school fees.

[10] The documentary concluded that he was descended from Roger Packsman, a 14th-century politician from Suffolk who had changed his name to Paxman to impress the electorate (pax being Latin for 'peace').

The programme generated much publicity before its transmission by displaying him with tears in his eyes on camera when informed that his impoverished great-grandmother Mary McKay's poor relief had been revoked because she had a child out of wedlock.

In 1998, Denis Halliday, a United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, resigned his post in Iraq, describing the effects of his own organisation's sanctions as genocide.

In February 2003, Paxman was criticised by the Broadcasting Standards Commission over a Newsnight interview in which he questioned the then Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy about his drinking.

[23] In 2003, Prime Minister Tony Blair opted to make the case for the invasion of Iraq via questions from a TV studio audience, mediated by Paxman.

[26][27] He was criticised for his 5 am interview with George Galloway after his election as the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow by the just defeated Oona King.

[30] On 26 June 2012, he interviewed the Economic Secretary to the Treasury Chloe Smith about Chancellor George Osborne's decision that day to delay plans to increase fuel duty.

[32] Senior politicians, including John Prescott, questioned Osborne's judgement for sending a junior minister onto the programme in place of himself.

"[37] In 2013, the BBC received 44 complaints after Paxman's "acerbic" remarks caused a 20-year-old contestant to repeatedly apologise for answering a question wrong.

On 26 March 2015, Paxman co-presented, with Kay Burley, David Cameron and Ed Miliband Live: The Battle for Number 10, in which he interviewed both British Prime Minister David Cameron and Opposition Leader Ed Miliband regarding their track record in politics and their plans if elected Prime Minister in the general election set for May of that year.

[46][47] Paxman's first book, A Higher Form of Killing (1982), written with then BBC colleague and friend Robert Harris, arose out of an edition of the Panorama programme they had made together on biological and chemical warfare.

The Political Animal: An Anatomy (2003), again based on extensive interviews, examines the motivations and methods of those who constitute the author's professional prey: Westminster politicians.

The otherwise-republican[48] Paxman's On Royalty, which entailed the cooperation of Britain's Royal Family, became by the time it was published in 2006 a defence of the country's constitutional monarchy.

In his introduction, Paxman acknowledged that the Irish writer Neil Hegarty had played a significant role in editing the book and bringing it to completion.

Recordings are made in a Notting Hill pub and presenters (Rory Cellan-Jones, Gillian Lacey-Solymar, Mark Mardell, Paul Mayhew-Archer, Sir Nicholas Mostyn and Jeremy Paxman) discuss "the highs and lows, trials and tribulations, of living with the condition".

Speaking of prime minister Tony Blair's criticism of the mass media at the time he left office, Paxman asserted that, though often, press and broadcasting may be "oppositional" in relation to the government of the day, this "could only benefit democracy".

In November 2012, Paxman publicly defended George Entwistle following his resignation as director-general of the BBC in connection with a Newsnight report which falsely implicated Lord McAlpine in the North Wales child abuse scandal.

[76]In June 2014, Paxman, speaking at the Chalke Valley History Festival about his new book, Britain's Great War, said that Newsnight was made by "idealistic 13-year-olds" who "foolishly thought they could change the world".

[78]Paxman became a focus of media attention in October 2000 when a German Enigma machine, which had been stolen from Bletchley Park Museum, was inexplicably sent to him in the post.

[81] In September 2021, whilst promoting his book Black Gold: The History of How Coal Made Britain, Paxman revealed his support for Scottish independence.

"[84] In October 2022 an ITV documentary, Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson's, revealed how the disease has impacted him – the programme showed him attending a ballet class, learning to play bowls, meeting experts and observing a brain dissection.

[40][41] In April 2024 Paxman delivered a petition to 10 Downing Street with recommendations concerning NHS treatment of patients with Parkinson's Disease, which he commented "may not kill you but it will make you wish you hadn't been born.

[87] In the same year, Paxman was the subject of further controversy when he described the work of Scottish poet Robert Burns as "sentimental doggerel" in the introduction of the 2008 edition of Chambers Dictionary.

This statement was criticised in the same segment by the Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Giorgos Papakonstantinou, who told Paxman during an interview that "Can I take issue with your 'bad kebab’ analogy, which I find offensive.

"[89] While appearing on The Graham Norton Show in 2013, Paxman referred to British Prime Minister David Cameron as a "complete idiot" for his role in Britain's First World War centenary commemorations.

[90] In an interview conducted in the same year with Russell Brand, Paxman revealed that he had not voted at a recent election due to finding the available candidates "unappetising", which led to criticism from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

[93][94] In 2017, Paxman's interviews of Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May for the upcoming general election were described by journalist Michael Deacon as "embarrassing".