Julia Michele Bradbury[1] (born 24 July 1970)[2] is an English television presenter, employed by the BBC and ITV, specialising in documentaries and consumer affairs.
Bradbury attended acting classes, and took part as a child in the Crucible Theatre's stage production of Peter Pan, starring Joanne Whalley and Paula Wilcox.
[6] Alongside Tim Vine, Bradbury was the first presenter on Channel 5 when the network launched on 30 March 1997 with a countdown from the Spice Girls.
Bradbury and co-host Arkin Salih hosted the BBC's Are We Being Served?, which examined customer service in the UK and ran for six programmes in the summer of 2006.
[6][7] The show later received strong criticism from comedian Lee Mack when he named it as "the most evil programme ever made" during his appearance on TV Heaven, Telly Hell.
Bradbury was joined by young consumers to uncover the animal origins of many of western society's favourite things as body parts were transformed from abattoir to shop display.
[11] From 2 March 2009, Bradbury temporarily stepped down from BBC One's Watchdog following allegations in the press concerning irregularities in her Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer account.
[14] It was incorrectly reported in several newspapers at the time that Bradbury had to repay £20,000 worth of Air Miles – in fact her account (and several others) had been tampered with by an employee who was later arrested and charged.
[17][18] In August 2007, Bradbury presented Ultimate Britain – Climbing on BBC One,[19] with rock climber Tim Emmett.
Bradbury's lifetime ambition to be a "real" rock climber was achieved when the pair successfully ascended Cornwall's Commando Ridge, Crackstone Rib in the Llanberis Pass, and the Old Man of Stoer.
Her challenge was to walk the 60 kilometres of Iceland's most famous hiking route, which includes the newest hills on Earth.
This route ends at Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano whose copious eruptions of volcanic ash brought air traffic across Europe to a standstill in April 2010.
She presented with Hugh Dennis a four-part BBC One documentary series The Great British Countryside, which began in February 2012.
She has co-presented (with Richard Hammond) a programme about the wildlife of different countries called Planet Earth Live in 2012, which has aired on BBC One.
On 3 March 2014, it was announced that Bradbury would be leaving Countryfile and the BBC completely later in the year before joining ITV full-time after doing odd jobs for them in the past.
Later that year, she travelled from Kazakhstan to Mongolia with Countryfile co-star Matt Baker in BBC's Around the World in 80 Days in aid of Children in Need.