Whitty and Van-Tam: Dancer, football fan, knights

In 2019, Prof Chris Whitty - now Sir Chris - appeared in just two BBC News online stories.

One was about doctors in England prescribing fewer antibiotics; the other was a preview of the week in Parliament.

In the same year, his colleague Prof Jonathan Van-Tam appeared in just one BBC story, about England's biggest ever flu vaccination campaign.

But that was a lifetime ago - or at least, a pandemic ago - when medical advisers were unseen and unknown, with barely a Wikipedia page between them (by the end of 2019, Prof Whitty's entry was just 248 words; Prof Van-Tam's didn't exist).

Since then, both men have appeared in hundreds of BBC stories - Whitty 599, Van-Tam 238 - and have public profiles, and name recognition, that would have seemed far-fetched less than two years ago.

Without the pandemic, both men may still have earned knighthoods. But it's certain they wouldn't have their faces on a mug twinset on eBay: Prof Van-Tam's emblazoned with "JV Tea"; Whitty's with his apparent catchphrase: "Next slide please".

Prof Whitty, it's fair to assume, stepped onto the stage reluctantly. He is a private person: when, in 2020, colleagues were asked what his interests were, one scratched his head and replied: "There was some talk of him enjoying Scottish dancing."

He was born in Gloucester in 1966, and spent much of his childhood in Europe and Africa, as his parents were teachers and then British Council workers.

He was educated in England, including at Malvern College in Worcestershire. One of his tutors there, Roy Allen, told BBC Radio 4's Profile programme the young Chris was "reserved, scholarly, sensitive, intelligent, very likeable".

In 1984, just before his A-Levels, his father Kenneth - by then a diplomat - was killed by militants in Athens. Chris learned the news at Malvern; Mr Allen said the murder made his former pupil even more determined.

"I think he feels, probably privately, he is fulfilling the ambitions and hopes of his father and mother," he said. "It was a family with a very strong sense that...you live for a purpose, not just for yourself."

After studying at Oxford - former BBC correspondent Danny Shaw, who studied with him, remembered him as "down to earth, dry sense of humour, 20 going on 40" - he became a doctor in Africa and Asia.

In 2004, he worked in malaria research in Tanzania, where he had a small boat at the yacht club in Tanga, according to then colleague Prof Chris Drakeley.

Prof Drakeley, speaking to Profile, also confirmed the interest in dancing. "He does enjoy it - I have seen it with my own eyes," he remembered. "And I have heard from people who have danced with him that he is very good."

But away from the yacht club, and the occasional Scottish jig, it seems Prof Whitty's preferred pastime is study - the more, the better.

"Chris is a polymath - he's really extraordinary," said Prof David Mabey, a former colleague. "He's very interested in history. Since I've known him he's done a diploma in economics, a degree in law, and an MBA [a graduate business degree] in his spare time."

Prof Whitty became chief medical officer for England in 2019 - just months before the pandemic arrived in the UK - and the spotlight has not always been welcome.

Last summer, two men were arrested after accosting him in London. One was given a suspended sentence; the other man's case is ongoing. The convicted man, Lewis Hughes, told the court he stopped Prof Whitty because he wanted "a selfie for his mum".

In a way, it was quite telling: in a pandemic, a chief medical officer veers close to celebrity status. At the time of writing, there are 132 Chris Whitty mugs on eBay, and his Wikipedia entry is more than 1,500 words long.

Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, it's fair to say, seems a more natural public figure. In a recent Royal Institution lecture, he began by ripping off his tie in a puff of smoke, before pointing at the camera and declaring: "Tonight, we're going viral!"

It's hard to imagine Prof Whitty doing the same.

Compared to his boss, Prof Van-Tam has been happy to share some of his background. He lives near Boston, Lincolnshire, with his wife and two teenage sons (an older daughter has moved out) and is an avid Boston United fan.

He was born to a British mother and French-Vietnamese father - both were teachers - and his paternal grandfather was prime minister of South Vietnam in the 1950s when it was a French protectorate.

"I guess it's quite South East Asian, but I've always been struck by the fact that the next generation are more important than we are," he told the Times in a recent interview.

Prof Van-Tam is not, in fact, the only deputy chief medical officer - there are three others in England - but his turn of phrase has turned him into a key public-facing figure.

"I love metaphors," he told the BBC a year ago. "I think they bring complex stories to life for people."

True to his word, in November he was asked on the BBC about the pandemic in the UK. "It's half time in extra time," he said. "I think the final whistle...I can't predict it, but we've got a few months to run, and we'll be in calmer waters by spring."

Like Prof Whitty, he has earned a down-to-earth popularity among many of the millions who've watched his news conferences. The Times called him an "unlikely cult hero"; earlier in the year, he was even tipped to appear on Strictly Come Dancing.

Although he batted away the rumours - "It would be rather like watching Jumbo on ice" - it's hard to imagine him, or Prof Whitty, returning to one or two stories a year any time soon.