List of former BBC newsreaders and journalists

The BBC has employed many journalists and newsreaders to present its news programmes as well as to provide news reports and interviews. The following list names individuals who are no longer employed by the BBC in its news division BBC News.

A

• Kate Adie – chief news correspondent for BBC News during which time she became well known for reporting from war zones around the world. She currently presents 'From Our Own Correspondent' on BBC Radio 4.
• Robin Aitken – BBC journalist since 1978. Left in 2005, ending his career on BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme. Aitken published Can We Trust the BBC? (Continuum Press) in February 2007, which asserted the BBC was guilty of an "unconscious, institutionalised Leftism"
• Kay Alexander – main presenter on Midlands Today. She retired in 2012 after nearly 40 years of continuous service.
• Kenneth Allsop – reporter for Tonight in the 1960s
• Marjorie Anderson – leading BBC radio broadcaster on the World War II BBC Forces Programme, and from 1945 on the BBC Light Programme.
• Alice Arnold – newsreader, mainly on BBC Radio 4 from 2004 to 2012
• Michael Aspel – one of the early BBC Television newsreaders, together with Robert Dougall, Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall. He has since hosted This is Your Life and Antiques Roadshow
• Mark Austin – former BBC journalist and Sports Correspondent for BBC News. Now the main co-presenter of ITV Evening News

B

• Richard Baker – first to read the BBC Television News in 1954 (in voiceover). He continued to work as a newsreader until his retirement in 1982. He also presented the BBC's coverage of the Proms, as well as Start The Week and 'Baker's Dozen' on Radio 4
• Joan Bakewell – worked on BBC Radio 4 and Newsnight on BBC Two
• Matt Barbet – presenter on BBC London and previously Radio 1's Newsbeat until he moved to Five News in October 2007
• Sue Beardsmore – presenter of the regional news programme for the Midlands: Midlands Today
• Martin Bell – prolific world affairs correspondent covering many conflicts in 30 years as a reporter until leaving the BBC in 1997 to become a politician
• Jasmine Bligh – one of the first three BBC Television Service presenters in the 1930s
• Claire Bolderson – presented Newshour on BBC World Service and The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4. Left on 20 March 2012
• Jennie Bond – royal correspondent for BBC News for 13 years until 2003
• Louise Botting CBE – presenter of BBC Radio 4 Money Box from 1977 to 1992
• Chris Brasher – athlete, and reporter for Tonight in the 1960s
• Fern Britton – originally worked for Westward Television, before joining the BBC in the early 1980s as a newsreader on News After Noon and Breakfast Time. She later went on to host Ready Steady Cook, This Morning and That's What I Call Television
• Michael Buerk – originally a reporter and later a newsreader; presenter of the Ten O'Clock bulletin from 2000 – 2003
• Roland Buerk – former BBC Tokyo Correspondent, and son of Michael Buerk

C

• Sue Carpenter – relief co–presenter on 'News After Noon' and on Breakfast Time during the 1980s and was also a main presenter on Points West. She later joined ITN.
• Tom Carver – held various posts as foreign correspondent, before becoming Washington D.C. correspondent for eight years. Now works for Control Risks Group
• Jonathan Charles – presented BBC World News, BBC News, and World News Today. He has also presented for BBC World News from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as well as HARDtalk, and BBC World Service programmes. Charles was a world affairs correspondent for the BBC, reporting from many conflict zones, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Chechnya, as well as natural disasters, and the Beslan school siege. During his career as a journalist, Charles was based in several countries including Belgium, France, Germany and the USA. Now works as Director of Communications at the EBRD
• Michael Charlton – reporter and interviewer on Panorama 1962 – 1976. He also appeared on Newsnight and other BBC programmes.
• Christopher Chataway – athlete, and reporter on Panorama from 1956: he was also an ITN newscaster during its early days. He died in 2014.
• Nick Clarke – presenter of The World At One on BBC Radio 4 from 1994 until he died of cancer in 2006. He also worked front of camera on The Money Programme, Newsnight (both BBC2) and The World This Weekend (Radio 4).
• Gordon Clough – former BBC journalist and presenter of BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend, PM, The World at One and Round Britain Quiz, the latter of which he was also the question-setter. Formerly worked for the BBC Russian Service, and spoke fluent Russian
• John Cole – the BBC's political editor between 1981 and 1992. Died 2013
• Stephen Cole – presenter on BBC World and of technology programme Click Online. Now with Al Jazeera English.
• Alistair Cooke – broadcaster, presented Letter from America until October 2004, he died later in the same month.
• Elizabeth Cowell – one of the first three presenters, from when the BBC Television Service started in 1936, and returned after the war in 1946.

D

• James Dagwell – presenter and reporter for the BBC News Channel and BBC World News from 2007 to 2011.
• Nasteh Dahir – foreign correspondent for the BBC in Somalia, murdered in 2008.
• Jill Dando – presenter of BBC News programmes as well as others including Holiday and Crimewatch until her murder in 1999.
• Jason Dasey – Australian sports presenter on BBC World News between 1994 to 1997, including Newsday with Philip Hayton. Would later join CNN International.
• William Davis – economics broadcaster and commentator. One of the original presenters of The Money Programme and BBC Radio 4's The World At One
• Sir Robin Day – political broadcaster and commentator, presenter of Question Time (1979–89). He died in 2000.
• Richard Dimbleby – BBC’s first war correspondent, and then its leading TV news commentator in the 1950s and 1960s, as the presenter of Panorama. He was the main commentator on many significant outside broadcasts, most notably The Queen's Coronation in 1953 and Sir Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965: he died later that year. He was the father of David Dimbleby and Jonathan Dimbleby.
• Robert Dougall – one of the first BBC Television newsreaders along with Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall. Later a presenter of programmes for people in retirement. He died in 1999.
• Komla Dumor – presenter on BBC World News and BBC News Channel until he suddenly died on 18 January 2014. He was the first presenter of Focus on Africa which he presented until the day before his death .

E

• John Edmunds – TV newsreader from September 1968 until September 1973, and then again in October 1974 and between September 1979 and June 1981. He also presented the BBC's regional London TV magazine, Town And Around in 1968/1969
• Gwenan Edwards– presented on the BBC News Channel from 2000 to 2007. Before that she co–anchored BBC Newsroom South East from 1993 to 2000. She presented for BBC World News from 1994 to 1996. She also presented BBC UK Today until it was discontinued.
• Polly Elwes – reporter on the BBC news programme Tonight from 1959 to 1962

F

• Adrian Finighan – presenter on BBC News 24 and BBC World until early 2006 when he left for CNN International. Subsequently he left for Al Jazeera English in 2010
• Sean Fletcher – presenter of Sport News from 2005–2011. Left to join Sky Sports News
• Anna Ford – presenter of the BBC Six O'Clock News from 1989 until 1999 and the One O'Clock News from 1999 until 2006. She had also worked across other BBC News programmes, having been the first female newsreader at ITN. She left the BBC in 2006
• Max Foster – business reporter and presenter on BBC Breakfast until he left for CNN International in 2005
• Matt Frei – former BBC Southern Europe Correspondent, Asia Correspondent and Washington DC Correspondent, and the main presenter of BBC World News America. Is now the Washington Correspondent and occasional co-presenter of Channel 4 News
• Sir David Frost – presented Breakfast with Frost from 1993 to 2005. Later joined Al Jazeera English. Died in 2013

G

• Andrew Gilligan – journalist implicated in the Hutton Report of 2003 following his report on BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme regarding the content of a British government briefing paper. Resigned following publication of the report's findings in the same year. Now with Press TV
• Margaret Gilmore – former BBC Security Correspondent
• Charles Gibson (From ABC News) – presented "ABC World News with Charles Gibson" from 2007 to 2009
• Freddie Grisewood – BBC radio announcer from 1929 up to the 1960s

H

• Stuart Hall – presented regional news programmes for the BBC in North West England in the 1960s and 1970s, while becoming known nationally for presenting It's a Knockout. Jailed on sex abuse charges in 2014
• William Hardcastle – founder presenter of The World at One in 1965.
• Andrew Harvey – presenter of main news programmes including the BBC Six O'Clock News as main and co–presenter (1984–1996) as well as regional news programmes later including BBC Points West and South Today. Left to join ITN.
• Peter Haigh – English in–vision announcer for BBC Television in the early 1950s, before moving to Come Dancing.
• Derek Hart – presenter and interviewer on the BBC news programme Tonight in the 1960s
• Philip Hayton – originally with the BBC's Look North programme in Leeds, later a reporter for the BBC's national news programmes, main and co–presenter of the BBC Six O'Clock News (1987–1994), also presented the One O'Clock News. Presented on BBC World and BBC News 24, resigning from the corporation in 2005 citing "incompatibility" with his new co–presenter Kate Silverton. He had been with the BBC for 37 years.
• Stuart Hibberd – radio newsreader from 1924 and chief announcer up to 1951
• Celina Hinchcliffe – presenter of Sport News from 2002–2012. Left due to relocation of Sport to Salford.
• McDonald Hobley – one of the first BBC Television continuity announcers, appearing from 1946 to 1956.
• Triona Holden – worked as a journalist from age 17 in the Sheffield Star newspaper, eventually becoming their crime reporter.^[1] Her first big story was Peter Sutcliffe, The Yorkshire Ripper.^[2] Joined the BBC in 1982, starting on radio before moving to TV. A news presenter and reporter, she covered the miners' strike of 1984–85, later writing Queen Coal: Women of the Miners, published in 2005, derived from her experiences.^[3] She was the youngest female national news reporter and the youngest person to present the Today Programme on Radio 4; presented the Six O'Clock News on BBC 1; PM on Radio 4; Newsbeat on Radio 1 and World TV News. In 1987 she was the only reporter to broadcasting live from the disaster scene after getting onto the wreckage of the Herald of Free Enterprise when it became semi–submerged off Zeebrugge.^[4] She travelled extensively to war zones, famines, comflicts, and other disasters.^[5] before retiring on medical grounds aged 39 after suffering from Systemic Lupus Erythematosis.^[6] She later reinvented herself as an artist.^[7]

J

• David Jacobs – announcer with the British Forces Broadcasting Service during the war, a BBC staff announcer in the early 1950s, and later the presenter of Juke Box Jury. He died in 2013.
• Geoffrey Johnson-Smith – presenter and interviewer on the BBC news programme Tonight in the 1960s.
• Anna Jones – presented the 9–1pm shift with Phillip Hayton on BBC News 24 from 2003. She had been with the channel since its 1997 launch, originally as a business presenter. She left in 2005, after 12 years, to become a presenter on Sky News.
• Darren Jordon – originally sports correspondent on BBC News 24, he moved within the department to present BBC Breakfast and was later deputy presenter of the BBC One O'Clock News and weekend bulletins. He left in October 2006 to become a presenter on the Al Jazeera English service, based in Doha.
• Gillian Joseph – read the headlines on BBC Breakfast as well as occasionally presenting the main programme. She also worked for BBC London. She left for Sky News in 2005.

K

• Natasha Kaplinsky – presenter on BBC Breakfast from 2002, when she joined from Sky News, until 2005, and then of the BBC Six O'Clock News from 2005 until 2007. While with the BBC she also appeared the One and the Ten O'Clock bulletins, as well as presenting on Children in Need. She left to become the face of Five News in October 2007.
• Lorraine Kelly – started as a reporter for Scottish television. Came to national attention by reporting on the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster in 1988. (Actually Not BBC)
• Kenneth Kendall – first to read the news in front of a camera on BBC Television in 1955. He retired from the BBC in 1981 and subsequently presented Treasure Hunt on Channel 4. He died in 2012.
• Ludovic Kennedy – television journalist and documentary maker. He presented the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Panorama. He died in 2009.
• Tasmin Lucia Khan – presenter of 60 Seconds on BBC Three and E24 on News Channel 2007–2010. Left to join Daybreak on ITV
• Keith Kyle – was a reporter for the BBC's Tonight programme from 1960, specialising in coverage of Africa and was based in Nairobi.

L

• Sue Lawley – presented Nationwide during the 1970s, then the Nine O'Clock News (1983–84) and the Six O'Clock News at its launch in 1984 alongside Nicholas Witchell. She went on to present Desert Island Discs, but has now left the BBC.
• Jan Leeming – BBC newsreader in the 1980s, covering most of the main bulletins. She had previously been a presenter on Pebble Mill At One, Westward Television and HTV News.
• Martyn Lewis – the first presenter of the One O'Clock News in 1986, having previously worked for ITN. He also presented the Six O'Clock (1994–1999) and Nine O'Clock News until 1994. He left BBC News in 1999.
• Alvar Lidell – BBC radio announcer and newsreader, during the Second World War and into the 1950s.
• Chris Lowe – joined the BBC as a graduate journalism trainee in 1972. At one time a presenter of PM (Radio 4), he worked on BBC News channel from 2000 until his retirement on 4 January 2009.
• Sue Lloyd-Roberts – worked as a special correspondent for the BBC, travelling to, and reporting on, major news stories across the world, including important issues not covered widely elsewhere. Died of leukemia on 13 October 2015.

M

• Donald MacCormick – main presenter on Newsnight during the 1980s: he also presented the Money Programme. Later moved to London Weekend Television. He died in 2009
• Liz MacKean – former Newsnight correspondent who presented the earliest reports about the widespread abuse perpetrated by former TV star Jimmy Savile
• Lee McKenzie - Presented inside F1 and was the F1 news correspondent until BBC pulled out of covering the sport on TV in 2015. Now with Channel 4 / BBC Sport
• Mary Marquis – main presenter on Reporting Scotland from its inception until 1988
• Robert McKenzie – Interviewer and presenter, especially of General Election results. He died in 1981
• Mary Malcolm – one of the first two regular female announcers on BBC Television after World War II, and into the 1950s. She died in 2010.
• Bryan Martin – BBC Radio 4 announcer who announced the death of Elvis Presley in 1977, news of the Iranian Embassy Siege in 1980, and became the network's senior newsreader.^[8]
• Glyn Mathias – former Political Editor of both BBC Cymru Wales and ITN
• Laurie Mayer – regular co–presenter on various news programmes in the 1980s, including News After Noon and the Six O'Clock News, as well as BBC Breakfast News. Has also presented South East Today
• Cliff Michelmore – 1950s TV producer who went on to present Tonight, Twenty–Four Hours and other news and current affairs programmes in the 1960s. Later presented the Holiday programme on BBC 1. He died in March 2016.
• Guy Michelmore – main anchor on Newsroom South East during the 1990s. He is the son of Cliff Michelmore
• Rosie Millard – BBC's arts correspondent between 1995 and 2004. She left following a clampdown on freelance writing
• Rajesh Mirchandani – former news presenter on BBC News Channel and relief presenter of BBC World News America on BBC World News channel. Also former Washington, DC Correspondent for BBC News
• Leslie Mitchell – first voice heard on BBC Television at its inception on 2 November 1936. After the war he moved to ITV
• Kylie Morris – BBC's South East Asia correspondent until she moved to Channel 4 News in 2006. She now presents More4 News
• Dermot Murnaghan – main BBC Breakfast presenter from 2002 until 2007, appearing alongside Natasha Kaplinsky and Sian Williams. He joined from ITV and also appeared on the BBC Six O'Clock News and the BBC Ten O'Clock News between 2004 and 2007 before leaving for Sky News
• Christopher Morris – was a newsreader on all national BBC television bulletins. He was main presenter on the day Lord Mountbatten was murdered by the IRA in 1979, recording the biggest–ever audience, 26 million, for a news bulletin as ITN were on strike. He joined the BBC in 1967 as news correspondent in Spain, reported from many countries and many wars as special correspondent until 1989 when he joined Sky News as senior presenter and foreign correspondent for 11 years. He rejoined BBC as News 24 presenter until becoming Managing Director of his own TV production company, OmniVision, at Pinewood Studios in 2000

O

• Robin Oakley – BBC's political editor between 1992 and 2000. He is now the political editor for CNN International.
• Nick Owen – current main anchor on BBC Midlands Today. A co–presenter (with Anne Diamond) of TV–AM in the 1980s, the pair later had their own BBC daytime chat show Good Morning With Anne and Nick (1992–96).

P

• Jeremy Paxman – regular presenter on Newsnight between 1989 and 2014. He continues to present programmes for the BBC including University Challenge. It was announced on 24 September 2014 that he will anchor the UK general election coverage on Channel 4.^[9]
• Sylvia Peters – continuity announcer for BBC Television from 1947 to 1958
• Julian Pettifer – reporter for Tonight in the 1960s
• Wilfred Pickles – occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service during World War II
• Barnaby Phillips – BBC's Southern Africa Correspondent from 2001 – 2006, and had worked for the BBC for 15 years, reporting from locations in several continents. He now works as Europe Correspondent for the Al Jazeera English television network, initially based in its Athens bureau (2006 – 2010), and now based in London
• Martin Popplewell – regular presenter on BBC News 24 between 2002 and 2003. He now works for Sky News
• Gerald Priestland – foreign correspondent and, later, a religious commentator for the BBC

R

• Brian Redhead – co–presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 from 1975 until 1993, shortly before his death.
• Angela Rippon – the first female newsreader of the BBC Nine O'Clock News when she was appointed in 1975. Later joined TV AM and presented many other shows, including Masterteam, What's My Line? and Crufts.
• Fyfe Robertson – reporter for Tonight in the 1960s
• Abdul Samad Rohani – head of the BBC World Service's Pashto service in Helmand Province, Afghanistan; murdered in 2008.
• Jacky Rowland – BBC foreign correspondent in the Balkans and Middle East in the late 1990s. From ~2003 she has been working for Al Jazeera English TV.
• Daniela Ritorto – presented overnight bulletins on BBC World News, BBC News Channel and BBC One. As well as Impact, GMT, Outside Source and World News Today. Now with SBS News.

S

• Kate Sanderson (now Kate Gerbeau) – read the headlines on BBC Breakfast until she moved to Five News in 2005.
• Diane Saywer (From ABC News) – presented ABC World News with Diane Saywer from 2009 to 2014 until she stood down in August 2014
• Valerie Singleton – presenter on the late evening TV programme Tonight from 1975. She was also a regular anchor on both PM and The Money Programme, and had previously spend 10 years as a presenter on Blue Peter.
• Peter Sissons – presenter of the BBC Nine O'Clock News and the BBC Ten O'Clock News between 1993 and 2003, and earlier a newscaster for ITN.
• Mike Smartt – presented Breakfast News as it was then, the One, the Six, the Nine and summaries in the 1980s and 1990s as well as being a correspondent at home and abroad, covering many of the major stories at the time. He was asked to lead the team putting BBC News Online in 1997 and served as Editor–in–Chief of BBC News Interactive until 2004 when he left the Corporation. Smartt now lectures and writes on journalism and new media.
• John Snagge – radio newsreader and commentator from the 1920s to the 1960s.
• Peter Snow – first-ever presenter of Newsnight, which he continued to present during the 1980s, and has been involved as an election analyst and co–presenter in the live General Election results programmes at the BBC from 1983 – 2005. He is the father of the historian Dan Snow.
• Julia Somerville – former BBC journalist, Labour Affairs Correspondent and newsreader, who frequently presented the BBC Nine O'Clock News during the 1980s
• Michael Stewart – reporter for BBC radio News 1980-84 and stand-in presenter for Today Programme 1982-84 alongside John Timpson and Brian Redhead and also the PM programme with Valerie Singleton. He moved to BBC television news in 1984, initially reporting for the revamped BBC Breakfast Time. He was a general news reporter until 1990, most notably covering the fall of Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu in December 1989.
• Moira Stuart – presented many of the main bulletins, including the Six O'Clock News and the Nine O'Clock News, during a long career. She was dropped from her weekend slot by the BBC in 2007, leading to accusations of ageism. Joined BBC Radio 2 in 2010, on which she had been a newsreader before her move into television.

T

• Asha Tanna – news correspondent. She left to become a weekend presenter for Five News in 2007.
• Debbie Thrower – relief newsreader on the One O'Clock and Nine O'Clock News during the late 1980s. She has also presented Breakfast Time, Songs of Praise, South Today and ITV's Meridian Tonight.
• John Tidmarsh – television newsreader and foreign correspondent.
• John Timpson – presenter on Newsroom, the main BBC2 news programme, from its 1964 launch until 1970, when he joined BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
• Alan Towers – main anchor on BBC Midlands Today during the 1980s, eventually retiring from the BBC in 1997. He had previously worked as a reporter on Nationwide and had covered the 'skateboarding duck' story. He died from cancer in 2008, aged 73.
• Deepak Tripathi – South Asia correspondent reporting from Afghanistan, India and elsewhere.
• Mark Tully – India correspondent until 1994.
• Denis Tuohy – presenter on the late evening TV programme Tonight from 1975
• John Tusa –main presenter of BBC 2's Newsnight programme from 1980 to 1986. He also presented the One O'Clock News during the 1990s.

V

• Chris Vacher – main anchor on the BBC's Points West from 1983 until his retirement in 2011. He currently holds the record as the longest–serving presenter on any British local news programme.
• Wynford Vaughan-Thomas – war correspondent at Anzio, and later a commentator at the Coronation and similar events. He died in 1987.

W

• David Walter – former BBC radio and television journalist, programme producer and Paris Correspondent for BBC News - he had also worked for ITN. He died in 2012.
• Charles Wheeler – veteran foreign correspondent and a presenter on Newsnight and Panorama. He joined the BBC in 1947 and became the Corporation's longest-serving foreign correspondent, continuing in the role until his death in 2008
• Huw Wheldon – BBC broadcaster and executive in the 1950s and 1960s. He produced and presented programmes, notably the arts magazine Monitor. He died in 1986
• Alan Whicker – Army war reporter in Italy. After joining the BBC in 1957, he became an international reporter for Tonight. From 1958 on, he presented Whicker's World. He died in 2013
• Richard Whitmore – co–presenter of the BBC Nine O'Clock News with Peter Woods between 1973 and 1981, was the main presenter on News After Noon (1981–1986) and remained with BBC News until 1998
• Brian Widlake – worked for the BBC in the 1970s and 1980s. Best known for co-presenting the Money Programme with Valerie Singleton
• Peter Woods – co–presenter of the BBC Nine O'Clock News with Richard Whitmore between 1973 and 1981. He also presented the main BBC2 programme Newsroom from 1964 until 1973. He died from cancer in 1995

References

1. http://www.trionaworks.com/65849/another–life
2. http://www.courier.co.uk/war–zones–art–galleries/story–15532830–detail/story.html
4. http://www.trionaworks.com/65849/another–life
5. http://www.canterburytimes.co.uk/war–zones–art–galleries/story–15532830–detail/story.html
6. How a terrifying brush with death turned staid BBC war reporter Triona Holden into a flame haired rebel
7. Artist Triona Holden relives war and disaster http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk–england–kent–22131541
8. 22 Mar 2009 (2009-03-22). "Bryan Martin". Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-08-15.
9. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/24/jeremy–paxman–channel–4–general–election–newsnight–bbc

See also

• List of BBC newsreaders and reporters