Eddie Mair
Eddie Mair (born 12 November 1965) is a British BBC radio and television presenter. He presents BBC Radio 4's daily news magazine PM also the Radio 4 Saturday only iPM and the BBC's NewsPod, is an occasional presenter of Newsnight, the stand-in presenter for Any Questions replacing the late Nick Clarke, and was the original host of the BBC Two programme Time Commanders.
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[edit] Early life
Eddie Mair was born in Dundee, Scotland.[1] His father was a lorry driver and his mother was a nurse. His amateur broadcasting career is reported to have started by using the tannoy in the school playground.[2] His professional career began after rejecting a university place in order to present on Radio Tay, a local Dundee station.[2]
[edit] Broadcasting career
He joined the BBC in 1987 as a sub-editor for Radio Scotland.[1] He moved on to present Good Morning Scotland and Reporting Scotland, then Eddie Mair Live in the drive-time slot for Radio Scotland.[2] In 1993 he hosted Breakaway, the weekly 'travel and leisure' programme on BBC Radio 4. He then joined Radio Five Live when it began in 1994 presenting the Midday with Mair news show.[3] From 1996 to 2000 he presented the BBC/PRI programme The World.[4]
Mair was the host of the light-hearted weekly current affairs programme Broadcasting House when it was launched in April 1998, until 2003 when he took over PM and the programme was handed to Fi Glover. On both programmes Mair developed his trademark style of mixing serious journalism with witty and satirical commentary; after reading out the weather forecast he would invariably encourage listeners "do wrap up" whether the forecast was cold or warm.[5]
Mair has also presented Newsnight on BBC Two[6] and The 7 O'Clock News on BBC Three.[1]
[edit] Awards
In 2005 Mair won the News Journalist award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.[7] He has also won a Sony Award for Speech Broadcaster of the Year,[1] Best Breakfast Show[3] and was nominated for two Sony awards for Midday with Mair on 5 Live.[1] He was listed as the 5th most powerful person in British radio in a 2005 poll in the Radio Times,[8] and 56th most influential LGBT person in The Independent on Sunday's Pink List 2011.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Biography - Eddie Mair BBC Press Office, September 2008
- ^ a b c Fast Eddie, Sunday Herald, 7 May 2000 - Interview/profile
- ^ a b Eddie Mair, presenter of Broadcasting House and the PM programme BBC News, 18 May 2000
- ^ "The World - where are they now?"[dead link] retrieved 1 April 2006
- ^ Nick Clarke, "Up the injunction" (Nick Clarke's diary), The Guardian, 12 November 2003, p. 20
- ^ Radio 4 People - Eddie Mair BBC Radio 4
- ^ Indie DJ wins hat-trick at Sony awards The Guardian, 10 May 2005
- ^ Ross 'is radio's most powerful' BBC News, 6 June 2005; Accessed 10 July 2007
- ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/the-ios-pink-list-2011-2374595.html
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Eddie Mair |
- PM Radio 4 at BBC Online
- The PM Blog BBC Blogs
- iPM BBC iPM
- Eddie Mair's diary The Guardian, 12 June 2002
