Stephen Cole

This article is about the television presenter. For the writer see Stephen Cole (writer). For the game designer see Stephen V. Cole

Stephen Cole (born 29 March 1956 in Hereford) is a presenter for Al Jazeera English. Previously, he worked for the BBC.

Broadcasting career

He was a former presenter of the BBC World programme Click Online from 2000–2005 and a regular newsreader on BBC World. During the strike action by BBC technical staff and journalists on the 23 May 2005, he was the stand-in presenter of BBC News coverage including presenting the Six O'Clock News and Ten O'Clock News bulletins on BBC One and BBC News 24. The bulletins surprisingly drew in more viewers than usual and led him to become known in the industry as the "Peter Pan of television". He is now the owner of his own firm, Cole Productions.

He had previously worked for Anglia Television's About Anglia, ITN and Sky News. He started as an anchor with BSkyB in 1989, moving to CNN in Atlanta, Georgia.

On 2 December 2005, he announced that he would be joining the Al Jazeera English news network.

Cole's main interests outside of the work space are rugby, tennis and films.

He is married to Anne-Marie Cole, a BBC Radio 4 producer, who works for Above the Title Productions and Testbed Productions, and they have three sons named Dominic Sumner, Daniel and Richard.

External links

• Al Jazeera Profile (Contains other presenter profiles)
• BBC News 24 Profile
• May 2005 Article on strike - Daily Mail
• Cole's announcement on his movement from the BBC to Al-Jazeera (Guardian Unlimited, requires registration)
• 23 May 2005 at the TV Room
• Sky News in 1989