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Revision as of 21:33, 31 August 2007
Moira Stuart OBE (born 2 September 1952) is a British journalist who was the first Afro-Caribbean female newsreader on British television. She has presented many television news, and radio programmes for the BBC. At present she has no regular news slot, although Moira still works for the BBC. The reason she no longer presents the news on Sunday AM is as yet unknown.[1] She lives in west London. However she is of Scottish desent.
Early life and career
Moira Stuart was born in the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London on 2 September 1949 [2] to Afro-Caribbean parents.[3] Her mother, Marjorie Gordon (born 1921), and her father, Harold Stuart (1914–66), divorced when she was ten months old. Talking about her ancestry, Stuart says she is from a "long line of outsiders" and that she considers herself "a true mongrel — and proud of it".[3]
Stuart began working with the BBC in the 1970s. She was a continuity announcer and newsreader for both BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 2, and in 1980, she played Darong in Series 1 of game show The Adventure Game. She moved to television in 1981.[4]
TV news career
Since 27 August 1981, Stuart has presented almost every news bulletin devised on BBC television. The Ten O'Clock News is the only one of the channel's news programmes that she has not yet fronted. She has also appeared on The News Quiz and presented the news on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme each Sunday, continuing to present its successor programme Sunday AM with Andrew Marr.
Until a change in the format of BBC Breakfast she presented the first half-hour of the programme, three days a week, followed by short half-hourly round-ups throughout the rest of the three-hour-long show. BBC Breakfast moved to a new studio with a new look on 2 May 2006, and the entire news content is now presented by the two main presenters. Until comparatively recently Moira retained her slot on BBC's Sunday AM show.[5] She continued to present some weekend television bulletins on BBC One. She also worked on other long-form programmes for other BBC channels, including BBC Four.
On 27 March 2007, BBC News announced that Stuart would no longer be presenting the bulletins for Sunday AM. This meant she no longer had a regular slot on broadcast TV [1]. The BBC declined to comment on why she was no longer being used, although rumours circulated within the BBC and commercial newsrooms that Ms Stuart was taken from all future bulletins because she was considered now "too old", at 57, although Anna Ford continued anchoring the BBC One O'Clock News until her retirement at 62. Ms Stuart is still on the BBC's payroll, however.
Other projects
A keen music lover, Stuart has deputised for Humphrey Lyttelton on his BBC Radio 2 Best of Jazz programme, participated in the British Jazz Awards as compere, and featured as a narrator on a jazz-rap album by Soweto Kinch.
With Adam Shaw, she also presents the BBC Two personal finance series Cashing In.
Stuart has served on various boards and judging panels including Amnesty International, The Royal Television Society, United Nations Association, the London Fair Play Consortium and the Human Genetics Advisory Commission.
In 2004, Stuart took part in the BBC documentary, Who Do You Think You Are? which helped trace back her family history. In it, she travelled up to the Scottish Highlands, as well as to Antigua and to Dominica, where her great-grandfather George James Christian was born. During the programme, Stuart discovered the story of how her grandfather, Edgar Fitzgerald Gordon, met his wife Clara Christian while both were studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh. While her grandfather completed his degree and qualified in 1918, Stuart's grandmother did not finish her studies, using money intended to pay for her course to pay their bills instead. Stuart claims ancestral links to Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Trinidad & Great Britain. [6]. In the programme, Stuart also discovered her family's past links to slavery.[3]
In 2006, Stuart played a hyper-realised version of herself in the Ricky Gervais comedy Extras, supposedly involved in supplying drugs to Ronnie Corbett.
In March 2007 she also presented the documentary In Search of Wilberforce for BBC Television, examining the role of anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the British bill that banned the slave trade.
On June 2, 2007, she hosted the BBC One topical news quiz show, Have I Got News for You,[7] and was very well received by the public. The extended and uncut version of which (shown the following evening, June 3, 2007), revealed that, while making a spoof appeal for work, she fluffed her lines on a number of occasions but took it all with her traditional good humour.
Personal life
She is unmarried, though she has said that on two occasions she almost got married. Desmond Lynam has said that she has been a girlfriend of his.[8]
She has also received other advances, one memorably by John Humphrys at the end of the Six O'Clock News. "You're the most sensationally sexy lady I know. The best thing we can do for the next few hours is to make mad passionate love in the basement." This was caught by the sub-titles although the microphone was off.[8] Her interests include music, film and travel.
Awards and achievements
- 1988 voted "Best Newscaster of the Year" (1988) by the TV and Radio Industries Club Awards
- 1989 voted "Best Television Personality" by the Women of Achievement Awards
- 1994 named "Best Female Television Personality" by the Black Journalists' Association
- 1997 named "Best Media Personality" by The Voice newspaper
- 2001 awarded as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to broadcasting in the Queen's Birthday Honours[9]
- 2006 received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh[10], the University where her grandparents met.[8]
References
- ^ Moira Stuart loses BBC News slot, BBC News Online, 27 March 2007, (accessed 27 March 2007)
- ^ The Times 6 June 2007. "The age of Moira". Retrieved 2007-06-08.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Team (2004). "Who Do You Think You Are? - Moira Stuart" (html). Retrieved 2007-06-03.
- ^ Every Generation (2004). "100 Great Black Britons - Moira Stuart" (HTML). Retrieved 2006-10-22.
- ^ BBC Breakfast: Goodbye Moira, 26 April 2006, (accessed 5 November 2006
- ^ Edinburgh Evening News. "Degree of emotion for newsreader Moira". Retrieved 2006-10-22.
- ^ Daily Mail 1 June 2007. "Moira Stuart is adamant: I'm not revealing my age". Retrieved 2007-06-03.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c Scotland on Sunday 1 April 2007. "Head girl with a subversive streak Profile: Moira Stuart". Retrieved 2007-04-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ BBC News (2001). "Jackie Stewart roars to knighthood" (HTML). Retrieved 2006-10-22.
- ^ The University of Edinburgh Web Team (2006). "Graduation Ceremonials 2006" (HTML). University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 2006-06-21.
See also
External links
- Moira Stuart at IMDb
- Biography from 100 Great Black Britons (100 Great Black Britons) (it should be noted that this source misspells Stuart's surname as Stewart)
- BBC biography (BBC)
- Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC)
- tv.com biography (tv.com)
- OBE in Queen's Birthday Honours 2001 (BBC)
- Moira receives Doctorate (Scotsman)
- University of Edinburgh (www.ed.ac.uk)
- Edinburgh Graduations 2006 (www.cpa.ed.ac.uk)
- Images of Moira
- Article on disappearance from TV (The Guardian)
- Mark, Moira & the MPs (The Independent)
- ITV wants Moira (The Guardian)