HARDtalk
Hardtalk is a BBC television and radio programme broadcast on the BBC News Channel, on BBC World News, on BBC World Service. Broadcast times and days vary, depending on your geographic location. HARDtalk is available on BBC iPlayer. HARDtalk provides "in-depth interviews with hard-hitting questions and sensitive topics being covered as famous personalities from all walks of life talk about the highs and lows in their lives." HARDtalk is predominantly presented by "world famous interviewer" Stephen Sackur. Other "renowned presenters," include Sarah Montague. Tim Sebastian was at the presenting helm when the programme launched in March 1997. HARDtalk Extra—a series of "interviews with people from the arts and culture," predominantly presented by Gavin Esler. Interviewees include: Brenda Blethyn, Robin Gibb, Debbie Harry, Marie Helvin, Grayson Perry, Ian Rankin, Kristin Scott Thomas, Patrick Swayze. HARDtalk Extra Time—a spin-off of "in-depth interviews with the stars and power brokers in the world of sport."
Among those interviewed by Rob Bonnet, include: Nicola Adams, Roger Bannister, Jonah Lomu, David Rudisha, Murray Walker
BBC News at Six
The BBC News at Six is the evening news programme bulletin from the BBC. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel on weekdays at 6:00pm. For a long period the News at Six was the most watched news programme in the UK but since 2006 it has been over taken by the BBC News at Ten. On average it is watched by four million viewers. George Alagiah is the programme's main presenter, presenting Mondays to Thursdays, with Fiona Bruce presenting on Fridays. Other BBC News presenters including Sophie Raworth, Reeta Chakrabarti, Clive Myrie and Jane Hill present the programme. In late 2007 the length of the programme was shortened from 30 minutes to 28 minutes to allow for a news summary being shown on BBC One at 7:58pm. On 8 May 2017, SBS in Australia began airing BBC News at Six during their English-language news programming segment, it is broadcast at 7:00am everyday on delay from Britain. The programme launched on 3 September 1984, replacing early evening news magazine Sixty Minutes and was presented by Sue Lawley and Nicholas Witchell.
Both presenters have since moved on to other positions within BBC News and the BBC itself. Jeremy Paxman, who went on to present Newsnight in 1989, was relief newsreader from 10 September.. Andrew Harvey, Philip Hayton, Frances Coverdale were regular relief presenters in the early years. In 1988, the Six O'Clock News studio was famously invaded during a live broadcast by a female group protesting against Britain's Section 28. Witchell famously grappled with the protesters and is said to have sat on one woman, provoking the memorable front-page headline in the Daily Mirror, "Beeb man sits on lesbian". Lawley left the Six O'Clock news that year, followed by Witchell a year although he would return as a relief presenter intermittently until 1999. From 1989, the programme was presented by two of Peter Sissons, Anna Ford, Andrew Harvey and Moira Stuart, with other BBC journalists such as Witchell, Jill Dando and Chris Lowe occasionally presenting. In 13 April 1993, the bulletin was relaunched with a more coherent look, adopted across all BBC newscasts on the same day.
A year Sissons departed to present the Nine O'Clock News, swapping positions with Martyn Lewis. From 1994-1999 the programme was presented by Lewis as lead presenter of the programme on Monday and Friday, with Ford taking on the lead role on Wednesday and Thursday, although both would cover each others absences. Stuart was co-presenter on Monday and Tuesday, Harvey on Wednesday and Dando on Friday. Other BBC journalists, in particular Jennie Bond covered in the absence of co-presenters, with future lead presenters Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce making occasional appearances. Senior journalists, including Witchell and John Humphrys would present as lead anchor when both Lewis and Ford were unavailable. On 10 May 1999, the bulletin was relaunched again, along with the rest of the BBC News programme and the new presenter was Huw Edwards with Fiona Bruce as the deputy presenter. During Bruce's maternity leave in 2001, Sian Williams, Special correspondent for the programme at this time, covered as deputy presenter.
Both Edwards and Bruce left the Six O'Clock News on 19 January 2003 to front the Ten O'Clock News. On 20 January 2003, as George Alagiah and Sophie Raworth took over, the bulletin was relaunched along with the rest of BBC One's news bulletins. During Raworth's first maternity leave in 2004, Sian Williams stood in for her for over the six months. However, during Raworth's second maternity leave at the end of 2005, Natasha Kaplinsky stood in as a temporary measure; as part of a presenter reshuffle in April 2006, Kaplinsky was confirmed as the new full-time presenter. Sophie Raworth was named as the main presenter of the BBC News at One. Raworth is now a regular presenter on the News at Six and BBC News at Ten, covering for main presenters during their absences. Since April 2005, the programme has formed the first half-hour of the Six O'Clock Newshour on the BBC News Channel; the subsequent half-hour consists of business and sport updates presented from within the News channel studio by one of the News Channel presenters.
As before, the bulletin still completes at 6:30pm before splitting off to regional news programmes on BBC One. On 5 October 2007 it was announced that Natasha Kaplinsky was leaving the BBC to replace Kirsty Young on Five News, taking up her new role on 18 February 2008 presenting two half-hour evening bulletins, she left at the end of the Six O'Clock News on the same day. For a while Sian Williams filled in as co-presenter, but on 3 December 2007, the programme went single-headed, with George Alagiah as main presenter, Sian Williams as deputy presenter. A few months into the new arrangement Fiona Bruce took over from Sian as the main Friday presenter. On 28 January 2008, the programme moved studios, from N6 to TC7, as part of a restructuring across BBC News. On 21 April 2008 the programmes, along with the rest of BBC News, underwent a refresh, taking on new titles and a new set. On 17 March 2013, the BBC News at Six bulletin presented by Sophie Raworth was the final programme to be broadcast from TC7 in BBC Television Centre, after BBC Breakfast and Newsnight vacated the studio in 2012.
The studio will be demolished in 2013 as part of the redevelopment of the site. On 18 March 2013, the programme moved to Broadcasting House, along with the BBC News channel and the other BBC One bulletins, began broadcasting in high-definition. Alagiah was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2014, took leave from presenting duties. Raworth and Bruce were the main cover presenters during this time, which saw regular appearances from Reeta
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the third most senior ministerial position in HM Treasury, after the First Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was created in 1961, to share the burden of representing the Treasury with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Between 1961 and 2015 the holder of the post of Chief Secretary to the Treasury was automatically a member of the Cabinet making the Treasury the only Department to have two ministers automatically serving in the Cabinet. Since 2015, the status of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has been reduced to an "also attending Cabinet" role; the position's responsibilities include negotiating with departments about budget allocations, public sector pay, procurement policy. Secretary to the Treasury Financial Secretary to the Treasury Economic Secretary to the Treasury Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Paymaster General
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007. Brown was a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 2015, first for Dunfermline East and for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. A doctoral graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Brown spent his early career working as both a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist, he entered Parliament in 1983 as the MP for Dunfermline East. He joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1989 as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade, was promoted to become Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1992. After Labour's victory in 1997, he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, becoming the longest-serving holder of that office in modern history. Brown's time as Chancellor was marked by major reform of Britain's monetary and fiscal policy architecture, transferring interest rate setting powers to the Bank of England, by a wide extension of the powers of the Treasury to cover much domestic policy and by transferring responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority.
Controversial moves included the abolition of advance corporation tax relief in his first budget, the removal in his final budget of the 10% "starting rate" of personal income tax which he had introduced in 1999. In 2007, Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister and Labour Leader and Brown was chosen to replace him in an uncontested election. After initial rises in opinion polls following Brown becoming Prime Minister, Labour's popularity declined with the onset of a recession in 2008, leading to poor results in the local and European elections in 2009. A year Labour lost 91 seats in the House of Commons at the 2010 general election, the party's biggest loss of seats in a single general election since 1931, making the Conservatives the largest party in a hung parliament. Brown remained in office as Labour negotiated to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. On 10 May 2010, Brown announced he would stand down as leader of the Labour Party, instructed the party to put into motion the processes to elect a new leader.
Labour's attempts to retain power failed and on 11 May, he resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by David Cameron, as Leader of the Labour Party by Ed Miliband. Brown played a prominent role in the campaign surrounding the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, galvanising support behind maintaining the union. Brown was born at the Orchard Maternity Nursing Home in Giffnock, Scotland, his father was John Ebenezer Brown, a minister of the Church of Scotland and a strong influence on Brown. His mother was Jessie Elizabeth "Bunty" Brown, she was the daughter of a timber merchant. The family moved to Kirkcaldy – the largest town in Fife, across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh – when Gordon was three. Brown was brought up there with younger brother Andrew Brown in a manse. Brown was educated first at Kirkcaldy West Primary School where he was selected for an experimental fast stream education programme, which took him two years early to Kirkcaldy High School for an academic hothouse education taught in separate classes.
At age sixteen he wrote that he resented this "ludicrous" experiment on young lives. He was accepted by the University of Edinburgh to study history at the same early age of sixteen. During an end-of-term rugby union match at his old school, he received a kick to the head and suffered a retinal detachment; this left him blind in his left eye, despite treatment including several operations and weeks spent lying in a darkened room. At Edinburgh, while playing tennis, he noticed the same symptoms in his right eye. Brown underwent experimental surgery at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and his right eye was saved by a young eye surgeon, Hector Chawla. Brown graduated from Edinburgh with a First-Class Honours MA degree in history in 1972, stayed on to obtain his PhD in history, titled The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918–29. In his youth at the University of Edinburgh, Brown was involved in a romantic relationship with Margarita, Crown Princess of Romania. Margarita said about it: "It was a solid and romantic story.
I never stopped loving him but one day it didn't seem right any more, it was politics, politics, I needed nurturing." An unnamed friend of those years is quoted by Paul Routledge in his biography of Brown as recalling: "She was sweet and gentle and cut out to make somebody a good wife. She was bright, though not like him, but they seemed made for each other."In 1972, while still a student, Brown was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh, the convener of the University Court. He served as Rector until 1975, edited the document The Red Paper on Scotland. From 1976 to 1980 Brown was employed as a lecturer in politics at Glasgow College of Technology, he worked as a tutor for the Open University. In the 1979 general election, Brown stood for the Edinburgh South constituency, losing to the Conservative candidate, Michael Ancram. From 1980, he worked as a journalist at Scottish Television serving as current affairs editor until his election to Parliament in 1983. Brown was elected to Parliament on his second attempt as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East in the 1983 general election.
His first Westminster office mate was a newly elected MP from the Sedgefield constituency, Tony Blair. Brown became an opposition spokesman on Trade and Industry in 1985. In
Emily Maitlis
Emily Maitlis is a British journalist, documentary-maker and newsreader for the BBC. She presents BBC Two's news and current affairs programme Newsnight and covers elections for the BBC in UK, US and Europe. In January 2014, she became acting political editor of Newsnight when she temporarily replaced Allegra Stratton who took maternity leave until that year. Maitlis was born to British parents in Canada but raised in Sheffield, where she was educated at the King Edward VII School. A Cambridge University graduate who studied at Queens' College, she speaks fluent Spanish and French, as well as some Mandarin. Prior to working in news, she was a documentary maker in China, she was based in Hong Kong. She spent six years with NBC Asia as a business reporter creating documentaries, as a presenter in Hong Kong covering the collapse of the tiger economies in 1997, she covered the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong with Jon Snow for Channel 4. She moved to Sky News in the UK as a business correspondent, to BBC London News when the programme was relaunched in 2001.
During 2005, Maitlis appeared as the question-master on the game show The National Lottery: Come And Have A Go. She has presented BBC Breakfast, from May 2006 until July 2007, she presented STORYFix on BBC News, a light-hearted look at the week's news set to up-beat music. In July 2007, Maitlis was appointed as a contributing editor to The Spectator magazine, an unpaid post; this had been approved by her immediate boss, the head of BBC Television News Peter Horrocks, but the decision was subsequently overturned by his superior, the BBC News director Helen Boaden. In 2012, Maitlis presented the US 2012 programme on BBC One and the BBC News Channel alongside David Dimbleby, when US President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were fighting to the presidency for the US. In 2016, she began presenting a news discussion programme called This Week's World on BBC Two late afternoon on Saturdays. Maitlis is one of the main presenters of Newsnight on BBC Two, alongside Kirsty Wark, she presents relief shifts on the BBC News channel, including the BBC News at Five, may present the BBC News at One, broadcast on BBC One.
Maitlis was a regular presenter on BBC News during 2006, joining as part of a new line-up in April to present alongside Ben Brown from 7 pm to 10 pm during the week, but was replaced by Joanna Gosling when she went on maternity leave. On Maitlis' return, she began presenting Mondays 2 pm–5 pm alongside Jon Sopel until 2013, Simon McCoy on Mondays. From a Jewish family, Emily Maitlis is the daughter of Professor Peter Maitlis, FRS, Emeritus Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, Marion Maitlis, she is married to Mark Gwynne, an investment manager, whom she has referred to as "my Catholic boy". They have two children. During 2002, it was reported that Maitlis had been stalked for over a decade by a former platonic university friend, Edward Vines; the man would appear at her place of work. He admitted harassing Maitlis and was sentenced to four months' imprisonment, but he was released because of the time he had spent on remand, although a restraining order was imposed.
In September 2016, the same man was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for breach of a restraining order in respect of Maitlis. In January 2018, Vines was jailed for 3 years and 9 months for breaching a restraining order forbidding him to contact Maitlis, he admitted two charges of breaching the restraining order by sending two letters to Maitlis and emails and letters to her mother in 2015. BBC News Emily Maitlis on IMDb BBC Press Office – Biography Emily Maitlis at Debrett's People of Today Guardian article, March 2006 "Emily Maitlis". Presenters. Independent Talent Group. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007
BBC One
BBC One is the first and principal television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution, it was renamed BBC TV in 1960, using this name until the launch of the second BBC channel BBC2 in 1964, whereupon the BBC TV channel became known as BBC1, with the current spelling adopted in 1997. The channel's annual budget for 2012–13 was £1.14 billion. The channel is funded by the television licence fee together with the BBC's other domestic television stations, shows uninterrupted programming without commercial advertising, it is the most watched television channel in the United Kingdom, ahead of its traditional rival for ratings leadership, ITV. As of June 2013 the channel controller for BBC One was Charlotte Moore, who succeeded Danny Cohen as an Acting Controller from May 2013; the BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932.
The BBC Television Service began regular broadcasts on 2 November 1936 from a converted wing of the Alexandra Palace in London. On 1 September 1939, two days before Britain declared war on Germany, the station was taken off air with little warning, with one of the last programmes to be shown before the suspension of the service being a Mickey Mouse cartoon. BBC Television returned on 7 June 1946 at 15:00. Jasmine Bligh, one of the original announcers, made the first announcement, saying, "Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?". The Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939 was repeated twenty minutes later; the BBC held a statutory monopoly on television broadcasting in the United Kingdom until the first Independent Television station began to broadcast on 22 September 1955, when ITV started broadcasting. The competition forced the channel to change its identity and priorities following a large reduction in its audience; the 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, that ITV lacked any serious programming.
It therefore decided that Britain's third television station should be awarded to the BBC. The station, renamed BBC TV in 1960, became BBC1 when BBC2 was launched on 20 April 1964 transmitting an incompatible 625-line image on UHF; the only way to receive all channels was to use a complex "dual-standard" 405- and 625-line, VHF and UHF, with both a VHF and a UHF aerial. Old 405-line-only sets became obsolete in 1985, when transmission in the standard ended, although standards converters have become available for enthusiasts who collect and restore such TVs. BBC1 was based at the purpose-built BBC Television Centre at White City, London between 1960 and 2013. Television News continued to use Alexandra Palace as its base—by early 1968 it had converted one of its studios to colour—before moving to new purpose-built facilities at Television Centre on 20 September 1969. In the weeks leading up to 15 November 1969, BBC1 unofficially transmitted the occasional programme in its new colour system, to test it.
At midnight on 15 November with ITV and two years after BBC2, BBC1 began 625-line PAL colour programming on UHF with a broadcast of a concert by Petula Clark. Colour transmissions could be received on monochrome 625-line sets until the end of analogue broadcasting. In terms of audience share, the most successful period for BBC1 was under Bryan Cowgill between 1973 and 1977, when the channel achieved an average audience share of 45%; this period is still regarded by many as a golden age of the BBC's output, with the BBC achieving a high standard across its entire range of series, plays, light entertainment and documentaries. On 30 December 1980, the BBC announced their intention to introduce a new breakfast television service to compete with TV-am; the BBC stated it would start broadcasting before TV-am, but made clear their hands were tied until November 1981 when the new licence fee income became available, to help finance extending broadcast hours, with the hope of starting in 1982. On 17 January 1983, the first edition of Breakfast Time was shown on BBC1, becoming the first UK wide breakfast television service and continued to lead in the ratings until 1984.
In 1984, Bill Cotton become managing director of Television at the BBC, set about overhauling BBC1, slated for poor home grown shows, its heavy reliance on US imports, with Dallas and The Thorn Birds being BBC1's highest rated programmes and ratings being over 20% behind ITV. Cotton recruited Michael Grade to become Controller of BBC1, the first time the Corporation had recruited someone outside of the BBC, replacing Alan Hart, criticised for his lack of knowledge in general entertainment, as he was head of BBC Sport prior to 1981; the first major overhaul was to axe the unpopular Sixty Minutes current affairs programme: this was a replacement for the news and magazine show Nationwide. Its replacement was the BBC Six O'Clock News, a straight new programme in a bid to shore up its failing early evening slot, it was believed the BBC were planning to cut short the evening news and move more light entertainment programming in from the 18:20 slot, but this was dismissed. The Miss Great Britain contest was dropped, being described as verging on the too offensive after the January 1985 contest, with Worlds Strongest Man and International Superstar being axed.
BBC1 was relaunched on 18 February 1985 with a new look, new programming including Wogan, EastEnders and a revised schedule to help streamline and maintain viewers thr
BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast is a British Breakfast television programme on BBC One and BBC News channels. The simulcast is presented live from the BBC Television Centre before moving to MediaCityUK in 2012; the programme contains a mixture of news, weather and feature items and is broadcast 365 days a year. Breakfast Time was the first BBC breakfast programme, with Ron Neil as producer, it was conceived in response to the plans of the commercial television company TV-am to introduce a breakfast television show. Breakfast Time's first broadcast was on 17 January 1983 and was presented by Frank Bough, Selina Scott, Nick Ross and Russell Grant; the atmosphere of the set was intended to encourage a relaxed informality. Breakfast Time lasted 150 minutes being transmitted between 6.30 am and 9 am—moving to a 6.50 am to 9.20 am slot on 18 February 1985. A bomb detonated at 2:54 a.m. on 12 October 1984 in the Grand Hotel, with the purpose to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet, who were staying at the hotel for the Conservative Party conference meant that Nick Ross presented Breakfast Time on his own, as live coverage came in from Brighton.
Ron Neil, the programme's first editor, departed from the programme and on 10 November 1986 a more conventional news focus was introduced featuring a news desk, presenters in smart dress and a time-reduced programme broadcast that began at 7 am and ended any time between 8.30 am and 8.55 am. Presenters included John Stapleton, Jeremy Paxman and Sally Magnusson. On 2 October 1989, the programme was renamed BBC Breakfast News, followed a more authoritative tone with a set modelled on the conventional desk style found with main news bulletins, started at 6.30 am. The programme had been planned to start in September but was postponed due to the set not being ready; the first episode was presented by Jill Dando. In January 1993, both programmes moved to the 6th floor N2 studio in a set used for the One and Nine o'clock news. Again composer, George Fenton reworked the theme tune for the Silicon Graphics CGI, where for title sequences were designed in-house by the BBC, with the set built by Television Production Design Ltd, the business news coverage extended to an hour-long programme in its own right, beginning at 6:00 am.
Breakfast News started at 7:00 am. A further revamp occurred in June 1997 when BBC was dropped from the logo and opening sequence becoming just Breakfast News. On 2 October 2000 the merging of the separate breakfast programmes of BBC One and BBC News 24 into one single simulcast called BBC Breakfast started, with the first show hosted by Sophie Raworth and Jeremy Bowen; the studio was replaced with a new set in 2003. Since April 2006, the BBC News channel has screened rolling news coverage from 8.30 am while Breakfast continues on BBC One until 9.15 am. In April 2008, BBC News 24 was renamed "BBC News", as part of a £550,000 rebranding of the BBC's news output, complete with a new studio and presentation. On 2 May 2006, Breakfast moved into studio N6 at Television Centre with other BBC One news programmes that required a larger set design that included walls of Barco video screens; the original screen scenes of cirrus clouds on a blue sky were changed as a result of viewer comments that'it looked too cold'—their replacement was with orange squares of the same design as those appearing in the programme's new title sequence, which were designed to hide any joins or faults between the screens, obvious.
The screens displayed visuals needed for story content: different backgrounds and still photographs. More the set had a generic visual style that could be used for other programmes, such as the national news bulletins, without much additional physical change; the programme celebrated its 20th anniversary on 17 January 2003. On 28 January 2008, Breakfast returned to the TC7 studios, where Breakfast Time had been based following its move from the BBC Lime Grove Studios. On 2 March 2009, Breakfast relaunched with a new studio background; the backdrop resembled that of the BBC News channel. In May 2009 as part of costcutting the live broadcasts of the business news from the London Stock Exchange were dropped. In July 2010, the BBC announced; the BBC announced that with the April 2012 move to Salford, co-presenter Sian Williams and sports presenter Chris Hollins preferred not be included in the move to the North of England. Williams left Breakfast on 15 March 2012. On 12 December 2011, the first of several presenter changes was announced.
Louise Minchin would, with the studio move to Salford, join the other main presenters of BBC Breakfast: Bill Turnbull, Susanna Reid and Charlie Stayt. Carol Kirkwood, on 26 March 2012, would remain in London presenting weather. Sports presenters Mike Bushell and Sally Nugent and business presenter Steph McGovern would locate to Salford; the first Breakfast edition from Salford occurred on Tuesday 10 April 2012. London-based newspapers have reported extensive criticism of the BBC move, but a decrease in audience has not occurred with the retention of an approximate average of 1.5 million viewers. The 2012 Summer Olympics prompted BBC Breakfast to temporarily broadcast from an interim studio near the Olympic Park in Stratford. During the games, former presenters Sian Williams and Chris Hollins returned to lead the morning programme, in addition to Bill Turnbull and BBC Sport presenter Hazel Irvine; the show ended its temporary London return with broadcasting from the BBC News Channel's studio on the morning f
