Adam Fleming presents Newscast, the UK’s most-listened to daily podcast, and its spin-off TV show on BBC One on Thursday nights. He also hosts Radio 4’s weekly deep dive into the culture wars, AntiSocial.

He made a radio documentary series about the rise and fall of Boris Johnson. He presents the Radio 4 series Brexit: A Guide for the Perplexed and regularly stands in for Evan Davis on PM.

He recently published his first book 50 Democracy Ideas You Really Need to Know with Quercus, an imprint of Hachette.

Previously he was the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent, bringing news from Westminster to millions of listeners, viewers and readers every morning. He broke scoop after scoop about the Brexit negotiations as Brussels Correspondent, when he also created the hit podcast Brexitcast. He reported for the BBC’s Daily Politics programme. His first job was presenting Newsround on CBBC.

Adam studied Geography at Hertford College, Oxford and Broadcast Journalism at City University.

He won Celebrity Mastermind with the James Bond films of Roger Moore as his specialist subject and reached the final of the graduate edition of University Challenge.

Amol Rajan is a Radio 4 Today programme presenter, host of University Challenge and presenter of the acclaimed Amol Rajan Interviews series

Amol was the youngest Editor of a broadsheet newspaper in Britain and the first from an ethnic minority in more than a century when he was appointed by The Independent at the age of 29.

Career

He got his first break into television as the mic boy at The Wright Stuff on Channel 5 before researching and then helping to present the programme during its 2006-7 series. 

Amol joined The Independent in the summer of 2007 going on to fill a variety of roles as news reporter, sports correspondent, columnist and comment editor. He also wrote a column in the Evening Standard and was restaurant critic for The Independent on Sunday. 

In 2013 he was appointed Editor of The Independent and stayed on as Editor-at-Large as the paper transformed from a printed paper to a digital only product.

In 2016 Amol joined the BBC as it’s first ever Media Editor leading its journalism on media and technology globally. He has also regularly provided holiday cover for presenters on Radio 2, presented the Media Show on Radio 4 and been an occasional presenter on BBC One’s The One Show. 

He has also presented The Imperial Inversion of Cricket, Archive on 4: Rivers of Blood and The Decline of the West as well as appearing on, among others,  Question Time, Masterchef, Great British Menu, Newsnight, The Daily Politics, The Andrew Marr Show and Celebrity Mastermind where he finished second with his specialist subject Shane Warne.

In 2021 he presented a 2-part TV documentary, and a 10-part podcast, on Britain's Royal Family. He has also conducted many interviews, some of which featured in his television show Amol Rajan Interviews.

Books

Amol’s 2011 book Twirlymen: The Unlikely History of Cricket’s Greatest Spin Bowlers tells the story of the cerebral artists who mystify batsmen to conjure wickets out of thin air.

Based on his hit podcast, Rethink was published in 2021. Edited and introduced by Amol, the book has contributions from major international figures examining how public and private life can be improved post-pandemic.  

Personal Life

Amol is the co-founder of KEY Sessions, a charity for inner city teenagers in London. He is a huge fan of reggae and cricket, he plays for the Authors XI as a batting all-rounder.

Amol lives in London with his wife and three children. 

Andrew Castle presents LBC’s breakfast show at the weekends. His 30 year plus long broadcasting career has taken him from war zones to the sofa of morning television. When presenting GMTV he interviewed politicians, actors, authors, rock stars and sportspeople. He tried to lift the glitter ball back in series 7 of Strictly and made it through to week 7. He has presented for a range of networks across News and Sports including Sky, ITV and the BBC.

Tennis has remained a constant love in his professional life. He has represented GB in the Davis Cup and the Olympics. Having joined the BBC’s coverage of Wimbledon in 2003 he has been honoured to lead the corporations coverage of every Men’s Singles Final since. That includes all 8 of Federer’s victories as well as Sir Andy Murray’s 2 historic wins.

He is married with 2 daughters and lives in Surrey.

Andrew is available for hosting, speaking and corporate tennis clinics.

Andrew Marr is one of the most familiar reporters, journalists, presenters and interviewers in the United Kingdom. Until December 2021 he was the host of weekly BBC programme The Andrew Marr Show, and Radio 4’s Start the Week.

Andrew has edited a national newspaper, led the BBC’s political coverage and presented documentaries about political, economic and cultural history. He is also a prolific author, writing books to accompany his TV documentaries, delving into painting and drawing, and penning political thrillers.

He now presents his own programmes on radio station LBC as well as a podcast for station owners Global.

Career

Andrew began his journalistic career in print as a trainee and junior business reporter for The Scotsman. In 1984 he moved to London as first Parliamentary and then Political Correspondent before joining The Independent for its 1986 launch.

After a short first spell with The Independent, Andrew joined The Economist contributing to its weekly political column before becoming its Political Editor in 1986.

In 1992 Andrew returned to The Independent as Political Editor and became the paper’s Editor in 1996.

From 1998 Andrew wrote columns for the Daily Express and The Observer and began his BBC career presenting a three-part series The Day Britain Died in early 2000.

In May 2000 Andrew was appointed BBC Political Editor, a role he held until after the 2005 general election after which he began presenting the BBC’s flagship Sunday morning political programme Sunday AM subsequently renamed The Andrew Marr Show.

In addition to his Sunday duties Andrew has presented a number of documentary series for the BBC including A History of Modern Britain, The Making of Modern Britain, History of the World, The Diamond Queen and Scotland and the Battle for Britain. He also presented Radio 4’s Start the Week from 2002.

Andrew has also appeared as himself in episodes of Dr Who and The Bodyguard.

In 2022 Andrew became Political Editor for the New Statesman.

Since 2022 Andrew has presented his own show on LBC – Tonight with Andrew Marr and in January 2023 started to present his own show on Classic FM.

Books

First published in 1992 The Battle for Scotland provides the historical backdrop to his homeland’s sense of identity and political will. Updated in 2013 shortly before the Scottish independence referendum.

The Day Britain Died was published in 2000 to coincide with Andrew’s BBC series of the same name examining British identity and its future.

In My trade: A Short History of British Journalism Andrew gives an inside account of how newsrooms and the people who staff them work. Published in 2004.

A History of Modern Britain charts the battle between idealisms and the triumph of consumerism and celebrity in 21st century Britain. Published in 2007.

The Making of Modern Britain: From Queen Victoria to VE Day, published in 2009 examines the turbulent times from the death of the Empress of India to the conclusion of the Second World War.

A History of the World, published in 2012 is Andrew’s global journey through human history.

The Diamond Queen: Elizabeth II and Her People, first published in 2011, chronicles Her Majesty’s pivotal role as Head of State for six decades. Andrew revised and updated the book in 2022 to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee under the title The Diamond Queen: The Last Great Monarch?

A Short Book About Drawing (2013) and A Short Book About Painting (2017) reveal Andrew’s delight in his creative endeavours.

In 2014 Andrew had his first novel published, Head of State is a political thriller set against the backdrop of a finely balanced referendum on Europe. 

Children of the Master, published in 2015 deals in intrigue and betrayal at the Palace of Westminster in a novel rather than a news report.

We British: The Poetry of a People combines famous and little known poetry to build a picture of who the British are and who they have been. Published in 2015.

Elizabethans: A history of How Modern Britain Was Forged examines how the country has changed in the age of the second Elizabeth and the personalities who helped shape our culture. Published in 2020.

Awards

What the Papers Say Awards and British Press Awards Columnist of the Year in 1995.

Journalist Award at the 2001 Chanell 4 Political Awards.

Broadcasting Press Guild Award Best Performer (Non-Acting) 2002 and 2003.

BAFTA Richard Dimbleby Award 2004.

2008 BAFTA Best Specialist Factual Documentary and Royal Television Society Award Best Presenter for Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain.

Andrew was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Staffordshire University in 2009.  

Scotland and the Battle for Britain presented by Andrew won the 2017 Royal Television Society Scotland Current Affairs Award.

Personal Life

Andrew lives in north London with his wife. They have three children.

Anne Keothavong is a former professional tennis player and Olympian who was five times British number one and, in 2009, became the first Briton in 16 years to break into the Women’s Tennis Association’s top 50.

Since retiring from playing competitively Anne now captains Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup team, formerly the Fed Cup team, which she led into the World Group II for the first time in 26 years.

Career

Anne first started playing tennis aged 7 at Hackney Downs and Highbury Fields. She played her first match on the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) Junior Circuit five years later.

Anne played her first professional match at age 14 and moved steadily up the rankings before entering her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2001.

Over the course of her 15-year playing career Anne won 20 ITF singles titles and eight doubles titles. She competed in all four Grand Slams, reaching the third round of the US Open in 2009.

In 2001 Anne became the then youngest player to represent Great Britain in the Fed Cup. In total she played 39 times for the team, the joint second highest number of appearances behind Virginia Wade. Anne represented Great Britain in both singles and doubles at the 2012 London Olympic games.

Following her playing retirement Anne has pursued a career in broadcasting as a tennis commentator and analyst for BT Sport, BBC, ITV, Amazon Prime Video Sports and Fox Sports Asia. 

Since 2017 Anne has captained the Great Britain team in the Fed Cup and Bllie Jean King Cup winning all four ties in her first year and leading the team to promotion to World Group II.

Awards
Anne was appointed MBE in 2021 for services to tennis.

Personal Life

Anne was born in Hackney, to where her parents had fled from war torn Laos in the 1970’s. Anne lives with her husband and their two children.  

Beth Rigby is Sky News’ Political Editor and also presents a talk show on Thursday nights on Sky News called Beth Rigby Interviews. The first woman to ever hold the position, she is a leading face of the channel covering political news not just from the heart of Westminster but around the country. 

Described in the Royal Television Society magazine as the “stand out political broadcaster of our times”, since joining Sky News in 2016 Beth has covered the Brexit referendum, two general elections, the bitter Brexit wars and the Covid pandemic. 

Career 

Beth was a print journalist for two nearly decades, both as a financial and political reporter. She joined the Financial Times as a trainee journalist in 1998 and went on to become one of the newspaper’s youngest ever team leaders when she was appointed Consumer Industries Editor in 2007. 

Beth spent over a decade as a financial journalist, covering hedge funds, the City, financial services, retailers and global consumer goods giants, winning industry awards for her coverage of the retail sector and hedge funds. 

In 2010 Beth moved onto the newspaper’s Westminster team as Chief Political Correspondent before being promoted to Deputy Political Editor in 2012. It was during these years that Beth covered the fall-out of the financial crash, the Scottish independence referendum, the first coalition government since the second world war and the 2015 general election.

In addition to the day job, Beth was a regular panellist on BBC One’s Sunday Politics Show, appeared on the Andrew Marr Show and was a newspaper reviewer for the BBC News Channel. 

She has also appeared on the Daily Politics, Have I got News for You, Channel 4 News and Good Morning Britain. 

On radio, Beth was regular presenter for Radio 4’s What the Papers Say and also anchored Week in Westminster. She also appeared on the Today programme, Broadcasting House, the Media Show and Women’s Hour and been a guest on the Scott Mills & Chris Stark Radio 5 live Saturday morning show.
 
In late 2015 Beth joined The Times as Media Editor for 9 months before being appointed Senior Political Correspondent by Sky News.

In 2018 Beth was promoted to Deputy Political Editor and has been the station’s Political Editor since April 2019.

Personal Life

Beth lives in North London with her husband and two children.

Catherine Hunt has built a deep understanding of effective communications through a long career in print, radio and television. She has led live coverage of breaking news stories, reported for national newspapers and the BBC and written a psychological thriller. 

After many years at the BBC, Catherine now runs CHC Media advising clients on how best to tell their own stories.

Career

Catherine began her journalistic career working in local newspapers before moving to the Press Association and then the Daily Mail, 

In her many years at the BBC Catherine edited the main TV news shows in particular the Six O’Clock News. She also edited live coverage of many major news events at home and abroad.

Catherine also worked as a producer on various current affairs and business programmes as well as reporting for national TV and radio.

As a media consultant, Catherine works with a wide range of private and public sector clients advising on the best ways to communicate effectively and how to present key messages clearly.

Books

Catherine’s psychological thriller Someone out there sees a successful divorce lawyer’s life unravel as she fears someone is trying to harm her. The novel is set in Brighton drawing on Catherine’s knowledge of the town from her time working on its local paper The Evening Argus.

Chris Mason is the BBC's Political Editor, reporting on events at Westminster on radio, TV, podcast and online. Chris has spent two decades at the BBC honing his ability to deliver often complex stories in a digestible and entertaining fashion. 
 
During Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations in 2018 he told BBC Breakfast viewers ‘Is the Prime Minister going to get a deal with the EU? Dunno! Is she going to be able to get it through the Commons? Don't know about that, either. I think you might as well get Mr Blobby back on to offer his analysis, because, frankly, I suspect his is now as good as mine.’

Career

Chris started his career as a trainee broadcast journalist at ITN in 2001 before moving to BBC Newcastle a year later. By 2004 Chris was delivering his first Westminster report from the BBC regional desk.

Two years as Europe Correspondent for BBC News took Chris away from Westminster but he returned for a short stint as a political reporter on BBC Radio 5 Live before becoming a BBC News Political Correspondent in 2012. Since then, he’s been seen or heard on the full range of BBC news bulletins and political programming.

In 2017 Chris began presenting the podcast Brexitcast alongside Adam Fleming, they were later joined by Laura Kuenssberg and Katya Adler. Following the UK’s departure from the EU the podcast was renamed Newscast and also had a four-month run as a daily podcast, The Coronavirus Newscast, as the country experienced its first pandemic lockdown.

In 2019 Chris was appointed chair of the BBC Radio four programme Any Questions succeeding Jonathan Dimbleby who’d held the role for 32 years.

In 2022 Chris was promoted to BBC Political Editor taking up the role following the May local elections.

Chris has also appeared on Celebrity Mastermind where his specialist subject was the Yorkshire Dales, he finished second.

Personal Life

Chris lives in southeast London with his wife and two children.

Dharshini David is a highly experienced broadcaster and economist who covers financial news for the BBC. In July 2023 she was appointed chief economics correspondent for BBC News.  

She has worked as an economist for the UK government, on the trading floor for HSBC Investment Bank, advised the Tesco Board about broadcasting and covered the credit crunch from Wall Street.

Dharshini is as comfortable holding policymakers to account as explaining complex concepts to general audiences. 

Career

Dharshini began her career working as a government economist before moving to the trading floor with HSBC Investment Bank as their Senior UK Economist.

In 2000 Dharshini joined the BBC as an economics correspondent working on national news bulletins for BBC One, BBC News 24 and BBC World. She also presented Panorama. 

Moving to New York in 2006 she took up the role of BBC New York Business Presenter covering the emerging credit crunch on Wall Street and presenting World Business Report.

In 2008 Dharshini joined Tesco as Head of Broadcast advising the board on broadcast media relations and implementing media training for directors.

In 2009 Dharshini moved back to London as business and economics correspondent for Sky News where she also presented business and general news programmes.

A break from broadcasting saw Dharshini join Daiwa Capital Markets as an economic consultant while also being appointed as a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel of the Financial Conduct Authority,

She moved back to the BBC in 2018 as Senior Economics correspondent followed in 2020 with her appointment as the BBC’s first Global Trade correspondent. Dharshini is also Chief Business Presenter for Radio 4’s Today programme.

Books

The Almighty Dollar, published in 2018, explains in accessible terms the economic foundations that underpin the modern world. 

The Eco Dollar: How the Global Green Economy Really Works for Business, the World and You, published in 2023, is an exploration of the rapidly changing global green economy.

Faisal Islam is Economics Editor for BBC News. He has worked in television news for nearly two decades across business, economics and politics.

He’s exposed the Icelandic banking crisis, watched Lehman Brothers' fall from Wall Street, investigated emerging economies in India and Singapore and interviewed everyone from Prime Ministers to the President of the World Bank.

In his own words ‘Covered economics and there was a massive economic crisis. Covered Europe and there was a massive eurozone crisis. Covered politics and there’s a never-ending political crisis. Now back on the numbers…’

Career

After earning a post-graduate diploma in newspaper journalism Faisal worked as an Economics Correspondent for The Observer before his move into television in 2004 when he joined Channel 4 News, first as a Business Correspondent and later as Economics Editor. 

2014 saw Faisal move to Westminster as Political Editor for Sky News where he covered two elections in quick succession, the EU referendum and the Scottish Independence Referendum.

In 2019 Faisal joined BBC News as Economics Editor. He also occasionally presents Newsnight when the show’s regular presenters are unavailable. 

In 2017 he was second in an episode of Celebrity Mastermind; his specialist subject was Manchester United in the 1990’s.

Books

In his 2013 book, The Default Line: The Inside Story of People, Banks and Entire Nations on the Edge,  Faisal guides the reader through the financial crisis which engulfed the world from 2008.

Awards
 
Faisal won the Wincott Award for Young Financial Journalist of the Year in 2000.

In 2006 he was named Young Journalist of the year at the Royal Society of Television awards.

2007 saw Faisal win the Broadcast News Journalism award at the Workworld Media awards.

In 2009 Faisal’s reporting on the Icelandic banking crisis won a host of awards including Best Television Coverage of a Topical Issue from the Wincott Foundation, Business Journalist of the Year and Best Broadcast Story from the Business Journalist of the Year Awards and named Broadcast News Reporter of the year by Worldwork.

In 2017 Faisal won the Royal Television Society award for Interview of the year for his interview with David Cameron.

In 2018 Faisal was named Journalist of the Year at the Asian Media Awards.

In 2019 he won the Asian Achievers Award for outstanding achievement in Media, Arts & Culture.

Fergal Keane is one of the BBC’s best-known correspondents and has won numerous awards for his reports from the world’s trouble spots. 

He has been the BBC’s correspondent in Southern Africa, Asia and Northern Ireland as well as a peripatetic reporter following conflict around the globe.

As well as reporting conflicts to TV and radio audiences, Fergal has written about his experiences in numerous bestselling books combining historical perspectives with deeply personal remembrances.

Career

Fergal began his journalistic journey in 1979 as a reporter for the Limerick Leader and Chronicle before moving to the national daily The Irish Times. He moved into broadcasting for RTE as a reporter and presenter from 1984 to 1987 before reporting from Belfast for the station.

Fergal joined the BBC in 1989 as Northern Ireland correspondent moving to become Southern Africa correspondent in 1990 where he covered the transformation of South Africa from apartheid regime to democracy and the genocide in Rwanda.

In 1995 Fergal became the BBC’s Asia correspondent reporting on the handover of Hong Kong to China and the gas attacks on the Tokyo underground.

Following the Hong Kong handover Fergal was based in London but covered major international stories including the Kosovo war and the invasion of Iraq. He is now Africa Editor for BBC News. 

Among his documentary projects Fergal presented a three-part series, Forgotten Britain, meeting people living on the edge of affluent societies and a five-part series, The Story of Ireland.

In 2018 Fergal provided the commentary for the Westminster Abbey service marking the centenary of the Armistice.

In 2022 he presented a BBC Two documentary Fergal Keane: Living with PTSD, in which he revealed the impact of PTSD on himself and others. The programme explored the latest thinking behind the disorder and its treatment.

Books

The Bondage of Fear: A Journey Through the Last White Empire describes the last days of apartheid South Africa and examines how fear founded the state and how fear stalks its future. Published in 1995.

Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey is Fergal’s first-hand account of the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Published in 1996

Letter to Daniel: Despatches from the Heart is a collection of Fergal’s despatches to his family and to his listeners with many of his pieces for From Our Own Correspondent. Published in 1996.

Letters Home 1999 is another anthology of Fergal’s despatches, both personal and professional. Published in 1999.

A Stranger’s Eye: A Foreign Correspondent’s View of Britain sees Fergal cast his Irish eye over the state of modern Britain as he travels the land to see if the expectations of post-1945 Britain have been met as the century closes. Published in 2000.

All of These People is Fergal’s memoir of life as a war reporter and an account of his personal battles both growing up in Ireland and with the stresses of life on the frontline. Published in 2005.

Road of Bones: The Epic Siege of Kohima tells the story of one of the most brutal battles in modern history as British and India troops held off the Japanese Imperial Army on the Indian border. Published in 2010.

Wounds, published in 2017, is a part family memoir and part history examination of the civil war in Fergal’s north Kerry home after the British left in 1922.

The Madness: A Farewell to War examines Fergal’s experience of PTSD and the conflict and instability of early life were reflected in his determination to report on the most harrowing stories. Published in October 2022.

Awards

Fergal was appointed an OBE for services to journalism in 1997.

An honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Liverpool Fergal has also received honorary degrees in literature from the University of Strathclyde, Bournemouth University and Staffordshire University.

Fergal was named overall winner of the Amnesty International Press Awards in 1993 and their television prize in 1994 for his investigation of the Rwanda genocide.

In 1994 he became the only journalist to win both the Royal Television Society Journalist of the year and the Sony Radio Reporter of the Year in the same year.

His book Season of Blood won the 1995 Orwell Prize

His Radio 4 From Our Own Correspondent despatch Letter to Daniel, addressed to his newborn son, won The Voice of The Viewer award and a Listener Award in 1996.

Fergal’s 1997 documentary Valentina’s Story about the Rwandan genocide won a BAFTA.

He has won the James Cameron Prize for war reporting, the Edward R. Murrow Award for foreign reporting and the Index on Censorship prize for journalistic integrity. 

In 2009 Fergal won a Sony Gold Award for his Radio 4 series Taking A Stand.

Road of Bones: The Epic Siege of Kohima won the British Army Military Book of the Year in 2011.

As part of the BBC team covering the 2015 refugee crisis Fergal won a Peabody Award and an Emmy.

His book Wounds won the 2018 Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize and the 2017 non-fiction Irish Book of the Year.

Fiona Bruce is a ground-breaking journalist and presenter whose career has been marked by breaking through many broadcasting glass ceilings. She was the first woman to present the BBC Ten O’Clock News and the first to host a general election results programme.

As well as writing and presenting numerous documentaries, Fiona is a seasoned interviewer with Prince Phillip, Bill Gates and Lord Alan Sugar among the decision makers she has questioned.

Fiona has also presented a raft of BBC programmes including Antiques Roadshow, Crimewatch and current affairs strand Real Stories.

Career

Fiona joined the BBC in 1990 as a researcher then assistant producer for Panorama before switching to reporting for BBC Breakfast news in 1992 and then reporting and presenting for BBC South East.

From 1994 to 1995 she was a reporter for BBC Two’s Public Eye before re-joining Panorama as a reporter and reporting for Newsnight.

In 1999 Fiona began presenting the Six O’Clock News before moving to the Ten O’Clock News in 2003, the first woman presenter of the programme. In 2007 she returned to presenting the BBC News at Six, a post she held for the next 11 years.

From 2000 to 2007 Fiona co-hosted Crimewatch while also presenting and reporting for the BBC One current affairs series Real Story from 2003 to 2007.

In 2008 Fiona added presenting Antiques Roadshow to her portfolio.

Following the retirement of David Dimbleby in 2019 Fiona became the first woman to host BBC Question Time.

Fiona has also presented special editions of The Money Programme, BBC Two’s Antiques Show, BBC Four quiz show Hive Minds and co-hosts Fake or Fortune, which examines the process of establishes the authenticity of works of art.

Fiona has written and presented several documentaries including The Real Cherie, a profile of Cherie Blair, Victoria: A Royal Love Story about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, The Queen’s Palaces about Buckingham palace, Windsor Castle and Holyrood Palace, and a documentary about Leonardo da Vinci.

She has appeared on Top Gear, written car reviews for the Sunday Times, and made many appearances in musical numbers for Children In Need.

Books

Savvy!: The Modern Girl’s Guide to Doing It All Without Risking It All ,published in 2008 and co-written with detective and fellow Crimewatch presenter Jaqui Hames, is a down-to-earth guide to negotiating the perils of the 21st century.

Awards

Fiona’s reporting and presenting on current affairs programme Real Story was rewarded with five awards from the Royal Television Society.

In 2003 Fiona was named Newscaster / Reporter of the Year at the Television and Radio Industry Awards and won the Michael Elliot Award for Television Presentation.

Fiona won the Television and Radio Industry Awards Newscaster / Reporter of the Year again in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and News Presenter of the Year in 2019 and 2020.

In 2009 Fiona was inducted into the NSPCC Hall of Fame in recognition of her support of and work with the children’s charity.

Fiona was made a Freeman of the City of London in 2014.

Personal Life

Fiona is married and has two children. She is an honorary vice president of Vision Overseas Aid and has campaigned for the charity Women’s Aid.

Jeremy Bowen is a Welsh journalist and TV presenter. He has worked for the BBC for nearly 40 years. He has reporting from more than 70 countries, primarily as a war correspondent.

Since 2005 Jeremy has been the BBC’s Middle East Editor. As of April 2022, he became a leading reporter on the military situation in Ukraine, reporting from the ground. 

Career

Jeremy joined the BBC in 1984 as a news trainee. After spells in the radio newsroom and as a television news correspondent, he became Geneva correspondent for radio news in 1987.

Jeremy began reporting on conflict from the frontline in 1989 in El Salvador. He reported extensively from the Bosnian war in the early 1990’s and from the Kosovo conflict at the end of that decade.

Jeremy was the BBC’s Middle East correspondent from 1995 until 2000 when he began presenting the new BBC One morning show Breakfast.

Jeremy also guest hosted Have I Got News for You and presented documentaries about the lives of Jesus and Moses. He also appeared in the first series of Celebrity Mastermind with the Arab-Israeli Six Day War as his specialist subject.

In 2003 Jeremy returned to reporting from the field as BBC News Special Correspondent before being appointed the broadcaster’s first Middle East Editor in 2005.

Books

In Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East Jeremy provides his historical analysis of how the outcome of this short but decisive conflict has echoed through the decades since. Published in 2005.

War Stories, published in 2006, charts a decade and a half of Jeremy’s reporting from the frontline of conflicts across the globe. 

In 2009 Jeremy contributed to a children’s book by Michael Morpurgo, The Kites are Flying, about a journalist’s meeting with a traumatised Palestinian boy.

Arab Uprisings: The People Want the Fall of the Regime looks at the causes of popular uprisings across the Middle East and captures the thoughts and feelings of the people involved. Published in 2012.

Based in part on his acclaimed podcast, ‘Our man in the Middle East, Jeremy’s latest book The Making of the Modern Middle East was published in September 2022. It explores the region through its history, the ordinary men and women too often on the frontline of conflict and the leaders who have taken them there.

Awards

Jeremy was made a Fellow of University College London in 2005 and is an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University, University of South Wales, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Aberystwyth University. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences by Nottingham Trent University in 2014.

Jeremy has won a host of awards for his broadcasting including:

New York Television Festival 1995 - Best News Correspondent
1993 Monte Carlo International TV Festival Silver Nymph for Bosnia war coverage
Royal Television Society awards for Best Breaking News Report 1996, Specialist Journalist of the year 2013, Television Journalist of the year 2014 and Interview of the year 2016.
Sony Gold award for News Story of the Year on the arrest of Saddam Hussein.
Part of the BBC teams that won a BAFTA for their Kosovo coverage.
International Emmy 2006 for BBC News', for its coverage, led by Bowen, of the 2006 Lebanon war.
Three Prix Bayeux Calvados awards for war reporting.
2012 Charles Wheeler Award for achievements in broadcast journalism
2012 Peace Through Media Award at the 8th annual International Media Awards.
2013 Peabody Award for reporting Syria's war
2013 News and Documentary Emmy for Syria reporting
2014 BAFTA Cymru Siân Phillips award
2015 James Cameron Memorial Award
2015 Frontline Club Award for Yemen reporting
 

Personal Life

Jeremy lives in south London with his wife. They have two children.

From the steps of Downing Street to the inside of the White House press briefing room, Jon Sopel has spent four decades reporting on global events and interviewing the people who tried to shape them.

Described by President Trump as ‘another beauty’ his face has graced just about every news programme on the BBC and his familiar voice has carried across the airwaves of BBC Radio from Paris, Kuwait City, Washington DC and Blackpool.

In February 2022 Jon announced he was leaving the BBC to launch the News Agents Podcast alongside Lewis Goodall and Emily Maitlis. In July 2023 Jon launched with Emily News Agents USA.

Career

As the BBC’s North America Editor Jon reported on the rise and fall of President Trump. He was Paris correspondent when Concorde crashed and was based in Kuwait City during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Jon’s presentational skills have been extensively used across the BBC as an in-studio host for BBC News Channel, The Politics Show, BBC News at One, BBC Two’s party conference coverage, Newsnight and on BBC World News.

Outside the studio Jon has reported live into every major BBC news bulletin on location from around the country and across the globe, including coverage of Nelson Mandela’s funeral, the inauguration of a new Pope, countless elections, and wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East. He has interviewed numerous Presidents, Prime Ministers and the occasional Emir.

Books

Jon’s stint in North America resulted in a trilogy of books about the Trump Presidency. The first, If Only They Didn't Speak English, notes from Trump's America, was an acclaimed best-seller. The second, A Year at the Circus, came out in September 2019 while the third, UnPresidented: Politics, pandemics and the race that Trumped all others, a personal diary of the 2020 presidential election came out in September 2021.

Jon has also written a biography of Tony Blair, Tony Blair; The Moderniser, published in 1995, two years before Mr Blair became Prime Minister.

Awards

Jon has received many awards for his work including being voted Political Journalist of the year in 2007 and shortlisted for the National Presenter of the Year at the Royal Television Society Television Journalism Awards in 2011/12. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Southampton in 2011.

Personal Life

Jon currently lives in London with his wife, Linda. He is also an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, as well as enjoying golf, travel and watching football.

Julie Etchingham is a newsreader, presenter and broadcast journalist with over three decades of experience working across the BBC, Sky News and ITV.

She has chaired general election leaders’ debates, presented and reported on US Presidential elections, and co-presented coverage of major Royal Weddings, Jubilees and Funerals.  Julie has also led live coverage of developing news stories including the 7/7 bombings in London and the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.

Julie has hosted awards ceremonies and moderated international conferences, including one at the Vatican with Pope Francis.  

Career

Julie started her broadcast career with BBC Radio Leicester while still in school and co-presented BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s student programme while at university. On graduating Julie joined the BBC as a trainee. 

Julie’s first presenting job was with Midlands Today before moving to London to work on Newsround, Breakfast News and BBC Breakfast. 

In 2002 Julie joined Sky News where she presented a number of shows including Sky News Today. She also occasionally presented Five News after Sky took over as news provider for Five.

In 2008 Julie joined Sir Trevor McDonald to relaunch News At Ten on ITV. 15 years later she is still a newsreader for the station’s flagship news programme as well as presenting current affairs programme Tonight.

Julie has also chaired a leaders debate for every general election since 2015 and co-presented coverage of two Royal Weddings, the Diamond and Platinum Jubilees, and the funeral of HRH Prince Phillip. 

Julie has also appeared as a newsreader in several dramas including The Detectives, Spooks, Chromophobia and Scott & Bailey.

Awards

Julie was the Royal Television Society’s Presenter of the Year in 2010, the first woman to win the award. In 2016 she won the award for a second time, the first woman to do so. In 2016 Julie was also named London Press Club Broadcast Journalist of the Year, 

Personal Life

Julie is married and has two sons. She is President of the Women of the Year and Vice-President of Abigail’s Footsteps, a charity working on stillbirths. 

In his three decades of journalism Kamal Ahmed has covered economics, business, politics, the media and the royal beat working for four national newspapers and BBC News where he became Editorial Director in 2019.

Kamal is Vice-President of the Society of Editors which campaigns for media freedom and is a trustee of Media Trust which works with the media and creative industries to give marginalised groups and young people a stronger voice. 

After leaving the BBC Kamal co-founded and became Editor-in-Chief of The News Movement, a new media business headquartered in London and New York focused on social media channels, new audiences and digital consumption, which is to be trusted and objective.

Career

Kamal began his reporting career working for local newspapers in Scotland and then Scotland on Sunday. In 1994 he moved to The Guardian first as Royal Correspondent and then Media Editor. Switching titles to The Observer as Political Editor, Kamal then became Executive Editor, News leading the team through the relaunch of the newspaper which won Newspaper of the year in 2006. 

Briefly leaving journalism in 2007 Kamal was Group Director, Communications for the Equality and Human Rights Commission. In 2009 he returned to the press as Business Editor for The Daily Telegraph.

In 2014 Kamal was recruited as Business Editor for BBC News and two years later became Economics Editor before being appointed Editorial Director. Here Kamal worked across news strategy, daily news and planning, commissioning, analysis, visual and audio journalism and new forms of digital content. He was a member of the Newsgroup Board, the Sounds board and the BBC's Senior Executive Group. 

Books

The Life and Times of a very British Man is Kamal’s autobiographical account of growing up as a mixed-race child in the 1970’s.

Awards

In 2013 Kamal was the inaugural winner of the CFA Society’s Ethical and Professional Standards Award.

Award-winning BBC senior journalist Katya Adler is well-known for her (stylish) ability to make the complexities and insecurities of the world we live in, accessible, understandable and relatable.

From her recent head-line making interview with Emmanuel Macron to sit-downs over the years with Angela Merkel, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenburg, Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon, the prime ministers of Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and many more, Katya brings her geopolitical expertise to life, covering Russia-Ukraine, the global economy, the Middle East in crisis, challenges facing Europe, Britain’s role on the European and world stage, as well as tracking power plays between the US, China and Russia.

Katya deep knowledge of news and current affairs lead to her appointment as the BBC’s Europe Editor and host of the Global Story podcast, as well as occasional presenter of The Today Programme on Radio 4 and news bulletins on BBC1.

Documentary-making is also a passion of Katya’s. the 2023 series Living Next Door to Putin was a crtiics’ choice. Previous films include Mexico’s Drug Wars, Spain’s Stolen Babies and After Brexit, the Battle for Europe

Katya spent many years, earlier in her career, as a frontline war reporter, mainly in the Middle East.

She is now also a regular presenter of the BBC Proms.

Career Background

Katya's journalistic career began in Vienna with the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation where she reported across Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, covering the Kosovo war and fallout for NATO in 1999.

She joined the BBC firstly as a freelancer from Vienna, then in London from 2000, covering European affairs as both presenter and roving reporter. She commuted regularly to Berlin too, to appear as a news anchor on Deutsche Welle Television.

In 2003, Katya became the BBC's Madrid correspondent, covering the Madrid train bombings in 2004. She also travelled regularly across the continent to cover breaking stories.

In 2006, she became the BBC's Middle East correspondent based out of Jerusalem, specialising in war reporting across the region.

She was appointed the BBC’s Europe Editor in 2014, co-presenting the award winning Brexitcast podcast during the Brexit process.

Awards

In acknowledgement of her expertise and extensive reporting, Katya has been awarded two honorary doctorates (Bristol University and University of London). She was named Broadcast Journalist of the year at the Political Society Awards 2018. In 2019 she was named Broadcast Journalist of the Year, alongside her BBC colleague, Laura Kuenssberg by the London Press Club. She is also the 2019 recipient of the the British Journalism Review and University of Westminster's Charles Wheeler award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcast Journalism. The Brexitcast podcast which she co-hosted with three other colleagues received the Listeners Choice award at the British podcast awards 2019 - the same year as the London Evening Standard newspaper named her as one of the city's most influential people. In 2022 Bristol University named Katya their Arts and Media Alumnus of the Year.

Linguist

Katya speaks fluent German, Italian, Spanish, and French plus some Arabic and Hebrew, in addition to her mother-tongue, English.

Laura Kuenssberg is the only woman, and youngest journalist, to lead the BBC’s political coverage as Political Editor. She was at the heart of Westminster throughout the EU referendum campaign and subsequent tortuous negotiations for Britain’s withdrawal. 

After 7 years as Political Editor Laura is now bringing her immense experience to bear on presenting the BBC’s flagship Sunday morning political programme, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, replacing Andrew Marr. 

Career

Laura worked for cable TV and local radio in Glasgow before joining the BBC in 2000 as a reporter in Newcastle, for which she won a Royal Television Society Award, and as a producer to the BBC Social Affairs Editor.  

In 2003 Laura reported for the first episode of The Daily Politics Programme and by 2009 was promoted to BBC Chief Political Correspondent.

In 2011 Laura joined ITV News in the newly created role of Business Editor, she also contributed to ITV’s current affairs programme Tonight and made her news reading debut on News at Ten.

In 2014 Laura returned to the BBC as Chief Correspondent and presenter for Newsnight. 

Laura became the first woman to hold the post of BBC Political Editor in 2015. She began co-presenting the Brexitcast, later retitled Newscast, in 2017 alongside colleagues Katya Adler, Adam Fleming and Chris Mason.

Laura has presented two BBC documentaries about the UK withdrawal from the EU, The Brexit Storm: Laura Kuenssberg’s Inside Story and The Brexit Storm continues: Laura Kuenssberg’s Inside Story.

In 2022 Laura stepped down as BBC Political Editor to take over as full-time host of the corporation’s flagship Sunday morning politics show, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg', previously The Andrew Marr Show.

Awards

In 2016 Laura was named Journalist of the Year in the British Journalism Awards and the Political Studies Association Broadcaster of the Year.

2016 Women and Film and TV Awards winner of the BBC News and Factual Award.

London Press Club 2019 Broadcast Journalist of the Year won jointly with colleague Katya Adler.

2022 Royal Television Society Interview of the Year Award for Laura’s interview with former Downing Street aid Dominic Cummings.

Lewis Goodall is Analysis & Investigations Editor at Global and co-presenter of a new podcast with Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel.

Lewis is an effective and engaging storyteller who has worked across the BBC producing and presenting documentaries and appearing on news output across the corporation’s platforms covering policy, government and economics.

He also has experience working as a Sky News political correspondent, writing questions for University Challenge and working in the United States Congress as an intern for Representative Diana DeGette of Colorado.

Career

Lewis began his broadcasting career in 2010 as a researcher with Granada Television writing questions for University Challenge before joining think tank the Institute for Public Policy research in 2011.

He moved to the BBC in 2012 as a producer and reporter working on BBC Two’s Victoria Derbyshire and programmes on Radio 4 including producing documentary Generation Right looking at shifting trends in young people’s political affiliations.

In 2017 Lewis moved to Sky News as Political Correspondent where he undertook a two year project aboard the ‘Lewis Lorry’ touring the country to look at how Brexit will affect businesses, people and places not usually in the media spotlight.

After three years at Sky Lewis returned to the BBC as Policy Editor for Newsnight where he also played an increasing role in the corporation’s election coverage. He has covered a wide range of subjects including the war in Ukraine and the resulting refugee crisis, building safety post-Grenfell and the schools exam crisis in the summer of 2020, for which he was nominated for the Orwell Prize.

In September 2022 Lewis joined Global as co-presented of a new podcast with Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel as well as being Analysis & Investigations Editor with a remit to work on video journalism, reporting breaking stories and producing content for podcasts and social channels on LBC. 

Lewis also writes for the New Statesman magazine.

Books

Left for Dead?; The Strange Death and Rebirth of the Labour Party, published in 2018, is an examination of the shifting fortunes of Labour in the 21^st Century from political dominance under Tony Blair to the election losing opposition under Jeremy Corbyn and its impact on the future for the party.

Personal Life

Lewis studied History and Politics at St John's College, Oxford, the first in his family to go to university. He has also studied French as an Entente Cordiale Scholar at Alliance Francaise, Paris and Mandarin at Beijing Normal University. He lives in London.

Lizzy Burden is UK correspondent on Bloomberg TV. She hosts the Daybreak Europe breakfast show regularly, its sister programme on Bloomberg Radio every weekday and the daily Bloomberg UK Politics Podcast. She also writes the Readout newsletter.

Named one of MHP's 30 journalists to watch, Lizzy has interviewed major politicians and business leaders including the UK Chancellor, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Shadow Chancellor and FTSE 100 CEOs, in addition to Nobel laureate economists and Bank of England policymakers.

From Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, the BOE and the Élysée Palace, she has reported on monetary policy decisions, the careers of multiple UK prime ministers, the death and funeral of Elizabeth II, Brexit, the US-China trade war, and the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

She also hosts events, including recently at Conservative and Labour Party conferences, the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum, the CBI's annual conference, Chatham House and Founders Forum.

Passionate about diversity, she is a non-executive director at Creative Access, which works to widen representation in the creative industries. It secured her first opportunity in journalism, an internship at The Times, which led to the graduate scheme. Lizzy went on to write about economics for The Telegraph and Bloomberg News before moving into broadcasting.

She read history at the University of Cambridge, alongside which she was a model, walking the fashion weeks of New York, London, Milan and Paris.

Lizzy lives in southeast London with her husband and dog.

Luke Jones is a presenter, reporter and theatre critic who, at 24, was the youngest person to present a Radio 4 news sequence programme. 

Currently presenting and exec-producing a new show for Sky Arts, Luke has already gained extensive experience across a range of media.

He presented and reported on Times Radio for two years and presented the Breakfast Show on Fridays and at the weekend.  

At the BBC, he was a presenter and reporter for BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. On Radio 4 he’s presented PM, Profile and Saturday Live. On the World Service he regularly presented OS, a two-hour rolling news programme and The Newsroom.

He has reported for The World at One, PM and Broadcasting House on a wide range on stories including, UK and US politics, social affairs and arts. 

For two years he presented iPM, a spin-off of PM, which used listener stories to make a programme each week.

Luke is also a theatre critic for The Daily Mail writing for the main paper and the Friday arts section, as well as occasionally writing for The Times and Sunday Times.

Marianna Spring is the BBC’s first disinformation and social media correspondent and an award-winning journalist. She presents podcasts and documentaries investigating disinformation and social media for BBC Radio 4, as well as for BBC Panorama and BBC Three. She is also one of the presenters of the BBC's Americast podcast.

In 2022, Marianna was named the British Press Guild's Audio Presenter of the Year and Royal Television Society Innovation winner.

Martina Navratilova is, in the words of Billie Jean-King “the greatest singles, doubles, and mixed doubles player who’s ever lived”. She took women’s tennis to a new level with her fitness, speed, determination and agility.

After losing the US Open semi-final in 1975 she walked into the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service in New York City and informed them she wanted to defect from Soviet controlled communist Czechoslovakia, Martina was 18 years old.

Career

Martina is the only tennis player to have spent more than 200 weeks as world number one in both singles and doubles. She holds the record of nine Wimbledon singles titles, half of her 18 Grand Slam singles titles.

In women’s doubles she won 31 Grand Slam titles complemented by 10 mixed doubles titles. Martina is one of only three women to win singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles at each of the four Grand Slams Wimbledon, the US Open, the Australian Open and the French Open. Her last Grand Slam victory was in the 2006 US Open mixed doubles, a month shy of her 50th birthday.

In her 33-year professional tennis career Martina won 354 titles, 167 of them in singles. 

Martina has made a number of television appearances including I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!, Dancing with the Stars, the Netflix series The Politician, Will and Grace and in a 1983 episode of Hart to Hart.

Martina now spends her time between being at home and broadcasting as a presenter/commentator for the BBC, Tennis Channel and Sky Sports. She also travels the world extensively giving speaking engagements on a variety of issues and taking part in other corporate activities.

Books

As well as her autobiography, Martina Navratilova: Being Myself, Martina has written Tennis My Way, an instruction guide in tennis for women and Shape Your Self: My 6-Step Diet and Fitness Plan to Achieve the Best Shape of Your Life.

She has written about the mental health of gay American teenagers in Crisis: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing up Gay in America.

Martina has also written three mystery thrillers featuring fictional former tennis champion Jordan Myles, The Total Zone, Killer Instinct and Breaking Point.

Awards

Martina was named Women’s Tennis Association Player of the Year seven times, International Tennis Federation World Champion six times and Associated Press Female Athlete of the year twice. 

For her campaigning activism Martina was the recipient of the national Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the United States. 

In 2003 she was presented with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2006 was given the Czech Sport Legend Award.

In 2009 Martina was awarded the International Tennis Federation’s highest accolade, the Philippe Chatrier Award, for her contributions to tennis both on and off the court.

In 2016 Martina was made an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge.

Personal Life

Martina lives on a small family farm in Florida with her wife and their two daughters.

Matt Frei is a Channel 4 News presenter and Europe Editor who also has his own show on LBC radio.

Matt is a vastly experienced foreign correspondent having reported from over 40 countries for Channel 4 and before that the BBC. He has the rare distinction of having been Washington Correspondent for both Channel 4 and the BBC.

Over the last decade Matt’s Europe brief has seen him frequently reporting on the Russo-Ukrainian crisis from the front line. 

Career

Matt began his broadcast career with the BBC World Service working for the German section. on for a year before moving to English language current affairs.

In 1989 he reported on the first Intifada in Jerusalem before taking up the post of Bonn Correspondent on the day the Berlin Wall fell.

From 1992 to 1996 Matt worked as BBC Southern Europe Correspondent covering events in Bosnia, Kosovo and North Africa. He then moved to Asia for six years based first in Hong Kong and then Singapore.

In 2002 Matt took up the post of BBC Washington Correspondent. This role expanded to include presenting the hour-long BBC World News America from 2007. He also presented the weekly Radio 4 programme Americana, a documentary on the life and times of Berlin, and was an occasional presenter of Newsnight and The News at Six.

In 2011 Matt moved to Channel 4 as Washington Correspondent and becoming part of the channel’s presenting team across its range of current affairs programmes including making The American Road Trip: Obama’s Story and The Mad World of Donald Trump.

In 2014 Matt as Europe Editor Matt led Channel 4’s coverage of events in Ukraine from the crash site of Malaysian flight MH17 to tensions in Crimea and bloodshed on the streets of Kyiv. 

In 2016 Matt also began presenting a Saturday morning show on LBC radio.

In 2022 Matt again led Channel 4’s coverage of events in Ukraine and the Russian invasion.

Books

Getting the Boot: Italy’s Unfinished Revolution published in 1995, looks at the moribund politics of post-war Italy and how they led to the transformation of Silvio Berlusconi from media baron to elected Prime Minister.

In Only in America Matt explores the paradoxical peculiarities of the superpower capital Washington, D.C., the Rome of the modern world. Published in 2008

Awards

BAFTA for News coverage of the Ukraine war Channel 4 News: Live in Kyiv (2023)

Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding contributions to Journalism (2022)

International Emmy for News, for Channel 4 News reports, Inside Aleppo – Battle for Aleppo, (2017) and Hong Kong: Year of Living Dangerously, (2020)

Voice of the Listener and Viewer Award (2018)

Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year 2015 & 2017, International News Award 2010

Dupont Award for Haiti Earthquake (2011)

Peabody Award for BBC World News America (2010)

Prix Bayeux Calvados Award for War Reporting (2000)

Amnesty International Asia Award, for Newsnight features 

Personal Life

When not reporting from the field Matt lives in London with his wife, the artist Penny Quested and their four children.

Sir Nick Clegg served as Deputy Prime Minister in Britain’s first post-war coalition government from 2010 to 2015. He was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. Sir Nick now works as President for Global Affairs at Facebook owner Meta.

As Deputy Prime Minister, Sir Nick occupied the second highest office in the country at a time when the United Kingdom was recovering from a deep recession following the banking crisis of 2008, and hugely controversial decisions were made in an effort to restore stability to the public finances. 

His insight into the most senior levels of UK government, combined with an integral understanding and experience of European politics, contacts at the highest levels of government across the EU, and fluency in five European languages, mean that his views and analysis on the current government’s foreign relations continue to be in high demand.

Career

In the early 1990’s Sir Nick worked in government relations and as a Financial Times journalist before joining the European Commission in 1994 working in the aid programme to the former Soviet Union before becoming policy advisor and speechwriter to European Commission Vice-President Sir Leon Brittan.

Entering electoral politics in 1999 Sir Nick became an MEP for the East Midlands followed by victory in the 2005 general election to become MP for Sheffield Hallam, a seat he held until 2017.

After serving in a number of Liberal Democrat frontbench roles Sir Nick was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2007 and was appointed to the Privy Council in 2008.

Sir Nick led his party in the 2010 general election and took part in the first live TV party leaders debates which became synonymous with the phrase ‘I agree with Nick’. 

After the election resulted in a hung parliament, negotiations led to the formation of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government with Sir Nick appointed Deputy Prime Minister.

The 2015 general election saw the Liberal Democrats removed from government and Sir Nick resign his party’s leadership. He continued as MP for Sheffield Hallam until the 2017 election.

After leaving front line politics, Sir Nick moved to the United States when he was appointed by Mark Zuckerberg as Vice-President for Global Affairs and Communications of Facebook in 2018. In February 2022, he was promoted to President for Global Affairs at Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Books

Published in 2016, Politics: Between the Extremes is a frank account of Sir Nick’s success in the 2010 election through to cataclysmic defeat in 2015 and the consequences of an increasingly divided public discourse.

Divided public debate and its consequences were central to the theme of Sir Nick’s next book How to Stop Brexit which argued, during the withdrawal negotiations in 2017, that leaving the EU would be deeply damaging to the UK and was being led by a cabal of the self-serving elite.

In 2019 Sir Nick joined former Prime Minister John Major to explore the health of UK democracy in their book The Responsibilities of Democracy.

Sir Nick has also contributed to a large number of pamphlets and books about public policy.

Awards 

He received a knighthood in the 2018 New Year’s honours list.
In 1993 Sir Nick won the inaugural Financial Times David Thomas Prize, in remembrance of an FT journalist killed on assignment in Kuwait in 1991.

Personal Life

Sir Nick lives in California with his wife and three sons.

Nick Robinson has been reporting and presenting on radio and television for over thirty years. He is the only broadcaster to have been Political Editor for both the BBC and ITV News. 

Nick has presented a range of programmes across radio and television, chaired a party leader election debate and hosts Radio 4’s flagship Today programme.

With a talent for getting under the skin of the political leaders he’s questioned, at Camp David President George W Bush once asked him testily ‘you still hanging around’?

Career

Nick’s broadcasting career began with work experience at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester before joining the BBC in 1986 as a production trainee. He worked as a television and radio producer for a variety of shows including Newsround and Crimewatch before becoming assistant producer for the Sunday political programme On The Record. 

From 1993 Nick was deputy editor of Panorama for three years before moving to become a political correspondent presenting Radio 5 Live’s Weekend Breakfast and Late Night Live. He covered the 1997 general election for BBC Radio.

In 1999 Nick became Chief Political Correspondent for BBC News 24 and presenter of Westminster Live. During the 2001 general election Nick started publishing a daily diary The Campaign Today later renamed Newslog as it continued beyond the election.

In 2002 Nick left the BBC to become ITN Political Editor for three years before returning to become BBC Political Editor after the 2005 general election. Nick worked across the BBC’s news output on radio and television as well as being a guest on Children In Need, Have I Got News For You and Top Gear. He has also presented a number of TV documentaries and a 16-part Radio series The Prime Ministers.

In 2015 Nick became a presenter on Radio 4’s Today programme

Books

Live from Downing Street is both a personal account of life as BBC Political Editor and a wider examination of how the relationship between politicians and the media has developed over centuries. Published in 2012.

Election Notebook tells the story of the 2015 general election and the year leading up to it with a behind the scenes account of Nick’s encounters with leading politicians of all sides.  

Awards

Royal Television Society Specialist Journalist of the Year in 2007. 
 
Political Studies Association “Journalist of the Year” 2007
 
House Magazine “Commentator of the Year’.
 
Editorial Intelligence’s Comment Awards “Blogger of the Year” in 2010

Personal Life

Nick attended Oxford, University where he met his wife Pippa, a relationship counsellor, they have three children. Nick enjoys sailing, the theatre and, sometimes, supporting Manchester United.

Rachel Johnson has been a broadcast and national newspaper journalist since the age of 23 when she joined the Financial Times as the paper's first female graduate trainee.

She has her own radio show on LBC, been a reporter on BBC Radio Four, written weekly columns for national newspapers, published nine books, and is the only former editor of The Lady magazine to have entered the Big Brother House.

Career

In 1989 Rachel joined the Financial Times as a graduate trainee writing about the economy. She spent a year on secondment to the Foreign Office Policy Planning staff before moving to the BBC for three years.

1997 saw Rachel cross the Atlantic to Washington DC where she worked as a columnist and freelancer. Rachel has written weekly columns for The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Mail on Sunday. She’s also been published regularly in The Oldie, The Big Issue, Easy Living and She magazines.

In 2009 Rachel was appointed Editor of The Lady, a weekly magazine established in 1885. Her efforts to reinvigorate the title were the subject of a Channel 4 documentary The Lady and the Revamp. Following her departure from the title in 2012 she made a BBC Four documentary How to Be a Lady: An Elegant History.

Rachel has been a regular on shows including Question Time, Any Questions, Have I Got News For You and Sky News’ weekly debate show The Pledge. She has won two Pointless Celebrity trophies, Celebrity University Challenge and Celebrity Mastermind with the specialist subject The Laconia Incident.

In April 2020 Rachel began presenting her own Sunday night show on LBC Radio and launched a podcast, Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women, for the station owners Global.

Books

Edited by Rachel, The Oxford Myth, published in 1988 features chapters from alumnae describing their experiences of sex, drugs and education at Oxford University in lurid terms.

The Mummy Diaries, published in 2004, about the life of a young mother living in West London and Exmoor.

Notting Hell, Shire Hell and Fresh Hell are Rachel's trilogy focused on the life of journalist Mimi Fleming as, from 2006 to 2015, she negotiates life at the posh end of Notting Hill, a move to the country and, in the final book, Mimi’s attempt to be re-integrated into London society.

A Diary of The Lady, My First Year as Editor, published in 2010 and its sequel, A Diary of The Lady, My first Year and a Half, give Rachel’s account of her time as Editor of the world’s oldest woman’s weekly.

Winter Games, published in 2012 is a tale of secrets and betrayal set in 1930’s Bavaria and seventy years later in London.

Rake's Progress: My Political Midlife Crisis, describes Rachel’s brief experience of standing for election for Change UK in the 2019 European Parliament Elections. 
 
Awards

The Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award 2008 for Shire Hell.

Personal Life

Rachel lives in Notting Hill and Exmoor with her husband and three children. 

Reeta Chakrabarti is a BBC News presenter and correspondent with three decades of experience. She presents the One, Six and Ten O'Clock News on BBC One, BBC weekend news and also reports at home and abroad. She was previously Education and Social Affairs correspondent, and spent many years reporting politics from Westminster.
 
Career 

Reeta started at the BBC in the early 1990s as a producer on Radio 4, working on the Today programme, the World at One and PM before becoming a reporter on 5 Live Breakfast, during which time she covered the French presidential elections, and the Dunblane killings.

She later became a general news correspondent working in television as well as radio. In 1997, she became the BBC Community Affairs Correspondent, covering the Stephen Lawrence inquest, and subsequent public inquiry. She has also covered home affairs, including the Damilola Taylor murder trial; and Health.

As a Political Correspondent from 1999, Reeta worked across a range of programmes in television and radio, reporting for BBC One, BBC Two, BBC News Channel, Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live. During this time, Reeta covered three general elections, and several changes of party leaders, with other notable stories including the cash for honours affair and MPs expenses scandal.

In 2011 Reeta became Education Correspondent, where she covered changes to university tuition fees, the introduction of free schools, growth in academies and changes to exams and the curriculum

In 2014 Reeta was appointed as a news presenter on BBC One and the BBC News Channel. She has also continued to report on important stories from across the world including anchoring BBC coverage of the 70th anniversary of the partition of India and Pakistan and joining the studio team for the 2019 general election and 2020 US presidential election.

Reeta has appeared on Celebrity Mastermind with John Keats as her specialist subject, she finished second. She has also been on a celebrity episode of Only Connect for Comic Relief and appeared, alongside her daughter, in a Children in Need special episode of Bargain Hunt 

In 2020 Reeta became Chancellor of York St John University succeeding Archbishop Dr John Sentamu in the role.

Books

Reeta is an avid reader who chaired the judges for the 2021 Costa Book Awards and was a judge for the David Cohen Prize for Literature in 2021. 

Awards

In 2018 Reeta was made an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford and an Honorary Doctor of Letters by York St John University. In 2019 Rita was made an Honorary Fellow of University College, London

Personal Life

Reeta is a Patron of Pan Intercultural Arts, a UK charity dedicated to the exploration of cultural diversity through the arts. She is a Trustee of the Keats - Shelley Memorial Association.
 
Reeta lives in North London with her husband and three children.

In his 40 years at the BBC Rory Cellan-Jones reported on banking scandals, the woes of iconic business institutions like Marks & Spencer, the rise, fall and rise again of internet businesses and the impact of new technology on the lives of us all. As Technology Correspondent Rory traced the emergence of the new industrial giants like Facebook and Google using his clear and insightful analysis to translate geek speak to the masses on radio, on television and, of course, on social media.

Rory left the BBC in 2021 to become Senior Advisor with business services firm FTI Consulting. In 2022 he also took up the post of Senior media and Strategy Consultant with Brands2Life.

Career

Rory joined the BBC in 1981 as a researcher on Look North before moving to London to work in the newsroom and on Newsnight. His first on-screen role was as a reporter for Wales Today followed by a stint on Breakfast Time. 

He then moved into business coverage working across BBC TV and radio networks including The Money programme, Newsnight, the Today programme and major news bulletins. In 2000 his time as BBC Internet Correspondent was cut short by the dot com crash and he returned to his role as Business and Industry Correspondent. 

From 2007 Rory was Technology Correspondent charged with expanding the BBC’s coverage of the impact of the internet on business and society.. Rory also presented the weekly programme Tech Tent on BBC World Service and blogged regularly as dot.Rory.

Books

The internet stock market crash of 2000 inspired Rory’s first book dot.bomb: The Rise & Fall of Dot.Com Britain, analysing the. Boom, the bust and the long-term transformation the internet has wrought on British business. 

On his 2012 audio book The Secret History of Social Networking, Rory traces the roots of a very modern phenomena from the counterculture of the 1970’s through to the behemoth that is Facebook. 

His most recent publication, Always On: Hope and fear in the social smartphone era, examines the transformation of society by hyperconnectivity and analyses the impact on everything from democracy to health.

Awards

In May 2022 Rory received an honorary degree from the University of York for his outstanding contribution to society.

In April 2022 Rory was made an Honorary Fellow of The National Museum of Computing in recognition of his ‘vast impact on the improvement of public knowledge and understanding in the realm of culture, history, science, technology and computing practice.’

Rory has also been shortlisted for the Internet Service Providers Association Internet Hero award. In 2013 readers of T3 magazine voted Rory ‘Gadget Personality of the Year’.
 
Personal Life

Rory lives in West Ealing with his wife and has two sons. In May 2021 he announced via Twitter that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease saying ‘Im getting good treatment and the symptoms are mild right now so I’m carrying on as normal. Onwards and upwards!’

Sarah Smith is a seasoned reporter and presenter with more than three decades of experience working at the BBC and Channel 4.  She is currently the BBC's North American Editor.  

She is the only woman to have led coverage of North American for both the BBC and Channel 4 as well as being the BBC’s first Scotland Editor. 

Sarah has presented current affairs programmes at home and reported on major stories across the globe, including the Fukishima disaster and the Madrid bombings, for which Channel 4 won an International Emmy.

Career

Sarah joined BBC Scotland from university as a graduate trainee. As well as working in Scotland she spent a year with BBC Northern Ireland where she had first-hand experience of the political violence being held at gun point in West Belfast.

In 1991 Sarah moved to London to work with BBC Youth Programmes as an assistant producer for programmes including Rough Guide, Rapido and Reportage. After two years Sarah moved to news and current affairs with credits including Newsnight and Public Eye.

After leaving the BBC in 1996 Sarah worked as a reporter for 5 News for two years before joining Channel 4 News as Scotland Correspondent where she also worked as a presenter.

In 2005 Sarah broke new ground becoming the first anchor of More4 nightly news as it launched on the digital channel.

Appointed Channel 4 Washington Correspondent in 2007 Sarah’s coverage included the ground-breaking election of President Obama and the Haiti earthquake before moving to become Business Correspondent in 2011.

In the run up to Scotland’s independence referendum Sarah re-joined the BBC to co-present BBC Two’s Scottish current affairs programme Scotland 2014. In 2015 Sarah was appointed the BBC’s Scotland Editor with a remit to cover Scottish news for a UK audience. In 2017 Sarah added presenting Sunday Politics to her portfolio as she succeeded Andrew Neil in the role.

Sarah is now based back in Washington DC following her appointment as BBC North America Editor in November 2021.

Mixed race (British-Zimbabwean), dual-nationality (British-USA), bi-lingual (English-Welsh), Sean is a journalist who represents modern Britain, combining a nose for a story, with an engaging warmth on camera and with contributors.  His multicultural heritage and personable broadcasting style means he reaches out to a wide range of audiences.

Sean has reported and presented news and sport across the BBC, on ITV and Sky. He has hosted TV programmes on a wide range of subjects from religion to food, race riots and war time evacuees. His determination to learn Welsh alongside his children has also led to work in Welsh language documentaries and dramas.

Career

Sean began his journalistic career reporting and researching for BBC Radio 4’s Late Tackle programme and Radio 5 Live before moving to Cardiff producing packages for BBC One, BBC Two Wales and BBC Radio Wales. He then began working on BBC 2W, the digital TV channel for Wales, he also presented and reported on sport for BBC Wales Today.

From 2005 Sean presented sports bulletins on BBC News Channel. He also presented sport on BBC weekend news, BBC Breakfast and BBC World. Sean was also a news reporter and presenter for BBC London News.

From 2011 until 2014 Sean worked for Sky Sports News before leaving to join ITV as a sports newsreader on Good Morning Britain and has been a co-presenter of the programme since 2020. He also presented two seasons of ITV game show Rebound.

Since 2015 Sean has been an occasional reporter for BBC One’s Countryfile and since 2017 has presented Sunday Morning Live and Inside Out London until it ended in 2021.

Other television credits include co-presenting Food Detectives and Britain’s Classroom Heroes for BBC Two. Reporting on child mental health for Panorama and broadcasting from a range of national events including the First World War Armistice centenary and The Lord Mayor’s Show. 

Sean has presented a four-part living history series Evacuees, about child evacuees in wartime Wales and Riots In the Bay, about the 1919 race riots in Cardiff, both in Welsh for S4C.

Sean raised £30,000 for Beating Bowel Cancer by winning ITV’s All Star Mr & Mrs with his wife. He’s also won an episode of Celebrity Mastermind, his specialist subject was Sesame Street.

In 2020 Sean made his acting debut in two episodes of BBC drama Keeping Faith.

Personal Life

Sean speaks fluent Welsh, sings, and plays the violin and piano. He has run several London Marathons to raise money for several charities. Sean also played for the Rest of The World team in ITV’s Soccer Aid which supports UNICEF UK.
Sean is married and has two children. 

Sima Kotecha is the UK Editor on the BBC’s television flagship current affairs programme, Newsnight, as well as presenter on the programme. She specialises in original journalism and exposing the truth through winning the trust of her contributors and holding those in power to account.

She is a versatile presenter able to turn her hand to different types of presentation, chairing discussions and tackling a range of issues from the most serious to lighter topics. She often presents the BBC’s Newscast podcast and has presented Breakfast News on BBC One, the BBC News channel, PM on Radio 4, 5Live as well as the news on BBC1.

Sima’s career as a reporter spans almost twenty years. Her work has taken her around the world, and she has spent much of her professional life living in the US and reporting from dangerous countries at times of conflict and volatility such as during the war in Afghanistan, Haiti and Lebanon. She was one of the first reporters to broadcast from Italy at the start of the covid pandemic, before the virus had reached the British shores.

She has interviewed a wide range of people in the public eye from the former US President Barack Obama to the current UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Her interviewing style is versatile from the probing to the sympathetic and she is noted for encouraging people to tell their stories.

She has a reputation for breaking original journalism and for specialising in multiple story areas such as defence, policing, politics, and social affairs.

But she has another side too. A sense of humour and empathy as demonstrated by her recent appearance on Celebrity Antiques Road Trip on BBC Two and Expert Witness on BBC One

She is a first class public speaker and event host who is sure to enliven any gathering.

Stephanie Flanders is an economist, journalist, broadcaster and former senior advisor to the US Treasury Secretary who once presented a review of Britain’s economic status by travelling the length of the country on her bike.

Stephanie is now Senior Executive Editor for Economics at Bloomberg. In 2017 she Chaired the Royal Society of Arts’ Inclusive Growth Commission.  

Career

Stephanie began her career as an economist at the London Business School and the Institute for Fiscal Studies before moving into journalism joining the Financial Times in 1994 as a leader writer and columnist.

In 1997 she was appointed as speechwriter and advisor to US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers before joining the New York Times in 2001.

Returning to the UK Stephanie joined the BBC in 2002 as Economics Editor of Newsnight, she also presented economic focused editions of Newsnight and did some relief shifts for BBC News Channel.

In 2008 Stephanie became BBC Economics Editor appearing across the range of BBC news output. She also presented programmes including Masters of Money on BBC Two, Stephanomics on Radio 4, standing in for the eponymous presenter of The Andrew Marr Show and a Radio 4 programme about the Mr Men books.

In 2013 Stephanie joined J.P. Asset Management as Chief Market Strategist for Europe, four years later she joined Bloomberg as Senior Executive Editor for Economics and head of Bloomberg Economics.

Awards

She was made an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, University of Oxford in 2019 and a Fellow of the Society of Professional Economists.

For Stephanomics, Stephanie won the 2010 Harold Wincott Foundation’s Award. She also won the Foundation's 'Broadcaster of the Year' in 2011 and Political Studies Association's ‘Broadcaster of the Year’ in 2012.  
 
Personal Life

Stephanie is the Chair of the non-profit arts company Artichoke and a trustee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust. Stephanie is also a trustee of the Wincott Foundation.
 
She lives with her partner and their two children.

Tom has been one of Britain's leading political journalists and commentators for the last 20 years, with a career spanning across print, digital and broadcast. Having first made his name as an award-winning defence correspondent, he went on to lead coverage of four general elections and the Brexit referendum, and interviewed seven British Prime Ministers and US President Donald Trump twice.

Career

Tom joined The Daily Mirror's graduate trainee scheme in 1997, before being made the paper's Defence Correspondent after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and covered the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

In 2004, he moved to The Sun as its Defence Editor, and was promoted to Political Editor in 2009, a role he carried out for 11 years. During that time, Tom became a well known broadcast commentator, appearing regularly on BBC1's Question Time and BBC Radio 4's Any Questions, and hosting BBC Radio 4's The Week in Westminster and What the Papers Say programmes. He was also a regular on Sky News, Good Morning Britain, Newsnight and The Andrew Marr Show.Tom left The Sun in 2020 to help launch Times Radio, as the new station's Chief Political Commentator and the presenter of its flagship Sunday morning political programme. There, he carried out the first ever broadcast interview of a Chief of MI6, Richard Moore. He also wrote a weekly political column for the Evening Standard in the slot left vacant by George Osborne.He moved to TalkTV on its launch in April 2022 to anchor an hour-long week night news programme, First Edition, securing a series of agenda-setting interviews, including the first with former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after his sacking by Liz Truss.Tom also hosted a Tory leadership debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt in 2019, and a Tory leadership hustings between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak in 2022.

Awards

'TND' has won seven national journalism awards, including Scoop of the Year at the 2007 What The Papers Say Awards and the 2008 British Press Awards for revealing the cockpit tapes behind the Matty Hull friendly fire incident. He also won Campaign of the Year and the Cudlipp Award for The Sun's Help For Heroes campaign at the British Press Awards in 2008, as well as Reporter of the Year.In 2015, he won the Politics Journalism award at the British Journalism Awards for revealing the Plebgate scandal, which was also successfully defended from a libel suit brought by former Government Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell. He also shared Scoop of the Year in 2018 for breaking the Pestminster scandal, which forced Defence Secretary Michael Fallon's resignation.

Books

Tom has ghost written two military biographies, Sniper One (2006) and Apache (2008), both which made The Sunday Times best-selling list.