Bill Turnbull
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- For the Scottish Bishop, see William Turnbull
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Bill Turnbull is a journalist and news presenter for the BBC. He is one of the main presenters of BBC Breakfast broadcast every morning on BBC One and BBC News 24. He became a presenter in 2001 and presents the programme on Friday-Sundays, as well as often on weekdays.
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[edit] Career history
Bill's career in journalism began at Scottish local station Radio Clyde, and later he freelanced for a number of years in the USA.
Bill joined the BBC and Breakfast as a reporter in 1988, before becoming a correspondent for BBC News. He covered a wide range of domestic and international stories, reporting from over thirty countries including a four-year stint as Washington Correspondent, based in the USA. In this role he reported on a whole swathe of major American stories, including the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the Monica Lewinsky scandal that rocked Bill Clinton's presidency.
In 1997 Bill moved back to the UK and into the studio to become one of the main presenters on BBC News 24. He also presented regular programmes on Radio Five Live, including a stint as a presenter on Weekend Breakfast.
Turnbull joined the BBC Breakfast team in 2001 as one of the programme's main presenters, and over the last five years he has presented alongside Sophie Raworth, Sian Williams, Tanya Beckett, Natasha Kaplinsky, Mishal Husain, Kate Silverton, Susanna Reid and a number of others. Bill is an occasional presenter of the BBC Six O'Clock News, and he's also fronted the BBC One O'Clock News.
As well as anchoring programmes in the studio, Bill regularly presents on location. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he was sent to New Orleans to report for BBC News, presenting both BBC Breakfast and the BBC Six O'Clock News live from Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi. In the aftermath of the July 7th bombings in Central London, Bill anchored Breakfast's coverage live from King's Cross railway station.
[edit] Trivia
In 2005, Bill was a contestant in the third season of the BBC dancing competition Strictly Come Dancing, paired with Karen Hardy. The pair performed entertaining routines, and made it to the later stages of the competition despite Bill sustaining a serious ankle injury in the second week, which then flared up at various points in the series.
In August 2006, he agreed to take part in a polyphasic sleep experiment presented on BBC One's The One Show programme. In this experiment he slept for a total of three hours per day, in six thirty-minute bursts, for ten consecutive days. The effect of this sleep pattern on his health was plain to see as he presented Breakfast almost every weekday during the duration of the exercise and became increasingly sleep deprived.[1]
[edit] Personal
Turnbull is a self confessed Wycombe Wanderers football club fan. His hobbies include beekeeping and long distance running (he has run the London Marathon on a number of occasions), while he also keeps chickens in his back garden at his house in the village of Jordans. He is 5ft 10 in height, is married and has three children.
