John Craven

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John Craven OBE (born in Leeds, England on 16 August 1941) is a BBC television presenter and former news anchor.

He started his professional life in print journalism as a junior reporter on a local newspaper, the Harrogate Advertiser, before working for the Yorkshire Post and as a freelance correspondent and writer for national newspapers. He then joined the BBC staff in Newcastle upon Tyne, to work on local radio and television, before moving to the BBC in Bristol. In 1972, he began a regular children's news programme, Newsround. He also presented news items on other programmes, such as Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and Saturday Superstore.

In 1989 he left the Newsround team, and began to present a countryside news programme, Countryfile, for the BBC.

He was awarded the OBE in 2000 for services to rural and children's broadcasting, and the Baird Medal in 2002. He is vice-president of the Waterways Trust. He is a Patron of SPANA (Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad).

[edit] Trivia

In popular slang, a John Craven is the act of drinking five pints of beer without going to the lavatory until the fifth is finished. The derivation is unknown, but possibly refers to a spoof article about the news reader's drinking capacity in issue 28 of Viz magazine.^[1]