Moira Stuart

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Moira Clare Ruby Stuart [1] OBE (September 2, 1949) is a British journalist who was the first African-Caribbean female newsreader on British television. She presented many television news, and radio programmes for the BBC, but she is now pursuing other projects.[2]

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[edit] Early life and career

Moira Stuart was born in the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London on 2 September 1949 [1] to African-Caribbean parents.[3] Her mother, Marjorie Gordon (born 1921), and her father, Harold Stuart (1914–66), divorced when she was ten months old. Talking about her ancestry, Stuart says she is from a "long line of outsiders" and that she considers herself "a true mongrel — and proud of it".[3]

Stuart began working with the BBC in the 1970s. She was a continuity announcer and newsreader for both BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 2, and in 1980, she played Darong in series one of game show The Adventure Game. She moved to television in 1981.[4]

[edit] TV news career

Since 27 August 1981, Stuart has presented every news bulletin devised on BBC television[5] apart from the Ten O'Clock News. She has also appeared on The News Quiz and presented the news on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme each Sunday, continuing to present its successor programme Sunday AM with Andrew Marr.

Until a change in the format of BBC Breakfast she presented the first half-hour of the programme, three days a week, followed by short half-hourly round-ups throughout the rest of the three-hour-long show. BBC Breakfast moved to a new studio with a new look on 2 May 2006, and the entire news content is now presented by the two main presenters. Until comparatively recently Stuart retained her slot on BBC's Sunday AM show.[6] She continued to present some weekend television bulletins on BBC One. She also worked on other long-form programmes for other BBC channels, including BBC Four.

Throughout her 30 plus years at the BBC,
Moira has achieved a great deal.
She has always been a model professional
as well as being much loved and admired
by both the public and her BBC colleagues.
Everyone in BBC News wishes her
all the best for the future.

Helen Boaden, Director of BBC News[5]

On 27 March 2007, BBC News announced that Stuart would no longer be presenting the bulletins for Sunday AM. This meant she no longer had a regular slot on broadcast TV.[2] The BBC declined to comment on why she was no longer being used, although rumours circulated within the BBC and commercial newsrooms that Stuart was taken from all future bulletins because she was considered now "too old", at 57, although Anna Ford continued anchoring the BBC One O'Clock News until her retirement at 62.

Her 34 year career with BBC News was brought to a close on 3 October 2007 when the BBC announced her departure.[5]

[edit] Other projects

A keen music lover, Stuart has deputised for Humphrey Lyttelton on his BBC Radio 2 Best of Jazz programme, participated in the British Jazz Awards as compère, and featured as a narrator on a jazz-rap album by Soweto Kinch.

With Adam Shaw, she also presents the BBC Two personal finance series Cashing In.

Stuart has served on various boards and judging panels including Amnesty International, The Royal Television Society, United Nations Association, the London Fair Play Consortium and the Human Genetics Advisory Commission.

In 2004, Stuart was the subject in one episode of the BBC documentary series, Who Do You Think You Are? which helped trace back her family history.[7] In it, she travelled up to the Scottish Highlands, as well as to Antigua and to Dominica, where her great-grandfather George James Christian was born. During the programme, Stuart discovered the story of how her grandfather, Edgar Fitzgerald Gordon, met his wife Clara Christian while both were studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh. While her grandfather completed his degree and qualified in 1918, Stuart's grandmother did not finish her studies, using money intended to pay for her course to pay their bills instead. Stuart claims ancestral links to Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Trinidad & Great Britain. [8]. In the programme, Stuart also discovered her family's past links to slavery.[3]

In the 2006 BBC documentary Extras, Stuart was revealed as being involved in the supply of drugs to celebrities, notably Ronnie Corbett.

In March 2007 she also presented the documentary In Search of Wilberforce for BBC Television, examining the role of anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the British bill that banned the slave trade.

On June 2, 2007, she hosted the BBC One topical news quiz show, Have I Got News for You,[9] and was well received by the public. The extended and uncut version of which (shown the following evening, June 3, 2007), revealed that, while making a spoof appeal for work, she fluffed her lines on a number of occasions but took it all with her traditional good humour.

On November 16, 2007, she visited Mill Hill School in Ripley, Derbyshire to officially open the new school building alongside Councillor Alan Charles from Derbyshire County Council.

[edit] Personal life

She is unmarried, though she has said that on two occasions she almost got married. Desmond Lynam has said that she has been a girlfriend of his.[10] Stuart was an only child and has no immediate family still alive apart from her mother (b.1921) who lives in Canada. She lives in west London.

She has also received other advances, one memorably by John Humphrys at the end of the Six O'Clock News. "You're the most sensationally sexy lady I know. The best thing we can do for the next few hours is to make mad passionate love in the basement." This was caught by the sub-titles although the microphone was off.

[edit] Awards and achievements

[edit] The Moira Stewart Cup

The Moira Stewart(sic) Cup[13]is competed for annually in the United Hospitals Revue of the University of London Medical Schools. The current holders are GKT School of Medicine.

The cup is not officially endorsed by Moira Stuart herself.

Previous Holders:

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b The Times 6 June 2007. The age of Moira. Retrieved on 2007-06-08.
  2. ^ a b BBC News (2007). Moira Stuart loses BBC News slot (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  3. ^ a b c Moira Stuart is adamant: I'm not revealing my age. Daily Mail. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
  4. ^ Every Generation (2004). 100 Great Black Britons - Moira Stuart (HTML). Retrieved on 2006-10-22.
  5. ^ a b c "Moira Stuart to leave BBC News", BBC Press Office, 2007-10-03. Retrieved on 2007-10-31. 
  6. ^ BBC Breakfast: Goodbye Moira, 26 April 2006, (accessed 5 November 2006)
  7. ^ "Who Do You Think You Are? with Moira Stuart". Who Do You Think You Are?. BBC. BBC Two. 2004-11-16.
  8. ^ Edinburgh Evening News. Degree of emotion for newsreader Moira. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.
  9. ^ Daily Mail 1 June 2007. Moira Stuart is adamant: I'm not revealing my age. Retrieved on 2007-06-03.
  10. ^ a b Scotland on Sunday 1 April 2007. Head girl with a subversive streak Profile: Moira Stuart. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
  11. ^ BBC News (2001). Jackie Stewart roars to knighthood (HTML). Retrieved on 2006-10-22.
  12. ^ The University of Edinburgh Web Team (2006). Graduation Ceremonials 2006 (HTML). University of Edinburgh. Retrieved on 2006-06-21.
  13. ^ Medical Student (2007). Medical Student February 2007 (pdf). Retrieved on 2008-04-15.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links