Nicholas Witchell

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Nicholas Witchell
Born	September 23, 1953 (1953-09-23) (age 54) Shropshire, England
Occupation	BBC Journalist
Website BBC Profile

Nicholas Newton Henshall Witchell (born September 23, 1953) is a British journalist. He is the current royal and diplomatic correspondent for BBC News.

Witchell was born in Shropshire and educated at Epsom College, a British Independent school in Surrey, and later studied law at the University of Leeds, where he edited the student newspaper. He has worked for the BBC since 1976. He reported from Northern Ireland and the Falkland Islands during the 1982 Falklands War.

1 News career
2 Royal Correspondent
3 Later career
4 References
5 External links

[edit] News career

Witchell, along with Sue Lawley, then became the first newsreader of the BBC Six O'Clock News when that programme was launched in 1984, now called the BBC News at Six. In 1988, the Six O'Clock News studio was famously invaded during a live broadcast by a female group protesting against Britain's Section 28 (a law against the promotion of homosexuality in schools). Witchell famously grappled with the protestors and is said to have sat on one woman, provoking the memorable frontpage headline in the Daily Mirror, Beeb man sits on lesbian.^[1]

He was the first reporter to give the news of both Lockerbie disaster and Zeebrugge ferry disaster.

The following year he moved from the evening to breakfast news slot, a role he filled for five years. During the 1991 Gulf War he was a volunteer presenter on the BBC Radio 4 News FM service^[2]. In 1994 he left the studio to become a reporter for factual affairs programme Panorama.

[edit] Royal Correspondent

In 1998, Witchell became a royal and diplomatic correspondent. In 2002, his obituary of Princess Margaret, recorded some time before her death but screened immediately after the announcement of her death, provoked controversy, as it mentioned her lovers and love of whisky.

Witchell provoked royal ire again in 2005. Whilst at a press conference at the Swiss ski resort of Klosters, Witchell asked Prince Charles how he and his sons were feeling about his forthcoming marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles. After a response from his son William, Charles said under his breath, and referring to Witchell, "These bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he's so awful, he really is." Witchell himself was then in the headlines. The BBC defended their reporter saying "He is one of our finest. His question was perfectly reasonable under the circumstances." The outburst even brought praise from rival broadcasters, Sky's Geoff Meade praised Witchell, describing him as one of the most respected and least irreverent of all the media present.^{[citation needed]} A BBC Radio Five Live phone poll on the day did, however, indicate greater support for the Prince than for Witchell, with approximately 1000 out of 1700 votes going to 'Charles' over 'Nick'.^{[citation needed]}

Witchell is also the author of a book about his failed search to find the Loch Ness monster. Witchell is a Governor of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation, an Officer of the Order of St John and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He lives in Central London with his wife and two children.^[1]