Moira Stuart

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Moira Stuart bigraphy, stories - British newsreader

Moira Stuart : biography

2 September 1949 –

Moira Clare Ruby Stuart OBE (born 2 September 1949) is a British presenter, who was the first African-Caribbean female newsreader on British television. She has presented many television news and radio programmes for the BBC and is currently the newsreader for The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2.

Career

Early career

Stuart began working with the BBC in the 1970s and was a production assistant in the radio Talks and Documentaries department. 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 news in 1981.

TV News career

Since 27 August 1981, Stuart has presented on every news bulletin devised on BBC television 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 and the following programme Sunday AM with Andrew Marr. She presented the news for BBC Breakfast during 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. However, BBC Breakfast moved to a new studio with a new look on 2 May 2006 and the entire news content was presented by two main presenters. Stuart retained her slot on BBC’s Sunday AM show and 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.

In April 2007 it was announced that Stuart would be leaving Sunday AM, resulting in the loss of a regular slot on broadcast TV. This prompted an angry backlash from press and colleagues who accused the BBC of ageism and sexism. The BBC initially declined to comment on why she was no longer being used, but rumours circulated within the BBC and commercial newsrooms that Stuart had been removed because she was considered "too old" at 57, although Anna Ford had continued anchoring the BBC One O’Clock News until her retirement at 62. This was denied by Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson when he was questioned by a House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee. Thompson stated: "BBC News, News 24, the radio networks, have changed over the years and the traditional role of the newsreader, as opposed to a correspondent or presenter, has virtually died out over the services…. We tend to use journalists across BBC news programmes … to read the news headlines."

Stuart’s 26-year career with BBC Television News was brought to a close on 3 October 2007, when the BBC announced her departure. In total, her experience had spanned 34 years of BBC radio and TV.

In April 2009, the departing head of BBC News, Peter Horrocks, was quoted as saying: "I regret the way some viewed her departure. Many people came to believe that Moira left for reasons of ageism, or other -isms. This was never the case."

On 21 November 2009, it was reported in The Guardian that Chris Evans was "lining up" Moira Stuart to read the news bulletins on his new BBC Radio 2 show in January 2010, when he was due to inherit the slot from Terry Wogan. On 6 January 2010, it was confirmed that she would return to BBC News, reading the news for The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, starting on 11 January 2010.

Other projects

A keen music lover, Stuart deputised for Humphrey Lyttelton on his BBC Radio 2 Best of Jazz programme, has participated in the British Jazz Awards as compère, and features 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 Orange Prize, the London Fair Play Consortium and the Human Genetics Advisory Commission.