Peter Sissons

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Peter Sissons bigraphy, stories - TV presenter, newsreader and journalist

Peter Sissons : biography

17 July 1942 –

Peter George Sissons (born 17 July 1942) is a broadcast journalist in the United Kingdom. He was the presenter of the BBC Nine O’Clock News and the BBC News at Ten between 1993 and 2003, and earlier a newscaster for ITN, providing bulletins on ITV and Channel 4. He is also a former presenter of the BBC’s Question Time programme. He left the BBC in 2009.Paul Revoir Daily Mail, 13 June 2009

Opinions

In 2011, Sissons published When One Door Closes (from which an extract was reproduced for Mail Online), in which he claimed that BBC News had a bias towards the political Left and complained that The Guardian was the first newspaper that was turned to for a lead on stories.

Background

Originally from Liverpool, Peter Sissons attended the Dovedale Road Junior School with John Lennon and Jimmy Tarbuck and after the 11+ to the Liverpool Institute for Boys from 1953 to 1961 with Bill Kenwright, Stephen Norris, George Harrison and Paul McCartney. He later studied at University College, Oxford where he was Treasurer of the University College Players.

Other appearances

Sissons portrayed a spoof version of himself in The Life of Python, a lighthearted documentary about the Monty Python’s Flying Circus television show, in which he led an interview of the five surviving Pythons together, which consisted entirely of them all saying "Hello".

Career

After many years as a journalist, during which time he was wounded by gunfire while covering the Biafran War, his first period as a newsreader came in 1976 when he began anchoring ITN’s News at One bulletins alternately with Leonard Parkin until the first incarnation of the series was dropped by ITV in 1987 after Leonard Parkin decided to retire from ITN; Sissons subsequently left for the BBC.

Question Time The Satanic Verses The Satanic Verses Affair

He has worked for ITN, Channel 4 News and BBC News, where he hosted the BBC Nine O’Clock News and the Ten O’Clock News. He was dropped from this position in January 2003.Peter Sissons Daily Mail, 22 January 2011 Sissons reportedly accused the BBC of ageism in response to its decision to move him from the prime slot.

In 2002, Sissons announced the death of The Queen Mother on the BBC. This broadcast created a major controversy, as he wore a burgundy tie as opposed to a black one, deemed more appropriate by tradition for such news. Sissons has since publicly defended his actions. Also during the broadcast he carried out a live on air interview with the Hon. Margaret Rhodes, the Queen Mother’s niece, in which he pressed her for intimate details of the final moments of the death to the point of her breaking off the interview. This interview caused a media furore at the time, consternation in the Royal Family’s circle and led the Prince of Wales to choose ITN to record his personal televisual appreciation of his grandmother rather than the BBC which would have been the expected and traditional option. Sissons’ reputation as a broadcaster was damaged by the affair. He subsequently presented weekend afternoons on BBC News, the corporation’s 24-hour rolling news channel. Sissons has also presented News 24 Sunday, the replacement for Andrew Marr’s BBC One programme The Andrew Marr Show when it is off air during the Summer. He also occasionally presented weekend bulletins on BBC One. On 12 June 2009, Sissons announced his intention to retire in the summer in order to write his memoirs., BBC News, 12 June 2009

Personal life

Sissons is also a Liverpool John Moores University Honorary Fellow and delivered a lecture on 19 June 2008 speaking about the City of Liverpool.

His daughter is the actress Kate Sissons. He also has a second home on the island of Barbados.