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Libby Purves OBE | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elizabeth Mary Purves 2 February 1950 London, England, UK |
| Occupation(s) | Radio presenter, journalist and author |
| Spouse | Paul Heiney |
| Children | Nicholas Heiney (died 2006) Rose Heiney |
Elizabeth Mary Purves, OBE (born 2 February 1950) is a British radio presenter, journalist and author.
Born in London, a diplomat's daughter, Purves was raised in her mother's Catholic faith and educated at convent schools in Israel, Bangkok, South Africa and France, and at Beechwood Sacred Heart School, Royal Tunbridge Wells. [1]
Purves won a scholarship to St Anne's College, Oxford, where she was awarded a first class degree in English. [2] She was elected Librarian of the Oxford Union. In 1971, she joined the BBC as a studio manager. By the mid-1970s she was a regular presenter on BBC Radio Oxford where she could be frequently heard on the station's early morning shows. In 1976, she joined the BBC Radio 4's Today programme as a reporter and became the programme's first woman presenter, alongside Brian Redhead and John Timpson, two years later. [3] [4]
In 1983 she was editor of Tatler magazine for six months. [5]
For her column in The Times newspaper, Purves was named columnist of the year in 1999 and in the same year was appointed an OBE for services to journalism.[ citation needed ] She has written books on childcare, twelve novels including Mother Country , a memoir of religious upbringing, Holy Smoke (1998), and a travel book, One Summer's Grace (1989), about a 1,700-mile sailing journey round Britain with children aged three and five.[ citation needed ]
Purves has a monthly column in the sailing magazine Yachting Monthly and is a contributor to The Oldie magazine. She was appointed a patron of the British Art Music Series Trust [6] along with James MacMillan and John Wilson. She served ten years as a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum.
In February 2010 she was appointed The Times drama critic, succeeding Benedict Nightingale, [7] but her work for The Times in this area ended in September 2013. [8] In a press statement she released after she was fired, she said that "I have to tell you that the acting editor of The Times Mr Witherow has decreed that he does not want me to continue as Chief Theatre Critic. This is not my decision in any way. At all. … I carry on reviewing and maintaining the lists until 11 October." [9]
Two days after she finished at The Times, she announced in the London Evening Standard that her commitment to, and interest in, theatre commentary was so great that she intended to continue through theatrecat.com, a theatre review website. [10]
Purves is in favour of equal rights for gay people, and has written articles supporting this position. [11] [12] However, she has spoken out against the "coercive liberalism, one-note righteousness" of the National Trust following its "outing" of Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer, saying that "Crassly reducing any human being to a sexuality, posthumously enlisting him or her in a phantom regiment under your orders, is almost as belittling as persecution itself." [13]
In 2009, Purves debated at the Cambridge Union against Glenn Wilson and Rupert Myers on the motion This House Would Rather Be Gay. [14] Following a column on the anti-gay policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Greek businessman Demetri Marchessini took out a quarter-page advertisement in The Daily Telegraph on 28 January 2014 to criticise her views on homosexuality and religion. According to Purves, while Marchessini is "free to approve of the beatings and hangings of young men across the world in the name of what he considers religion" she is also "free to say he is a loony." [15]
On BBC Radio 4 Purves also presented Midweek for 33 years (1984–2017) and the educational programme The Learning Curve for 10 years (1998–2008). [16]
Since leaving the BBC, she has been critical of several aspects of the corporation: equal pay for newsreaders, [17] sexism and agism, [18] and "woke" comedy shows. [19]
Purves is married to broadcaster Paul Heiney. The couple has one surviving child.[ citation needed ] Their first child, Nicholas, died on 26 June 2006, at age 23. A collection of his poems and sea-logs of a Pacific journey under square rig, The Silence at the Song's End, has been published, inspired a song cycle by Joseph Phibbs (2008), [20] and was broadcast on Radio 4. [21]
Today, colloquially known as the Today programme, is the BBC's long-running morning news and current-affairs radio programme on Radio 4. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 6:00 am to 9:00 am, it is produced by BBC News and is the highest-rated programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks. In-depth political interviews and reports are interspersed with regular news bulletins, as well as Thought for the Day. It has been voted the most influential news programme in Britain in setting the political agenda, with an average weekly listening audience around 6 million.
MarilynRice-Davies was a Welsh model and showgirl best known for her association with Christine Keeler and her role in the Profumo affair, which discredited the Conservative government of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1963.
Anne Josephine Robinson is an English television presenter and journalist, best known as the host of BBC game show The Weakest Link from 2000 to 2017. She presented the Channel 4 game show Countdown from June 2021 to July 2022, taking over from Nick Hewer. She left the programme on 13 July 2022 after recording 265 episodes, and was succeeded by Colin Murray.
Blue Peter is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Television Centre in London until September 2011, when the programme moved to dock10 studios at MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester. It is currently shown live on the CBBC television channel on Fridays at 5pm. The show is also repeated on Saturdays at 11:30am, Sundays at 9:00am and a BSL version is shown on Tuesdays at 2:00pm.
Start the Week is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is Tom Sutcliffe. The previous regular presenters were Richard Baker, Russell Harty, Melvyn Bragg, Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Marr
Emma Vallencey Freud is an English broadcaster and cultural commentator.
Susan Elizabeth Perkins is an English actress, broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer. Originally coming to prominence through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc in Mel and Sue, she has since become best known as a radio broadcaster and television presenter, notably of The Great British Bake Off (2010–2016), Insert Name Here (2016–2019) and Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4.
Diane Johnson, better known by her stage name Diane Louise Jordan, is a British television presenter. She was the first black presenter of the children's television programme Blue Peter, being involved in the programme from 25 January 1990 until 26 February 1996. While on Blue Peter, her co-presenters were Yvette Fielding, John Leslie, Anthea Turner, Tim Vincent, Stuart Miles and Katy Hill.
Rachael Atlanta Stirling is an English stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated twice for the Laurence Olivier Award for her stage work. She played Nancy Astley in the BBC drama Tipping the Velvet, and Millie in the ITV series The Bletchley Circle. She has also guest starred in Lewis and one episode of Doctor Who, co-starring with her mother Diana Rigg.
Lesley Judd is an English former television presenter and dancer, best known as a long-serving host of the BBC children's programme Blue Peter (1972–1979).
Paul Heiney is a British radio broadcaster and television reporter most notable as a former presenter of That's Life!.
Joan Maureen "Biddy" Baxter, MBE is a British television producer, best known for editing the long-running BBC TV children's magazine show Blue Peter from 1962 to 1988. As editor of the programme, Baxter devised much of the format that is still used today.
Carolyn Quinn is a British journalist best known for her work on BBC Radio 4 as a political correspondent and for presenting the Today programme and PM.
Kathy Clugston is a Northern Irish presenter, newsreader and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC World Service.
Anne Atkins is an English novelist, writer and broadcaster. The author of four novels – The Lost Child, On Our Own,A Fine and Private Place, and An Elegant Solution – as well as three books of non-fiction, she is a regular contributor to the Today programme's Thought for the Day feature.
Midweek was a British weekly radio magazine series broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was aired on Wednesday at 09.00 and repeated later the same day at 21.00. For most of its run it was presented by Libby Purves and each week several guests discussed various topics with her. Start the Week and Stop the Week, also broadcast on Radio 4, employed similar formats. The programme ended in March 2017 as part of a schedule change.
Rosie Wilby is an English comedian and singer songwriter based in South London.
Tatler is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. It focuses on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper-middle class and upper class, and those interested in society events. Its readership is the wealthiest of all Condé Nast's publications. It was founded in 1901 by Clement Shorter. Tatler is also published in Russia by Conde Nast, and by Edipresse Media Asia.
This is a list of events from British radio in 1950.
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