Valerie Sanderson (born 1960 in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

) is one of the main presenters of ''The Newsroom'' (and previously '' World Briefing'') on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

. Sanderson was one of the original presenters on

BBC News 24 The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air Public broadcasting, public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London, West End of ...

when it launched in 1997.

Early life

Sanderson studied at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, then completed a postgraduate degree at

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

as a Robert T. Jones Scholar in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

BBC

She joined the BBC in 1985 as a producer on Radio 4's ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'' programme. She has also been a reporter on the ''Today'' programme and BBC's ''Breakfast News''. She was on the '' Spotlight'' programme based in

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

from 1989 and helped to launch

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

in 1994. Sanderson was one of the launch presenters for

in 1997 and could often be seen presenting the 1-4pm slot on News 24 alongside

Bill Turnbull William Robert Jolyon Turnbull (25 January 1956 – 31 August 2022) was a British television and radio presenter and journalist whose broadcasting career spanned over 4 decades. He began his career working for some radio stations including Radi ...

Chris Eakin Chris Eakin is a journalist who was a newsreader on the BBC's 24-hour rolling news channel, BBC News, and a relief presenter on BBC News at One at weekends. He was one of the channel's launch presenters in 1997, and is a published author. He lef ...

. Sanderson was on air live at the news desk on September 11th 2001 reporting on the first plane that struck tower one and confused the second airplane as it hit the tower live on air for a helicopter. Stunned news staff in the background could be heard shouting " oh no"! as she struggled to comprehend what she was witnessing. Sanderson was one of the main presenters of '' World Briefing'' on the

. She occasionally presents the BBC's daily audio news podcast ''Newspod''. In April 2013 ''World Briefing'' was replaced by ''The Newsroom'' which Sanderson continues to present.

Personal life

She was the partner of

Radio Four BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting ...

's ''

'' programme presenter

John Humphrys Desmond John Humphrys (born 17 August 1943) is a Welsh people, Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter of the ''BBC Nine O'Clock News, Nine O'Clock News'', the flagship BBC News television programme, and from 1987 until ...

, but they have since separated. They have one child.

References

External links

News 24 profile

Valerie Sanderson Profile
TV Newsroom
Valerie and John Humphrys
Telegraph Online 1960 births Living people BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC World Service people Alumni of the University of St Andrews Mass media people from Nottingham {{BBC-tv-bio-stub