Donald MacCormick (16 April 1939 – 12 July 2009)Veteran BBC newsman dies aged 70
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

'', 12 July 2009. was a Scottish broadcast

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

Early life

MacCormick's father was a

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

teacher who died when Donald was six. As a result, he became close to the family of his uncle John MacCormick, a lawyer and advocate for Scottish devolution. He studied English at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, where he was chairman of the Labour Club with Donald Dewar and John Smith. Following his graduation, he trained to become a teacher at

Jordanhill College of Education Jordanhill Campus is an historic estate within the boundaries of Jordanhill, Glasgow, Scotland, which developed as a country estate. It is best known and most recently used as the home to the Faculty of Education of the University of Strath ...

and taught at the High School of Glasgow from 1962 to 1967.

Media career

He began his media career in Scotland in 1967, working at

Grampian Television Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and now named STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Highlands (except Fort William a ...

as a news reporter and then later, on political programmes both for ITV and BBC. He presented the ground-breaking political programme '' Public Account'' for BBC Scotland with James Cox and Andrew Neil. In 1975, he moved to London and became a presenter on BBC1's new ''

Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...

'' programme and a series of national roles followed. Most significantly, along with John Tusa and Peter Snow, he made up the triumvirate that anchored ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

'' in its early years. MacCormick also chaired BBC1's '' Question Time'', presented the '' Money Programme'' and for several years was a commentator on the BBC's live coverage of the party political conferences. Moving to

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

in the early 1990s, MacCormick hosted a lunchtime news analysis programme and conducted a major discussion series during the

First Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

. On the night of the 1992 general election he was one of the presenters of Sky News's election night coverage, alongside Sir David Frost. He later returned to Scotland to present three seasons of political programmes for

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is th ...

in Glasgow. On radio, he hosted his own Sunday morning topical magazine programme on London News Direct. MacCormick had moved into the corporate sector, interviewing executives for company videos, chairing conferences and working in media training.Birthdays: Donald MacCormick
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'', 16 April 2009. On 28 March 2009 MacCormick returned to the BBC to present an evening on

BBC Parliament BBC Parliament is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel from the BBC that broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the House of Commons, House of Lords and Select Committees of the British Parliament, the Scottish Parliam ...

. ''The Night The Government Fell'' marked the 30th anniversary of the vote of no confidence in the Labour government headed by

James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005), commonly known as Jim Callaghan, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is ...

. 30 years previously MacCormick had presented a live programme in Westminster covering these same events. MacCormick died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

on 12 July 2009. He was divorced from Lis MacKinlay, by whom he had three children. He was married to Liz Elton from 1978 until his death; they had two children. All five children survive MacCormick. Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, who first met MacCormick at Glasgow University in 1959, paid tribute to the broadcaster saying: "Donald MacCormick was a prince among broadcasters. His style was always civil but insistent. He was always thoroughly prepared and his kind of journalism characterised all that is best in the BBC."Veteran BBC Journalist Donald MacCormick dies
''The Guardian'', 13 July 2009.

References

External links

Profile
''

Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'', 6 October 1984
Obituary
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', 23 July 2009 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maccormick, Donald 1939 births 2009 deaths Alumni of the University of Glasgow BBC Scotland newsreaders and journalists British television newsreaders and news presenters Question Time (TV programme) Scottish schoolteachers Scottish television presenters Scottish television journalists Place of birth missing Labour Party (UK) people