Peter Day (17 February 1947 – 15 March 2023) was a British broadcaster on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

and the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...

Early life and education

Day was educated at Lincoln School, at the time a boys-only

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

, from 1957 to 1964 as a boarder. His father was a manager with

Midland Bank Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...

(which became

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tr ...

in 1999) in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

(Horncastle and Gainsborough). He studied English at

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any universit ...

. Day was trained on the International Publishing Corporation (Daily Mirror Group) newspaper training scheme in south

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

. He worked at the '' Daily Record'' from 1970 to 1974 in

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 ...

Career

Day joined BBC Radio News in 1974 in London, working on the business news in 1975. In 1983, he left the BBC to join

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchis ...

as their economics and industrial correspondent, appearing as a reporter on the first day of broadcast - 1 February 1983. Day returned to the BBC to become a presenter and producer for the ''Financial World Tonight'', which became part of ''

The World Tonight ''The World Tonight'' is a British current affairs radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4, every weekday evening, which started out as an extension of the 10 pm news. It is produced by BBC News and features news, analysis and comment on domes ...

''. Day presented ''In Business'' from 1988. On the World Service he presented its sister programme, ''Global Business'', on weekends from 2000. He became Business Correspondent of the BBC in 1990, and in 1997 provided the business section for the ''

Today programme ''Today'', colloquially known as ''the Today programme'', is a long-running British morning news and current-affairs Radio program, radio programme on BBC Radio 4. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 6:00 am to 9:00 am, it is produced by BBC N ...

''. On 1 September 2016 Peter Day presented his last ever ''In Business'' programme after 28 years. He wrote his last article for the BBC website on 26 May 2016.

Personal life and death

Day died on 15 March 2023, at the age of 76.

Awards and honours

Day won the

Harold Wincott Harold Edward Wincott CBE (13 September 1906 – 5 March 1969) was a British economist and journalist. Early life Harold Wincott was born in north London, where his father ran a small family business of heraldic engravers. He went to Hornsey Co ...

Award for broadcast business journalism three times, in 1989, 2000 and 2002. He received

the Work Foundation The Work Foundation is a British not-for-profit organisation and independent authority providing advice, consultancy and research on the future of work, improving the quality of working life, leadership, economic and organisational effectiveness. ...

lifetime achievement award in 2006. In 2007, it was revealed that ''In Business'' had become a surprise

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

hit, beating ''The Best of

The Chris Moyles Show ''The Chris Moyles Show'' is the title given to two differing versions of a radio programme hosted by Chris Moyles, originally broadcast as Radio 1 Breakfast from 5 January 2004 to 14 September 2012 before transferring three years later on 21 ...

'', the ''

'' and ''

In Our Time In Our Time may refer to: * ''In Our Time'' (1944 film), a film starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid * ''In Our Time'' (1982 film), a Taiwanese anthology film featuring director Edward Yang; considered the beginning of the "New Taiwan Cinema" * ''In ...

'' as the BBC's most downloaded podcast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Peter 1947 births 2023 deaths People from Lincolnshire English radio presenters BBC World Service people Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford BBC newsreaders and journalists British business and financial journalists People educated at Lincoln Grammar School Guild of St George