Peter Taylor (Journalist)
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Peter Taylor, is a
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
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 ...
and documentary-maker. He is best known for his coverage of the political and armed conflict in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
, widely known as
the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
, and for his investigation of Al Qaeda and Islamist extremism in the wake of 9/11. He also covers the issue of smoking and health and the politics of tobacco for which he was awarded the
WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...
Gold Medal for Services to Public Health. He has written
book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...
s and researched, written and presented
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
documentaries over a period of more than forty years. In 2014, Taylor was awarded both a Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award and a BAFTA special award.


Early life

Taylor was born in 1942 in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
, North Riding of Yorkshire, and was educated at
Scarborough High School for Boys Graham School is a coeducational secondary school in the west of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated to the west of the town within of grounds. The school is on Woodlands Drive. The lower site on Lady Edith's Drive closed ...
, a state boys'
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 ...
, followed by Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read Classics, Modern History and Social and Political Sciences.


Career

Taylor's career reporting on political violence began with ITV’s '' This Week'' in 1967, and continued with
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
TV’s '' Panorama'' from 1980 to 2014. His Panorama Special, ''The Spies Who Fooled the World'', investigated the intelligence used to justify the
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...
. He has made many authored series for
BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
and BBC2 on the security and intelligence services and five documentary series since the
9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...
on Al Qaeda and Islamist extremism, culminating in his acclaimed ''The Secret War on Terror'' to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 which the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'' described as "a small masterpiece of clarity as to our present condition." In 2015, he investigated the funding of ISIS in his programme ''World's Richest Terror Army.'' Taylor has written eight books on political violence, his latest being ''Talking to Terrorists. A Personal Journey from the IRA to Al Qaeda''. Others include ''Beating the Terrorists? Interrogation in Omagh, Gough and Castlereagh'', and his
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
trilogy on
the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
called, ''Provos: The IRA and Sinn Féin'', ''Loyalists'', and ''Brits: The War against the IRA''. Each book deals with the Northern Irish conflict from the perspective of one of the three main parties involved: the
Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...
; the various
Ulster loyalist Ulster loyalism is a strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland. Like other unionists, loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, and oppose a u ...
paramilitary groups; and the British government and security forces. The trilogy provides an insight into all the main groups involved and the violent and political events that occurred throughout this turbulent period in Anglo-Irish history. Taylor's books feature interviews with people connected to some of the most significant incidents and landmark political events in Northern Ireland during this time. In 2000, he presented the three part BBC2 series ''Brits'' on the covert war in Northern Ireland including interviews of former members of
14 Intelligence Company The Special Reconnaissance Unit, also known as the 14 Field Security and Intelligence Company (internally "The Det") was a part of the British Army Intelligence Corps involved in plainclothes operations in Northern Ireland from the 1970s onwa ...
, the RUC Headquarters Mobile Support Unit and MI6. In 2007, he wrote and presented the BBC four-part series, ''Age of Terror''. In April 2012, he was presenter and reporter for the BBC2 two-part series ''Modern Spies'', in which he interviewed serving members of
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
, the Secret Intelligence Service and
GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...
(anonymously). ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' described it as'' “meticulously researched and enviably sourced”''. His documentaries on smoking and health and the politics of tobacco include four for ITV in the 1970s: ''Dying for a Fag'' (ITV's ''This Week'' 1975); ''Licence to Kill''; ''Ashes to Ashes'' (ITV's ''This Week'' 1976); and '' Death in the West. The Marlboro Story''. In the 1980s he continued his investigations into the tobacco industry with BBC TV's ''Panorama'' programme: ''A Dying Industry'' (BBC 1980) and ''The Habit the Government can’t Break'' (BBC 1985). He also published his book, ''Smoke Ring. The Politics of Tobacco'' in 1985. In May/June 2014, a new BBC series, ''Burning Desire'' was aired with Taylor as the presenter. In 2014, he was awarded a Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award and a BAFTA special award for his career's contribution to factual and current affairs television. Awarding Taylor his BAFTA, Sir
Jeremy Isaacs Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs (born 28 September 1932) is a Scottish television producer and executive, opera manager, and a recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards. He won the British Film Institute Fellow ...
described him as "Mr Valiant for the Truth", referencing
John Bunyan John Bunyan (; baptised 30 November 162831 August 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress,'' which also became an influential literary model. In addition ...
's ''
Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christianity, Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a prog ...
''. In 2015, Taylor secured the first British television interview with former CIA analyst Edward Snowden, living in exile in Moscow, for '' Panorama''.


Personal life

He was married to fellow journalist Susan McConachy from 1974 until her death on 16 November 2006. They had two children, Ben and Sam. He is the older brother of John Taylor, former Presenter & Producer/Director LWT's The London Programme and reporter on Panorama worked on ITV's This Week, presented Carlton TV's Inside Crime, and worked for Channel Five's Crime Report, Reported on London News Network's London Tonight, and was at BBC News.


Awards

Taylor has been the recipient of numerous awards: * Three Royal Television Society (RTS) Best Home Documentary awards: ** "Coincidence or Conspiracy?" (Panorama on the Stalker Affair) (1987) ** "The Volunteer" (from "Families at War") (1990) ** "Enemies Within" (Inside Story Special on the Maze Prison) (1991) * RTS Judges Award for his contribution to television journalism (1995) * RTS Judges Award for his Irish trilogy, "Provos", "Loyalists" and "Brits" (2001). * Elected Fellow of the Royal Television Society * RTS Journalist of the Year (2003) * John Grierson Award for Best Historical Documentary "SAS. Embassy Siege" (2003) * James Cameron Award "for work as a journalist that combined moral vision and professional integrity" (2008) * Honorary Doctor of Letters,
Bradford University The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...
, for his work on terrorism and political violence (2008) * Christopher Ewart-Biggs prize for lifetime's contribution to Anglo-Irish understanding. (2013) * Four BAFTA nominations: ** "Dying for a Fag" (1975) ** "SAS Embassy Siege" (2003) ** "Brighton Bomb" (2003) ** "Generation Jihad" (2010) * Lifetime achievement award from the Royal Television Society (2014). * BAFTA special award for his career's contribution to factual and current affairs television (2014)


Publications

* ''Beating the Terrorists. Interrogation at Omagh, Gough and Castlereagh'' (1980). Cobden Trust prize for contribution to human rights. * ''Smoke Ring. The Politics of Tobacco'' (1984) * ''Stalker. The Search for the Truth'' (1986) * ''Families at War'' (1989) * ''States of Terror. Democracy and Political Violence'' (1993) * ''Provos. The IRA and Sinn Féin'' (1998) * ''Loyalists'' (1999) * ''Brits. The War Against the IRA'' (2000) * '' Talking to Terrorists. A Personal Journey from the IRA to Al Qaeda'' (2011)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Peter 1942 births 20th-century British writers Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge British male journalists Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Scarborough, North Yorkshire 20th-century British male writers People educated at Scarborough High School for Boys BAFTA winners (people)