Alice Arnold (born 1962) is a British broadcaster and journalist. She was a newsreader and

continuity announcer In broadcasting, continuity or presentation (or station break in the U.S. and Canada) is announcements, messages and graphics played by the broadcaster between specific programmes. It typically includes programme schedules, announcement of the ...

BBC Radio 4 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 Broadcasti ...

for more than twenty years until the end of December 2012. She currently works for

Bauer Media Audio UK Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of Bauer Media Group owning brands; Absolute Radio, Greatest Hits Radio, Jazz FM, Hits Radio, KISS, Planet Rock, Magic, Kerrang! Radio and Heat Radio. History In early 2008, German ma ...

hosting on Mellow Magic.

Early life

She attended the independent

Claremont Fan Court School Claremont Fan Court School is a co-educational private day school for pupils from 2 to 18 years. Situated outside Esher, in Surrey, sixteen miles from London, it is located on the grounds of the Claremont Estate. It is a member of the Society ...

Esher Esher ( ) is a town in the borough of Borough of Elmbridge, Elmbridge in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole, Surrey, River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London, close to the London–Surrey border; with Esher Commons at its ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, where

Michaela Strachan Michaela Evelyn Ann Strachan (, born 7 April 1966) is an English television presenter and singer. After beginning her career in theatre, she ventured into presenting and fronted the children's television shows '' Wide Awake Club'' (1986–1989 ...

was three years below her. After gaining a degree in politics from the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

, she trained as an actress at the Drama Studio in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...

and was in the musical '' Evita'' for a year.Alison Robert
"Alice Arnold: You look at men of a certain age on TV and think: 'If you were a woman, you wouldn’t be there' "
''Evening Standard'', 8 January 2013 She was a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

for ten years from the age of thirty in

Tottenham Tottenham (, , , ) is a district in north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, ...

Career and public profile

Arnold joined the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Radio Drama Company in 1988. After meeting Peter Donaldson at a party in 1994, she joined Radio 4's presentation team in that year. In 2004 she became a newsreader, and regularly read the afternoon and evening news on Radio 4. For a brief period her early appearances as a newsreader were credited as "Eva Arnold", perhaps to keep her newsreading 'persona' separate from her identity as an actor. In 2005, she featured as a news presenter in

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

comedy ''

Broken News ''Broken News'' is a comedy programme shown on BBC Two in late 2005. The show poked fun at the world of 24-hour rolling news channels. The title of the show is a play on the phrase "breaking news". It had six thirty-minute episodes. Having previ ...

''. In June 2006, she was promoted to read the news 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. From 2007 to 2011 she co-presented comedian Jon Holmes's show ''

Listen Against ''Listen Against'' is a BBC Radio 4 series. Its title is a play on the name of the BBC's Listen Again service. Presented by Jon Holmes and Alice Arnold (broadcaster), Alice Arnold, it takes a surreal look at the week's radio. Created by Jon Ho ...

'', a parody of various programmes on Radio 4. Arnold gained media attention in May 2012. While returning home, stuck in traffic, she observed an empty plastic bottle being thrown from the car ahead of her and threw it back into the vehicle through an open window. On

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, colleague and friend

Corrie Corfield Coriona Kear Ware Corfield is a radio broadcaster and producer known especially for her newsreading and continuity announcements on BBC Radio 4. Early life and education She was born 1961 in Oxford. Raised near Stratford-upon-Avon, Corfield w ...

said Arnold deserved a

damehood ''Dame'' is a traditionally British honorific title given to women who have been admitted to certain orders of chivalry. It is the female equivalent of ''Sir'', the title used by knights. Baronetesses in their own right also use the title ''Da ...

for her action. In October 2012, Arnold announced the end of her eighteen years on Radio 4. Her final appearance was Saturday 29 December 2012. During 2013, she worked for the BBC in a training capacity and was involved in the Expert Women's Days where she coached potential female interviewees for ''

''. Arnold has suggested adopting a smile or frown while talking as appropriate to the context. Since then she has written and narrated for ''

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

'' and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''.

Personal life

Arnold entered into a

civil partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, primarily created to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage, with ch ...

in 2006 with the

presenter

Clare Balding Clare Victoria Balding (born 29 January 1971) is an English broadcast journalist and author. She currently presents programmes for BBC Sport and Channel 4, and previously for BT Sport. She also formerly presented ''Good Morning Sunday'' on BBC ...

. They live in

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district in West London, split between the London Borough of Hounslow, London Boroughs of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing, Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist Wi ...

, London. In April 2015, the couple officially married in a private ceremony. Balding and Arnold are keen amateur golfers. Arnold wrote about the Scottish

Muirfield Muirfield is a privately owned golf links which is the home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Located in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland, overlooking the Firth of Forth, Muirfield is one of the golf courses used in rotation for T ...

golf club in ''The Guardian'' after it rejected proposals to admit female members: "Another argument put forward by the 'no' campaign is that not many women would want to join. Spot on. I do not want to join your snotty club. Golf is my hobby. I love it and I would like to play it where I feel welcome, not like some second-class citizen".

References

External links

Mellow Weekend Breakfast with Alice Arnold on Mellow Magic
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Alice 1962 births Living people Alumni of the Drama Studio London Alumni of the University of Sussex BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC Radio 4 Lesbian journalists British lesbian actresses British radio presenters British women bloggers British women television journalists British women radio presenters British bloggers British LGBTQ broadcasters British LGBTQ entertainers British LGBTQ journalists People educated at Claremont Fan Court School People from Esher Radio and television announcers 21st-century British women writers 21st-century English LGBTQ people