Anna Ford
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Anna Ford (born 2 October 1943) is an English retired journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She first worked as a researcher, news reporter and later newsreader for Granada Television,
ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...
, and 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 ...
. Ford helped launch the British breakfast television broadcaster TV-am. She retired from broadcast news presenting in April 2006 and was a non-executive director of
Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...
until the end of 2012. Ford now lives in her home town of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.


Early life

Ford was born in Tewkesbury,
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
, to parents who were both West End actors. Her father, John, had declined an offer from Samuel Goldwyn to work in Hollywood, and her mother, Jean (née Winstanley; sister of MP and broadcaster Michael Winstanley, Baron Winstanley) had worked with
Alec Guinness Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. In the BFI, British Film Institute listing of 1999 of BFI Top 100 British films, the 100 most important British films of the 20th century ...
.Bill Hagert
"Anna Ford: Try a little tenderness"
''British Journalism Review'', 18:3, 2007, pp. 9–16
Her father later became ordained as an
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
priest and took Ford and her four brothers to live at Eskdale in the
Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...
. She went to primary school at St Ursula's School, Wigton, then to The Nelson Thomlinson Grammar School, Wigton, where she was a contemporary of Melvyn Bragg. After her father became the parish priest at St Martin's Church in
Brampton Brampton is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, and the regional seat of the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#L ...
she moved to the White House Grammar School. She also attended Minehead Grammar School in Somerset and lived in nearby Wootton Courtenay. Ford received a BA degree in economics from the
Victoria University of Manchester The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. A ...
and was president of the university's students' union from 1966 to 1967.


Career

Ford worked as a teacher for four years, including teaching
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
prisoners at Her Majesty's Prison Maze in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
for two years. She was later an
Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
social studies tutor in Belfast for two years. Ford was thirty by the time that she joined Granada Television as a researcher in 1974. Initially, she was told she was too old to be a newsreader, but became a reporter and newsreader on '' Granada Reports''.Anna Ford: Hardy perennial
BBC News – 3 August 2001
She joined the BBC in January 1977, but only after several months as security clearance from MI5 was required because she was then living with a former communist. This led to her BBC personnel file being marked with a "Christmas tree" symbol. Ford subsequently worked on '' Man Alive'' and '' Tomorrow's World''. In February 1978, Ford moved to
ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...
, and briefly faced legal threats from the BBC for breaking her contract."1978: Ford makes her ITN debut"
BBC On This Day, 13 February
Future colleague Reginald Bosanquet said at the time: "I have never been averse to working with ladies ... I do not know Anna but I have heard that she is a very competent and professional lady", Ford and he formed a good professional relationship. Ford began presenting ITV's '' News at One'' in March and later the 5:45 pm bulletin, but within two months had become the first female newscaster on '' News at Ten''. In 1979, Ford appeared in a skit along with
John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinbur ...
and Terry Jones of the Monty Python troupe as part of "The Amnesty International Comedy Gala", a comedy programme performed at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket, London. The film version is called "The Secret Policeman's Ball". In 1981, she left ITN to join the presenting team of the soon-to-launch TV-am. ITN were bidding for the breakfast franchise themselves and had positioned Ford as the lead anchor in their bid, unaware that she was involved with another bidder. When her subterfuge was exposed, ITN immediately terminated her contract and publicly criticized her dishonesty and disloyalty.Leapman, Michael. ''Treachery: The Power Struggle at TV-am''. Unwin Hyman 1984. Her tenure at TV-am was short lived in part due to fierce competition from the BBC's casually styled ''Breakfast Time''. The loss of viewers resulted in a relaunch which was perceived as "dumbing-down" of the station, and only three months after the station's launch, Ford was dismissed from TV-am partly due to her on-air support for chairman Peter Jay (who had already resigned) and partly because she refused to stand down from '' Good Morning Britain'' when the ratings slumped. Ford was involved in an incident at a party in which she threw her wine over Jonathan Aitken to express her outrage over his involvement in her sacking from the channel. Ford re-joined the BBC in summer 1986, Firstly to cover for Wogan in June, and other minor roles. From January 1987 was given her own programme "Network" in which member of the public were able discusses issues with BBC management. Anna, become part of the presentation team for both
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
's '' Six O'Clock News'' from February 1989 and 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 ...
'' Today'' in 1993. From 1999, she fronted the relaunched '' One O'Clock News''. On 30 October 2005, Ford announced she would retire from broadcasting in April 2006 to pursue other interests while she "still has the interest and energy". She also talked about ageism, stating: Ford presented her last ''One O'Clock News'' on 27 April 2006, signing off by introducing a compilation of clips of her career. On 2 May 2006, J Sainsbury plc, the UK supermarket group, announced Ford was joining the company as a non-executive director. She is the Chair of Sainsbury's board's Corporate Responsibility Committee.


Academia

On 17 December 2001, Ford was installed as Chancellor of the Victoria University of Manchester. When the Victoria University of Manchester merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) on 1 October 2004 to create the new
University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...
, she became its Co-Chancellor along with Sir Terry Leahy (the former Chancellor of UMIST). She completed her term and Tom Bloxham succeeded her as sole Chancellor on 1 August 2008. On 22 April 2006, Ford received an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews, nominated by Sir Menzies Campbell.


Other work

Ford is one of many guest hosts to have taken the chair for the satirical news quiz '' Have I Got News for You''.


Personal life

Ford had an early marriage to Alan Bittles (1970–div), although this was dissolved before her television career began. In the late 1970s, she was briefly engaged to Jon Snow, a colleague at ITN. She married the magazine editor and cartoonist Mark Boxer in 1981; with whom she had two daughters, before he died of a brain tumour in 1988 at their home in
Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...
, Greater London. She was briefly engaged in 2000 to former astronaut
David Scott David Randolph Scott (born June 6, 1932) is an American retired test pilot and NASA astronaut who was the List of Apollo astronauts#People who have walked on the Moon, seventh person to walk on the Moon. Selected as part of the NASA Astronaut ...
, the seventh man to walk on the Moon. Ford became the subject of news stories in August 2001, when she lost a high-profile court case. She claimed unsuccessfully that photographs of her in a bikini with Scott, taken by a press photographer in
Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...
with a powerful zoom lens and published in the British media, constituted an invasion of her privacy. In a letter to ''
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 ...
'' in February 2010, Ford accused Martin Amis (a friend of her late husband Mark Boxer) of having neglected his duties as godfather to one of her daughters and also having been disrespectful to Boxer at the time of his death.The root of Martin Amis's anger
''The Guardian'' – 20 February 2010
Amis rejected her allegations in a reply, but accepted that he had been remiss in his duties as godfather.


Filmography


References


External links


Biography from BBC News
*
Audio interview on ''Woman's Hour'' re her retirement

BBC Radio 3's "Private Passions" – musical play list


* ttp://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fordanna/fordanna.htm Biography at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
Open University profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Anna 1943 births Academics of the Open University Alumni of the University of Manchester Living people People from Tewkesbury People from Wigton BBC newsreaders and journalists ITN newsreaders and journalists British broadcast news analysts BBC radio presenters Sainsbury's people People educated at the Nelson Thomlinson School Birdwatchers