Gordon Henry Burns (born 10 June 1942) is a Northern Irish retired journalist and broadcaster. He was the host of '' The Krypton Factor'' for its original 18-year run (1977–1995) and was the chief anchorman for the BBC regional news programme ''

North West Tonight ''BBC North West Tonight'' (known as ''BBC North West Today'' during daytime) is the BBC's regional television news programme covering North West England and the Isle of Man. Produced by BBC North West, the programme broadcasts from the BBC's ...

'' from January 1997 to October 2011. In November 2011, he moved back to Belfast where he was born. Due to Burns' work commitments with

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

on programmes such as ''

World in Action ''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television for ITV from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its product ...

'' and ''

Granada Reports ''ITV News Granada Reports'' is a British television regional news service, produced by ITV Granada and serving the North West of England. Overview ''Granada Reports'' is produced and broadcast from studios in the Orange Tower at MediaCityUK i ...

'' and later BBC Manchester for ''

'', he resided in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

for over thirty years. He most recently hosted a Sunday morning radio show for

BBC Radio Manchester BBC Radio Manchester is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

and

BBC Radio Lancashire BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. Originally launched as BBC Radio Blackburn, in 1981 it expanded to cover the whole county and was renamed BBC Radio Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB ...

Early life

Burns was born in Wellington Park, in Belfast. When he was a child his family moved to

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, where he attended the local primary school and then went to

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

in London. The family then returned to live at Belfast's Belmont Road, where Burns attended

Campbell College Campbell College located in Belfast, Northern Ireland and founded in 1894 comprises a preparatory school department (junior age) and a senior Northern Ireland 'Voluntary Grammar' school, the latter meaning, in terms of provision of education, a ...

Career

He began his journalism career working on the ''

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media, which also publishes the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and various other newspapers and magazines in Ireland. Its e ...

'' and worked on BBC radio's long-running ''

Sports Report ''Sports Report'' is one of the longest-running programmes on British radio, and is the world's longest-running sports radio programme. It started on 3 January 1948, and has always been broadcast from 17:00 on Saturday evenings during the foo ...

'' before joining

Ulster Television UTV (formerly Ulster Television, branded on air as ITV1 since 2020) is the ITV (TV network), ITV region covering Northern Ireland, ITV subsidiary and the former on-air name of the free-to-air public broadcast television channel serving the ar ...

as a sports editor and programme producer in 1967. Two years later, Burns began presenting the nightly news programme ''UTV Reports'', first as a stand-in for regular frontman David Mahlowe and later as a chief anchor, during the early stages of

The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

. In 1973, Burns joined

to anchor their nightly news programme ''

'' and to work on the station's current affairs output, including ''

''. In September 1976 he presented an edition of Granada's Friday night

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

preview programme ''Kick Off'', in which he was covering for the regular presenter Gerald Sinstadt. Sinstadt, in turn, was that weekend covering for Dickie Davies as presenter of '' World of Sport''; he was also covering the presenter and commentator roles for the Sunday afternoon match highlights programme ''The Kick Off Match'', in which he both presented the programme and commentated on Sunderland v Manchester City at Roker Park, the main match that weekend, which was being filmed by Tyne Tees cameras for Granada viewers. (At the time Sinstadt was the producer of both ''Kick Off'' and ''The Kick Off Match''; this stint as presenter and commentator was a one-off.) Burns's national profile began with his association of ITV's game show '' The Krypton Factor'' which he presented for eighteen years from 1977 to 1995. He was the presenter of ''

Password A password, sometimes called a passcode, is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of password-protected services t ...

'' for

, one of that company's few programmes to be shown throughout the ITV network, and also hosted a ''Searchline'' segment in several series of LWT's '' Surprise Surprise''. During the 1980s Burns also reported from the political party conferences for the ITV network, and presented the Channel 4 current affairs series ''Irish Angle''. In the early 1990s he presented two parlour game shows for the BBC: '' A Word in Your Ear'' and ''Relatively Speaking''. He has also appeared as a guest on '' Noel's House Party'', and on '' Shooting Stars'' as a member of

Ulrika Jonsson Eva Ulrika Jonsson (born 16 August 1967) is a Swedish-British television presenter and model. She became known as a TV-am weather presenter, and moved on to present the ITV show '' Gladiators'', and later featured as a team captain on the BBC T ...

's team. From 1997 to 2011, Burns presented ''

'', alongside its shorter lunchtime version, ''North West Today''. In 2007, Ranvir Singh joined as co-anchor of the previously single-headed main evening programme. Burns announced in April 2011 that he would be retiring from the role but would move on to present a Sunday morning show on

and

in September 2011, with his last TV bulletin broadcast on 30 September. He was the voice of "The Chain" feature and other features on the '' Radcliffe & Maconie'' show on

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

. He appears as a guest on the show when The Chain reaches a significant milestone, for example, for the 5,000th (musically based) item on 3 March 2015 which was the single "

Dancing Queen "Dancing Queen" is a song by the Swedish group ABBA, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, '' Arrival'' (1976). It was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson. Andersson and Ulvaeus also produced the ...

" by

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

. In 2013, Burns retired properly after stepping down from his radio show.

Personal life

Burns is married and has two adult children. He is the second cousin of English singer/songwriter

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

References

External links

*
Gordon at Wallace High school
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Gordon 1942 births Living people BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC North West newsreaders and journalists Game show hosts from Northern Ireland Journalists from Belfast Television presenters from Northern Ireland People educated at Dulwich College People educated at Campbell College Television personalities from Belfast UTV (TV channel) people People educated at Wallace High School, Lisburn Belfast Telegraph people