Kenneth Roy (26 March 1945 – 5 November 2018) was a Scottish journalist, writer and broadcaster. Roy was born in

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

. His father, an engineer, and mother, an office worker, were involved in amateur theatre there. He attended Denny High School and, at the age of 13, began contributing to the ''Falkirk Mail'' as its

Bonnybridge Bonnybridge (; ) is a village in the Falkirk (council area), Falkirk council area of Scotland. It is west of Falkirk, north-east of Cumbernauld and south-southwest of Stirling. The village is situated near the Bonny Water which runs through t ...

correspondent.McLeod, Islay (ed.) (2019), ''The Best of 25 Years of the Scottish Review, Issue 2: Investigations by Kenneth Roy'', ICS Books,

Prestwick Prestwick () is a town in South Ayrshire on the west coast of Ayrshire in Scotland about southwest of Glasgow. It adjoins the larger town of Ayr to the south on the Firth of Clyde coast, the centre of which is about south, and the small vi ...

, He worked for a short time with the

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

evening paper before, at the age of 19, he joined the ''

Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'', which assigned him to cover the criminal courts. After leaving the paper, he worked in public relations. He then moved to

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, where he published the magazine ''Scottish Theatre'' (1969 - 1973). In the early 1970s, Roy was offered a job on the early evening news programme, ''

Reporting Scotland ''BBC Reporting Scotland'' is the BBC's national television news programme for Scotland, broadcast on BBC One Scotland from the headquarters of BBC Scotland in Pacific Quay, Glasgow. The programme usually followed after the nationwide bulletin ...

'' by Hugh Cochrane, the Head of News and Current Affairs at

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

. For several years he co-presented the programme with

Mary Marquis Mary Elizabeth Marquis (born 11 March 1934), born as Mary Elizabeth Caughie, is a former leading interviewer and presenter on BBC Scotland from the mid-1960s, and became the face of the network's evening news programme ''Reporting Scotland'' un ...

. While at the BBC, he worked with the Head of Religious Programmes, Ian Mackenzie, on ''The Yes, No, Don't Know Show'', an early experiment in audience participation, which focused on ethical issues. Roy left the BBC in 1979 and established the 'Maybole consortium' which brought West Sound on air in the autumn of 1981 from studios in

Ayr Ayr ( ; ; , meaning "confluence of the River Àir"), is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With ...

. Afterwards, he set up a company, to publish the biographical reference annual, ''Who's Who in Scotland'', and returned to BBC Scotland as presenter of the weekly politics programme, ''Agenda''. When ''

Scotland on Sunday ''Scotland on Sunday'' is a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published in Edinburgh by National World and consequently assuming the role of Sunday sister to its daily stablemate ''The Scotsman''. It was originally printed in broadsheet format but in ...

'' was launched in 1988 he became the paper's television critic and sketch writer. He then moved to ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'', where he contributed a series of observational pieces entitled 'Kenneth Roy's Britain'. He also contributed a weekly commentary on current affairs to '' The Herald'', and a daily notebook, 'Kenneth Roy's Pocket Companion', on the back page of ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

''. In 1995, Roy founded ''The Scottish Review'', an independent quarterly of topical essays, biography, contemporary history and travel. The publication migrated to the internet as a weekly in 2008. In 2000, Roy established the non-political Institute of Contemporary Scotland (ICS) as a social and cultural counterpoint to the recently re-established

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

. Towards the end of his career he wrote two personal accounts of post-war Scotland, ''The Invisible Spirit'' (2013), which dealt with the period 1945 to 1975, and ''The Broken Journey'' (2016), which continued the story to 1999.

References

1945 births 2018 deaths Scottish journalists Scottish television presenters Scottish magazine editors People from Falkirk {{UK-journalist-stub