Peter Henley is

BBC South BBC South is the BBC English Region serving Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Dorset, West Sussex, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and parts of Gloucestershire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Surrey, and Wiltshire, with geographic coverage varying between ...

's political editor and has been reporting in the south of England for over 20 years. He currently presents the south's regional segment of the BBC's '' Sunday Politics'' programme.

Career

Beginning his media career at

BBC Radio Leicester BBC Radio Leicester is the BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Leicestershire, City of Birmingham, South Staffordshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth and Rutland. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at ...

while still at university, Peter went on to Pennine Radio, where he was a reporter and newsreader for the

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

station. He moved to

Radio 210 Heart Berkshire (formerly 2-Ten FM) was an Independent Local Radio station, serving Berkshire and North Hampshire from studios in Reading. About Launched as Radio 210 (Two-One-Oh), the station commenced broadcasting in March 1976 on its medi ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, where he won a

Sony award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

for coverage of the Clapham rail crash. Switching from radio to television, Peter became a reporter for southern ITV franchisee

Television South Television South (TVS) was the ITV (TV network), ITV franchise holder in the South East England, South and South East of England between 1 January 1982 at 9.25 am and 31 December 1992 at 11.59 pm. The company operated under various names, init ...

, filing special reports from

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

during the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

, and covering the weeks in which

Michael Heseltine Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket Media Group in 1957. Heseltine se ...

fought to replace

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

. When TVS lost its ITV franchise, Peter transferred to the new contractor,

Meridian Broadcasting ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station was launched at midnight on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South, and is owned ...

as a reporter and played a part in launching Meridian's

Thames Valley The Thames Valley is an area in South East England that extends along the River Thames west of London towards Oxford. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub on the M4 corridor, with a high concentration of technology companies ...

news service. It was while here that he became one of Meridian's political correspondents, fronting Meridian's political coverage of the 1997 general election, a role he later repeated in the 2001 election. In the autumn of 2001, Peter transferred to 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 ...

to become BBC South's health correspondent. He soon after took his current role as political editor. His role includes presenting the regional section of '' Sunday Politics'', broadcast weekly, and reporting on political stories on the regional television news programme ''

South Today ''BBC South Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the south of England, covering Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, West Sussex, much of Dorset and parts of Surrey and Wiltshire. The service is produced and bro ...

'' and on the region's local radio stations Radio Berkshire, Radio Oxford and Radio Solent. He also occasionally appears on the

BBC News Channel The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London from which it is anchored during ...

reporting on political issues in the south, and has reported from the Portsmouth and Romsey counts at the

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

and 2010 general elections for the national BBC election programmes. Part of Peter's popularity is sourced from the way in which he connects with the viewer. His belief that people should care about what happens in Westminster and how is affects local people, often results in their opinions being heard and voiced. His programme is often broadcast from a public location and audiences are occasionally used. Peter's use of technology has always extended this bond with the viewer. Text messages and responses left on social media sites are often posed to the panel on his programme, and he keeps the public informed through his BBC News correspondents blog, and his ''Henley's Hustings'' blog before it.

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and

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 ...

are also used, with his following '@BBCPeter H'. This dedication recently saw him receive the (RTA) Royal Television Award for journalist of the year 2009 in the South of England.

Personal life

Peter was born in 1964, and studied at the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

, where he read philosophy. Peter is married to Samantha Reed, a counsellor, with three sons, Ben, Harry and Toby, and lives in the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

in Hampshire. Peter enjoys a range of hobbies, including playing golf and cricket - as well as pursuing his love for technology and classic cars.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henley, Peter Alumni of the University of Leicester Living people Year of birth missing (living people)

Career

Personal life

See also

References