Robert Bonnet (born 27 September 1952) is a British sports journalist on 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 ...

. He has presented bulletins across 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 ...

and

BBC World News BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...

and presents '' Extratime'', an interview programme on

BBC World BBC News is an international English-language pay television channel owned by BBC Global News Ltd. – a subsidiary of BBC Studios – and operated by the BBC News division of the BBC. The network carries news bulletins, documentaries, an ...

and

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

. Bonnet was for seventeen years one of the main sports presenters on

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 ...

's flagship breakfast programme ''

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 ...

''.

Early life

Born in London, Bonnet was educated at

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 ...

, a boys' independent school in

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of H ...

, London. He later attended 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 ...

and read English and French. Before joining the BBC, Bonnet had worked as a dustman, a

disc-jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music festivals), mobile DJ ...

, and also had a job in advertising with the Benton & Bowles agency.

Broadcasting career

Bonnet started his career at BBC Radio Brighton as a freelance assistant in 1977 and joined the BBC staff in the summer of 1980 as a producer on Radio Norfolk. He would later be attached to the Radio 1 news programme ''

Newsbeat ''Newsbeat'' is the BBC's radio news programme broadcast on Radio 1, 1Xtra and Asian Network. ''Newsbeat'' is produced by BBC News but differs from the BBC's other news programmes in its remit to provide news tailored for young people.

''. He started broadcasting at BBC Sport's radio department in the autumn of 1982 and

BBC East BBC East is one of BBC's English Regions covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and parts of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire (including the City of Milton Keynes). It is headquartered in The Forum ...

in 1985. Bonnet started his national television career by joining the

team in February 1987 and had been employed as a sports reporter and correspondent. Bonnet's report on

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

winning the 2000 Olympic Games on a 9 O'Clock news bulletin won him the RTS Sports Report of the year in 1993. In September 1995, Bonnet joined the

BBC Breakfast ''BBC Breakfast'' is a British television breakfast news programme, produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC One every morning from 6:00am. It is also broadcast on the UK feed of BBC News channel on weekends. The simulcast is presented live, ...

team as their sports reporter until stepping down the role in October 2005. He has also covered major events such as the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

, the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

and the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

along other high-profile sporting events. During an interview with Paralympic athlete

Oscar Pistorius Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius ( , ; born 22 November 1986) is a South African double amputee, former professional sprinter, and convicted murderer. He was the 10th athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games. Pistorius r ...

on 6 September 2011, Bonnet asked about the ethical issues associated with his participation in the 4x400 relay during the World Championships in Daegu with Pistorius replying "I think that's an insult to me and I think this interview is over" and then left the studio afterwards. Bonnet is also a director of the internet TV service ''The Country Channel'' and he remains a broadcaster with BBC World’s ''Extra Time'' sports interview programme as well as BBC Radio 4’s ''

'' programme and has also guest starred for Five Live and television programmes such as Sportsweek,

Sportsnight ''Sportsnight'' was a midweek BBC television sports programme that ran from 1968 until 1997. Sportsview ''Sportsnight'' was a successor to ''Sportsview'' which started on 8 April 1954. ''Sportsview'' was devised by Paul Fox (TV), Paul Fox, la ...

and Chiles on Sunday. Rob announced in May 2024 that he would retire at the end of this year, having been with the organization since 1977. Rob presented sports bulletins on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programne from 2007 until his last sports report after the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

on 12 Aug 2024.

Personal life

He has two daughters with his wife Margaret Harvey whom he married in 1980. Bonnet runs Five Iron Productions, which specialises in on-site recording, editing and presentation of corporate

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

and charity events.

References

External links

Rob Bonnet on the BBC website

Five Iron Productions
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonnet, Rob Living people 1952 births BBC World News BBC newsreaders and journalists People educated at Dulwich College Alumni of the University of Sussex