Anna Ford (born 2 October 1943 in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire) is a retired British television presenter, best known as a newsreader. October 2 is the 275th day (276th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 90 days remaining. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... Location within the British Isles The Tewkesbury War Memorial, locally known as the Cross Tewkesbury is a historic town in Gloucestershire, England. ... Gloucestershire (pronounced ; GLOSS-ter-sher) is a county in South West England. ... A television presenter is a British term for a person who introduces or hosts television programmes. ...

During her career, she initially worked as a researcher, news reporter and later news reader for Granada Television, the BBC, became the first female newsreader on ITN, and helped launch the first British Breakfast television program TV-am. She retired from broadcast news presenting in April 2006, and is now a non-executive director for Sainsbury's. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion... Independent Television News (ITN) is the main supplier of news broadcasts to two British television groups: ITV and Channel 4. ... TV-am was a breakfast television station that broadcast in the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1992. ... J Sainsbury HQ in Holborn Circus J Sainsbury plc is the parent company of Sainsburys Supermarkets Ltd, commonly known as Sainsburys, which is a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. ...

Career

Anna Ford's parents were both West End actors, with her father having declined an offer from Samuel Goldwyn to work in Hollywood. He later decided to become a priest, and took Anna and her four brothers to live at Eskdale in the Lake District. She went to primary school at St. Ursula's School, Wigton. // West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre in London, or sometimes more specifically for shows staged in the large theatres of Londons Theatreland . Along with New Yorks Broadway Theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of theatre in the... Samuel Goldwyn (July 1882 (some sources say 17 August 1882, others 1879 [1]) – 31 January 1974) was an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning producer, also a well-known Hollywood motion picture producer and founding contributor of several motion picture studios. ... ... . ... For articles about other places named Eskdale, see Eskdale (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Primary or elementary education is the first years of formal, structured education that occurs during childhood. ... Wigton is a town in the county of Cumbria in England. ...

Ford studied Economics at the Victoria University of Manchester and was president of the students' union in 1966. After a failed marriage to Dr Alan Bittles and a spell as an Open University tutor, Anna Ford was 30 by the time she joined Granada Television as a researcher in 1974, being told she was too old to be a newsreader [1] She joined the BBC in 1976, and worked on Tomorrow's World in 1977. Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... The Victoria University of Manchester (VUM) was a large university in Manchester in England. ... The University of Manchester Students Union (UMSU) is the representative body of students at the University of Manchester, England, and is the UKs largest students union. ... The Open University (OU) is the UKs open learning university. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Tomorrows World was a long-running BBC television series, showcasing new (and often wacky) developments in the world of science and technology. ...

In 1978 she moved to ITN, becoming the network's first female newsreader. Fellow newsreader Reginald Bosanquet was inspired to write poetry for her: I prayed, I vowed, that I'd be good; and many people thought I would; but then I got my just reward; 18 nights with Anna Ford [2] Independent Television News (ITN) is the main supplier of news broadcasts to two British television groups: ITV and Channel 4. ... Reginald Bosanquet was a newsreader on Independent Television News in the United Kingdom for several years. ...

Ford helped ITN to launch TV-am in 1981, with its original high-brow "mission to explain". But with fierce competition from the BBC's casually styled Breakfast Time, TV-am was re-launched in a perceived "dumbing-down" of the station. Ford was involved in a notable incident, in which she threw her wine over Jonathan Aitken to express her outrage over his involvement in the unwelcome transformation. TV-am was a breakfast television station that broadcast in the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1992. ... Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born August 30, 1942) is a former Conservative Member of Parliament, British government minister and convicted perjurer. ...

She rejoined the BBC in 1986, becoming part of the presentation team for both BBC One's Six O'Clock News and the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in 1989. From 1999 she fronted the re-launched lunchtime One O'Clock News. In February 2003, Ford experienced one of her more challenging broadcasts when she lost her voice live on-air. She had to resort to drinking water on air, and the decision in the end had to be taken to replace Ford with the available Sophie Raworth. BBC One (styled BBC1 until 1997) is the most watched domestic channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... The BBC Six OClock News is the evening news programme broadcast daily on British television channel BBC One and BBC News 24 from 6:00pm until 6:30pm and is currently presented by George Alagiah and Natasha Kaplinsky. ... BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of chiefly spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... Today, sometimes referred to as the Today programme to avoid ambiguity, is BBC Radio 4s long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, which is now broadcast from 6am to 9am from Monday to Friday and from 7am to 9am on Saturdays. ... BBC One OClock News Ident following the 2003 Relaunch BBC One OClock News ident used from 1999 until 2003 The BBC One OClock News is broadcast on BBC One Monday to Friday. ... Sophie Raworth presenting a BBC Six OClock News bulletin with her co-host George Alagiah Sophie Raworth at an awards ceremony Sophie Raworth (born 15 May 1968) is a newsreader on BBC Television in the UK, although she is currently not presenting due to taking maternity leave. ...

On October 30, 2005, Ford announced her plans to retire from broadcasting in April 2006 in order to pursue other interests while she still has the interest and energy [3] She also talked tough on ageism, stating: I might have been shovelled off into News 24 to the sort of graveyard shift, and I wouldn't have wanted to do that because it wouldn't have interested me. I think when you reflect on the people who they're (the BBC) bringing in and they're all much younger. I think they are being brought in because they are younger. I think that's specifically one of the reasons why they're being employed [4] On April 27, 2006, she said farewell to the viewers and signed off by introducing a compilation of clips of her career. October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 62 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... BBC News 24 is the BBCs 24 hour rolling news television channel in the United Kingdom. ... April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 248 days remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

On 2 May 2006, J Sainsbury plc, the UK supermarket group, announced Ford was joining the company as a non-executive director. [5] May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... J Sainsbury HQ in Holborn Circus J Sainsbury plc is the parent company of Sainsburys Supermarkets Ltd, commonly known as Sainsburys, which is a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. ...

Away from the newsdesk

Ford was always a thoroughly professional newsreader,^{[citation needed]} thought of as both a male fantasy figure due to her good looks^{[citation needed]} and also a feminist icon due to her determined progress in a previously all-male world, with Sir Robin Day once commenting that: all men wanted to sleep with Anna Ford - even though Ford's feisty personality and pleasure in speaking her mind had meant Ford had previously pushed him into a bush. Her love of academic study, and the writing of a book Men - a documentary in 1985 have given her a rather prim and aloof public reputation, at odds with her actual character. Sir Robin Day, OBE (24 October 1923 – 6 August 2000) was a British political broadcaster and commentator of note. ...

Entertainment

Ford, under her newsreader image, has always had a sense of theatre, fun and self-humour^{[citation needed]}. As a student she toured Manchester's nightclub sets with a guitar for £5 a night, and always wished she could still be a nightclub singer, saying: You only have one life and it isn't a rehearsal. You may as well have fun.

She turned down the chance of a part in the film Chariots of Fire, but in 1983 her duet with Noddy Holder, a cover version of the Shakin' Stevens hit "You Drive Me Crazy", reached number 37 in the UK pop charts ([6] [7] [8]). She also appeared on the BBC's Stars Sing the Beatles, with her version of "Here, There and Everywhere". In December 2005 she was a guest presenter of Have I Got News For You - even though team captain Ian Hislop's publication Private Eye had appraised her as a 'talented autocue reader' on her retirement Chariots of Fire is a British film released in 1981. ... Noddy Holder (born Neville John Holder in Walsall, Staffordshire on 15 June 1946) is an English musician and actor best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist with 1970s rock music group Slade. ... Shakin Stevens (born Michael Barrett, 4 March 1948) is a Welsh rock and roll singer born in Cardiff, who has the distinction of being the top selling UK singles artist of the 1980s. ... Here, There and Everywhere is a song by Paul McCartney (though credited to Lennon-McCartney), recorded for The Beatles 1966 album Revolver. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Hislop on the set of Have I Got News for You singing a Jimmy Somerville song Ian Hislop (born 13 July 1960) is the editor of British satirical magazine Private Eye, a team captain on the popular satirical current affairs quiz Have I Got News for You and a comedy... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio...

She has stated that her biggest regret is having turned down repeated invitations to appear on the Morecambe and Wise Show. Morecambe and Wise Morecambe and Wise were a famous British comic double act comprising Eric Morecambe OBE and Ernie Wise OBE. The act lasted four decades until Morecambes retirement, shortly before his death in 1984. ...

Academia

On 17 December 2001 she was installed as Chancellor of the Victoria University of Manchester. When the Victoria University of Manchester merged with UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) on 1 October 2004 to create the new University of Manchester, she became Co-Chancellor along with Sir Terry Leahy (the former Chancellor of UMIST). On April 22, 2006, Anna Ford received an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews, nominated by Sir Menzies Campbell. Her work was praised by the Dean of Arts, in both her broadcasting and academic career December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Chancellor is the head of a university. ... UMIST Main Building on Whitworth Street The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England (, ). It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research. ... October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The University of Manchester is a university located in Manchester, England. ... Sir Terry Leahy (born 28 February 1956) is the CEO of Tesco, the largest British supermarket chain. ... April 22 is the 112th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (113th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... St Marys College Bute Medical School St Leonards College[5][6] Affiliations 1994 Group Website http://www. ... Sir Walter Menzies Campbell, CBE, QC (born 22 May 1941, Glasgow), commonly known as Ming Campbell, is a British politician. ... Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. ... Look up Education in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Personal life

Ford had an early marriage to Dr Alan Bittles dissolved before her television career, and in the late 1970's she was briefly engaged to TV news anchorman, Jon Snow [9] She then married newspaper cartoonist Marc Boxer, with whom she had two daughters Claire and Kate, before he died of a brain tumour in 1988 at their home in Brighton, East Sussex. Anchorman may refer to: News anchor, someone who works in radio who hosts a regular news program Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, a 2004 American comedy movie This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Jon Snow is one of the main presenters of Channel 4 News. ... Brighton is located on the south coast of England, and together with its immediate neighbour Hove forms the city of Brighton and Hove. ... East Sussex is a county in South East England. ...

But it is the price of celebrity and the safety of her daughters that causes her concern, and partly resulted in her presentational style. In September 1999 she was involved in an incident when a man broke his way into the BBC newsroom at White City, while in 2000 a stalker, later jailed, turned up at Ford's home at Brentford. She has also been constantly plagued by threatening letters from neo-Nazis, for no other reason than she once read an article on the news that they objected to. Categories: Stub | BBC ... Brentford is a suburb in the London Borough of Hounslow at the confluence of the River Thames and the River Brent in South West London, situated approximately 8 miles (12. ... The terms Neo-Nazism and Neo-Fascism refer to any social or political movement to revive Nazism or Fascism, respectively, and postdates the Second World War. ...

She was then briefly engaged in 2003 to former Astronaut David Scott, with whom she was photographed. Ford briefly became the subject of, rather than the reader 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 David Scott taken by a press photographer in Majorca with a powerful zoom lens and published in the British media constituted an invasion of her privacy [10] David Scotts Apollo 15 training space suit on display in the Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC. Colonel David Randolph Scott (born June 6, 1932), a former NASA astronaut, was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963 and is one of only twelve... Location Location of Majorca in Balearic Islands Coordinates : 39° 30’N , 3°0E Time Zone : CET (UTC+1) - summer: CEST (UTC+2) General information Native name Mallorca (Catalan) Spanish name Mallorca Postal code 07001-07691 Area code 34 (Spain) + 971 (Illes Balears) Website http://www. ... A Canon Inc. ... // Traditionally newspapers could be split into quality, serious-minded newspapers (usually referred to as broadsheets due to their large size) and tabloid, less serious newspapers. ...

External links

• Biography from BBC News
• BBC article on Ford post her Court Case loss
• Audio interview on Womans Hour re her retirement
• BBC Radio 3's "Private Passions" - musical play list
• Daily Telegraph article, 28 April 2006 - "Anna Ford says goodbye Britain as she signs off after 27 years"
• Sun article, 28 April 2006 - "Anna Ford's Last Bulletin"