Everything about John Sergeant Journalist totally explained
» For other persons named John Sergeant, see John Sergeant (disambiguation)
Personal Life and Education
The son of a
missionary who was also a distinguished
linguist, he's
Russian blood on his mother's side, and was brought up in various places including
Jerusalem and
Oxford. He was educated at
Great Tew Primary School, briefly at the independent
Bloxham School in
Bloxham, a village near
Banbury, in Oxfordshire, and then at the independent
Millfield School in
Street, a village near
Glastonbury in
Somerset, followed by
Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied
Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He also made a name for himself in student
comedy revues, with the result that, after graduation, he starred with
Alan Bennett in a series of sketch shows on the
BBC. He trained as a journalist at
Darlington College.
John married Mary Smithies on
4 January 1969 and has two children. He lives in
Ealing, West
London.
He is President of the
Johnson Society
(External Link
).
Broadcast and Journalism
John started his journalistic career as a correspondent for the
Liverpool Echo where he worked for around three years before joining the BBC.
John originally joined the
BBC as a
radio reporter in
1970, covering stories in over 25 countries. He worked as a war reporter in
Vietnam and
Israel, amongst others and reported the death of the first
British soldier during the
Troubles in
Northern Ireland.
Later, John covered the opening sessions of the
European Parliament and became a Political Correspondent in
1981. He later worked on a documentary called "The Europe We Joined" and has presented
BBC Radio 4 programmes,
Today and
The World At One.
He progressed via
newspaper,
radio and
television journalism to become the
BBC's Chief Political Correspondent (from 1992 until 2000). In 2000, he joined
ITN as Political Editor, replacing the retiring
Michael Brunson. John, himself, retired a few years later - replaced at ITN by
Nick Robinson. One of his most memorable moments was when he waited outside the British embassy in
Paris for
Margaret Thatcher, in the hope of hearing her reaction to the first ballot in the party leadership contest of
1990, only to be pushed aside by her
press secretary,
Sir Bernard Ingham when Thatcher emerged from the building.
For this broadcast, John was nominated for, and won, the
British Press Guild award for the most memorable broadcast of the year, beating
Paul Gascoigne (who was nominated for bursting into tears during the
1990 Football World Cup Semi-Final against
West Germany.)
He had also had an earlier run-in with Thatcher in
1987, when in
Moscow, when he made a comment implying that she'd already started campaigning for the
General Election in June,
1987, despite not having officially declared the contest. "I am serving my country", Thatcher replied - presumably implying that John was not.
Another political scoop was gained when he was granted the only interview with the then
Welsh Secretary,
Ron Davies after he was forced to resign, following an "error of judgement" on Clapham Common in October,
1998.
Sergeant's impressive appearances on programmes such as
Have I Got News For You have made him, once more, a sought-after participant in television comedy and
satire shows.
He is currently a reporter for
The One Show, and most recently was guest in
Countdown's Dictionary Corner with
Susie Dent, for the first-ever time.
Further Information
Get more info on 'John Sergeant Journalist'.
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