Martyn Lewis

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the badminton player, see Martyn Lewis (badminton). For other people, see Martin Lewis (disambiguation).

Broadcast journalist
Spouses
Liz Carse
​
​
(m. 1970; died 2012)​
Patsy Baker
​
(m. 2012)​
Children2, including Sylvie

News at Ten
bulletins, creating the "And finally..." segment that features positive stories at the end of each News at Ten programme.

He joined the BBC in October 1986, presenting the newly formed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours and was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours
for his charitable work.

Early life and education

Lewis was born on 7 April 1945 in

Second World War and were married in Belfast.[3] Lewis and his family moved to Portrush, on the north coast of County Antrim, when he was four years old; the family later settled at a house his father had built on the Mountsandel Road in nearby Coleraine in County Londonderry.[5]

He was educated at the co-educational

A-levels while also excelling in rugby, editing the school magazine and serving as deputy head boy.[3]

He joined the

Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), in 1967.[3][6] Lewis was secretary of the university's rugby club but ceased playing the game because of the possibility of sustaining a dental injury.[9]

Media career

After turning down two job offers in the advertising and public relations industries in England, he started working as a freelance reporter for BBC Northern Ireland in Belfast for ten months in 1967.[5][10] He also chaired a sixth formers' interview programme in Northern Ireland.[4] After writing in to more than 50 television stations,[8] Lewis worked as a reporter for Harlech Television (HTV) in Cardiff in Glamorgan, Wales, from 1968 to 1978.[2][10] He received on-the-job training as a journalist.[3] Lewis joined ITN in London in 1970.[5] The following April,[11] Lewis established ITN's Northern Bureau in Manchester, leading it until 1978.[2] He covered the news from the North of England in an area from the Midlands to the North of Scotland.[11] From 1978 to 1986, he worked as a news reader on ITN's News at 5.45 and News at Ten bulletins as well as serving as a foreign correspondent.[2] In the early 1980s, Lewis wrote the "And finally..." segment, which featured positive stories at the end of each half-hour ''News at Ten'' bulletin.[8][12]

Lewis visited more than 30 countries on assignment for ITN.

One O'Clock News weekday bulletin on BBC1 on 27 October when the programme was launched as part of the channel's all day service.[14][15] Lewis was moved by the BBC to be the lead newsreader of the Nine O'Clock News weekday nightly bulletin from October 1987,[16] and began sharing presenting duties of the programme with fellow newsreader Michael Buerk when it switched to a one-presenter format in October 1988.[17] He created a modicum of controversy in 1993 when he claimed that television should feature more "good news". Lewis subsequently stated that he had been "misunderstood" on the matter.[18][19] At his own request, he became the lead presenter of the Six O'Clock News for three days a week from January 1994, replacing Peter Sissons.[20][21] Lewis rejected an offer to present BBC Breakfast News but reportedly threatened his resignation from the corporation because he wanted to remain on prime time television.[22]

Lewis also made multiple documentaries on various topics for the BBC,

BBC2 daily news-based quiz show Today's the Day (as well as its BBC Radio 2 version between 1996 and 1997), which emphasises a specific date in previous years and events that occurred on that date.[23][24] From 1996 to 1998, Lewis presented the prime-time BBC1 real-life crime programme ''Crimebeat''.[2][25]

He broke the news of the outbreak of the Gulf War to the British public in 1991.[9] Lewis played a prominent role in the announcement of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on 31 August 1997. He was called into the BBC in the early hours of that morning to present short national bulletins during a late night viewing of Borsalino about the car accident in Paris. He returned home afterwards to get some sleep – expecting the Princess to pull through – only to be drafted in again in time for the special 6 am bulletin covering Diana's death. Lewis was almost brought to tears following Prime Minister Tony Blair's "People's Princess" statement.[26][27] On 26 April 1999, he presented the Six O'Clock News bulletin with Jennie Bond on the day his co-presenter Jill Dando was murdered outside her home in West London.[28]

Lewis resigned from the BBC in May of that year after it attempted to move him from the job he had lost at the Six O'Clock News to another position within the corporation; he turned down an offer to work at

BBC World News, saying that he did not want to leave "the best job in broadcasting."[24][28] He was the anchor and mayor of Bethlehem in the 1999 ITV series Bethlehem Year Zero, which told the Christmas story in the manner of a television news bulletin.[29] In 2000, Lewis presented Dateline Jerusalem,[6] and ''News 40: The Battle of Britain'', a week of nightly broadcasts reporting on events from six decades ago in a contemporary perspective.[30] From 2000 to 2002, he presented the ITV debate programme ''Ultimate Questions'', which discussed current moral issues.[6][31]

Lewis returned to television news in September 2005 to broadcast a special edition of the ITV Evening News with Mary Nightingale as part of the ITN's 50th anniversary celebrations.[32] He had a cameo role as a newscaster in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough,[33] and was featured in archive footage in the 2006 film The Queen.[34]

Other business

Lewis was chairman and co-founder of Teliris, one of the first telepresence systems developed. He was actively involved in the marketing of this solution through personal contacts, speaking engagements and "Telepresence Times", his vlog launched in 2009.[35] He retired as chairman in 2012.[6]

He is the founder and Executive Chairman of YourBigDay Ltd, which utilises ITN and Reuters archives to create birthday and anniversary videos spanning the last century.[3] Lewis was made a director of the Independent Press Standards Organisation in 2014 and chaired an inquiry into the voluntary sector with regards to executive pay within it.[36] In July 2020, he joined the board of renewable energy start-up Alpha 311.[37]

Charity work

Lewis in 2014

Lewis is a vice-president of such charities as Hospice UK, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Macmillan Cancer Support, East Anglia Children's Hospices (EACH) and Demelza Children's Hospice.[6] He is the president of United Response, a charity that offers support to people with learning disabilities or mental health needs as well as opportunities for those with learning disabilities to find work.[38]

He founded the youth charity YouthNet in 1995 (now known as The Mix), and stayed as chairman until stepping down in July 2014, though he remains an advisor.[39] The charity provides advice, information and support through websites aimed at young people.[40]

From 2010 to 2016 he was chair of the

Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. He was chairman of Families of the Fallen 2010–15; trustee of the Windsor Leadership Trust 2001–10, and is currently deputy chair of the Lord Mayor of London's Dragon Awards.[6]

He is a patron of Mildmay Mission Hospital, The Patchwork Foundation, the quarterly broadsheet

The Prince's Trust youth organisation.[20]

Personal life

Lewis is a Christian.[4] He was married to HTV continuity announcer Elizabeth Anne Carse from 20 May 1970 until her death from an advanced type of dementia in 2012.[2][3] They have two daughters, one of whom is the singer-songwriter Sylvie Lewis. He has since remarried to public relations worker Patsy Baker and is stepfather to her three children.[3]

Honours

Lewis was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours "for services to young people and the hospice movement."[44] He was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours "for voluntary and charitable work, especially for the hospice movement."[45][46]

Lewis also holds an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Ulster University.[47] He is a Freeman of the City of London and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[6][9] Lewis is a member of the Garrick Club and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.[2][48]

Bibliography

Books by Lewis include:[2][6]

References

  1. ISBN 0-7154-0739-2 – via Internet Archive
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  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1-870520-42-3 – via Internet Archive
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  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "Sir Martyn Lewis: 'My mother-in-law received exceptional care in a hospice during her last days and I vowed I'd one day repay that favour'". Belfast Telegraph. 13 April 2019. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  4. ^
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  5. ^ a b c d e f g Little, Ivan (5 August 2017). "Martyn Lewis: 'Rejection note left me shattered but I didn't want to admit defeat ... I wrote to every broadcaster in UK seeking work'". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4729-0470-6 – via Internet Archive
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  7. Newspapers.com Open access icon
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  8. ^ a b c d e White, Roland (4 July 1993). "And finally...; Martyn Lewis". The Sunday Times. p. 9. Archived from the original on 20 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023 – via Gale Academic OneFile.
  9. ^
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  10. ^
    Reading Evening Post. p. 8. Retrieved 1 April 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive
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  11. ^ a b "Northern office for ITN". The Stage. 2 November 1972. p. 18. Retrieved 2 April 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^
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  15. Newspapers.com Open access icon
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  17. Newspapers.com Open access icon
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  18. ^ Lewis, Martyn (26 April 1993). "Not my idea of good news: At the end of a week of horrifying events, Martyn Lewis, BBC presenter, argues for a change in news values". The Independent. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  19. ^ Bedell, Geraldine (2 May 1993). "Profile: Sweetie among cynics: Martyn Lewis: Top in a tough profession, he campaigns for good news and writes about cats. So why are the claws out for him?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
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  22. Newspapers.com Open access icon
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  24. ^ a b Gibson, Janine (22 April 1999). "And now the bad news for Martyn Lewis". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  25. Newspapers.com Open access icon
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  26. ^ Delgado, Kasia (31 August 2017). "Newsreader Martyn Lewis recalls the day he broke the news of Princess Diana's death". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  27. ^ "Martyn Lewis: 'I almost broke down as I announced Diana's death'". Belfast Telegraph. 5 August 2017. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  28. ^ a b Woods, Judith (30 March 2019). "Sir Martyn Lewis: 'On the day Jill Dando died, I wished I'd presented the news with an empty chair'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  29. Newspapers.com Open access icon
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  30. Newspapers.com Open access icon
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  31. Newspapers.com Open access icon
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  32. ^ "ITV news veterans back for 50th". Broadcast. 6 September 2005. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  33. ISBN 0-7535-0709-9 – via Internet Archive
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  34. ^ Layne, Bethany (2019). "'Full cause of weeping': Affective Failure in The Queen (2006) and The Crown (2019)". European Journal of Life Writing. x: 46. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  35. ^ "Telepresence Times vlog". Telepresence Times. Archived from the original on 22 December 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  36. ^ "Sir Martyn Lewis CBE; Adviser to the Board". Fountain Partnership. Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  37. ^ "Sir Martyn Lewis CBE joins Alpha 311". Alpha 311. 20 July 2020. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  38. ^ "Martyn Lewis". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on 20 April 2023. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  39. ^ Miller, Katy (7 July 2014). "Meet the trustees". YouthNet. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  40. ^ "What We Do". YouthNet. Archived from the original on 5 February 2007. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  41. ^ "Interview with Martyn Lewis". Third Sector. 18 May 2010. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  42. ^ "Martyn Lewis". Civil Society. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  43. ^ Alice, Sharman (10 September 2015). "Pennies reaches 20 million micro-donation milestone". Civil Society. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  44. ^ "No. 54625". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1996. p. 8.
  45. ^ "No. 61450". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2015. p. N2.
  46. ^ "New Year's Honours 2016 list" (PDF). GOV.UK. 30 December 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 January 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  47. ^ "Honorary graduates". Ulster University. Archived from the original on 19 April 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
  48. ^ "Full Members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts" (PDF). British Academy Film Awards. 10 July 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
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External links

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