John Humphrys
| John Humphrys | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Desmond John Humphrys 17 August 1943 Adamsdown, Cardiff, Wales |
| Education | Cardiff High School |
| Occupation | Journalist, Broadcaster |
| Notable credit(s) |
Today BBC Nine O'Clock News Mastermind |
| Spouse(s) | Edna Wilding (div) Valerie Sanderson (div) |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Bob Humphrys (brother) |
Desmond John Humphrys (born 17 August 1943) is an award-winning Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter for the Nine O'Clock News, the flagship BBC news television programme, and since 1987 he has been a presenter on the award-winning BBC Radio 4 programme, Today. He presents the programme with Justin Webb, Nick Robinson, Mishal Husain and Sarah Montague. Since 2003 he has been the host of the BBC Two television quiz show Mastermind.
Humphrys has a reputation as a tenacious and forthright interviewer; occasionally politicians have been very critical of his style after being subjected to a tough interview on live radio.
Humphrys was born at 193 Pearl Street, Adamsdown, son of Winifred Mary (Matthews), a hairdresser, and Edward George Humphrys, a self-employed French polisher. He was one of five children. During early life Humphrys had a bout of whooping cough and concerned that he would be known as 'Dismal Desmond' his Mother opted to use the name John. His parents encouraged him to do his homework and he passed the eleven plus exam. He became a pupil at Cardiff High School (then a grammar school), but he did not fit into the middle-class environment there. He was an average pupil and left school at 15 to become a reporter on the Penarth Times. He later joined the Western Mail.
Humphrys joined TWW, a commercial television channel based in Wales, and was the first reporter on the scene of the Aberfan disaster in October 1966. He joined the BBC later that year as the district reporter for Liverpool and the Northwest, where he reported on the dock strikes of that time, sometimes for the national news. He then worked as a foreign correspondent, initially having to go abroad and leave his family for six to nine month periods at a time when his children were still young and growing up. Later he took his family with him to the United States and South Africa where he was sent to open a news bureau. He reported the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974 on television by satellite from the United States, the execution of Gary Gilmore in 1977, and later, when based in South Africa, he covered the transformation of Rhodesia into Zimbabwe.
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