Andrew Marr
Encyclopedia
Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a Scottish journalist
and political commentator. He edited The Independent
for two years until May 1998, and was political editor of BBC News
from 2000 until 2005.
He began hosting a political programme Sunday AM, now called The Andrew Marr Show, on Sunday mornings on BBC One
from September 2005. Marr also hosts the BBC Radio 4
programme Start the Week
. In 2007 he presented a political history of post-war Britain
on BBC Two
, Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
, followed by a prequel
in 2009 - Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain
focusing on the period between 1901 and 1945. Most recently, he presented a series, Andrew Marr's Megacities, examining the life, development and challenges of some of the largest cities in the world.
, Scotland to Donald and Valerie Marr. His father was an investment trust manager and Marr was educated in Scotland at the independent High School of Dundee
, Craigflower School and at Loretto
, also an independent school in Musselburgh
, East Lothian
. He went on to study English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge
gaining first class honours.
He was once a member of the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. At Cambridge, Marr says he was a "raving leftie
", and he acquired the nickname 'Red Andy'.
as a trainee and junior business reporter in 1981. He became a parliamentary correspondent for the newspaper in 1984, moving to London at this time, and then a political correspondent in 1986. During this period, Marr met the political journalist Anthony Bevins, who became Marr's mentor and close friend. Bevins was responsible for Marr's first appointment at The Independent
as a member of the newspaper's launch staff.
Marr left shortly afterwards, and joined The Economist
, where he contributed the weekly "Bagehot" political column and ultimately became the magazine's political editor in 1988. Marr has remarked that his time at The Economist "changed me quite a lot" and "made me question a lot of my assumptions". He admits that while working at The Economist he earned himself the jocular nickname ‘Tearound Tessa’ because of his enthusiasm for trips to the canteen on behalf of his colleagues.A History of Andrew Marr
Marr returned to The Independent as the newspaper's political editor in 1992, and became its editor in 1996. His period as editor coincided with a particularly turbulent time at the paper. Faced with price cutting by the Murdoch
-owned Times
, sales had begun to decline, and Marr made two attempts to arrest the slide. He made use of bold 'poster-style' front pages, and then in 1996 radically re-designed the paper along a mainland European model, with Gill Sans
headline fonts, and stories being themed and grouped together, rather than according to strict news value. This tinkering ultimately proved disastrous. The limited advertising budget meant the paper's re-launch struggled to get noticed, and when it did, it was mocked for reinterpreting its original marketing slogan 'It Is - Are You' to read 'It's changed - have you?'. The response from some was that many existing readers had indeed changed - to The Guardian
. At the beginning of 1998 Marr was sacked after refusing to implement a further round of redundancies.
Three months later he returned to the Independent. Tony O'Reilly
had increased his stake in the paper and bought out owners Mirror Group. O'Reilly, who had a high regard for Marr, asked him to collaborate as co-editor with Rosie Boycott
, in an arrangement whereby Marr would edit the comment pages, and Boycott would have overall control of the news pages.
Many pundits predicted the arrangement would not last, and two months later Boycott left to replace Richard Addis
as editor of the Daily Express
. Marr was sole editor again, but only for one week. Simon Kelner
, who had worked on the paper when it was first launched accepted the editorship, and asked Marr to stay on as a political columnist. Kelner was not Marr's "cup of tea" Marr observed later, and he left the paper for the final time in May 1998.
before being appointed BBC Political Editor in May 2000. Like his predecessor-but-one John Cole and his famous herringbone overcoat, he soon developed a trademark style, characterised by much gesticulation, as sent up in the comedy impersonation programme Dead Ringers
where the impressionists use ridiculously long plastic arms when portraying him. He also became known and widely praised for his ability to describe the background to Westminster gossip and intrigue and explain to viewers and listeners how it would affect their lives. A great believer in the view that "politics matters", Marr championed the democratic process and saw it as part of his role as Political Editor of the BBC to help make politics meaningful and relevant for many people who tended to see politics as the preserve of a remote, largely male and middle aged Westminster clique.
Among his personal scoops as Political Editor were the second resignation of Peter Mandelson
, and the interview in late 2004 in which Tony Blair
told him that he would not seek a fourth term as Prime Minister should he win the forthcoming general election
. Marr was criticised for some of his on air statements during this period. John Pilger
claimed that Marr "rejoiced at the vindication of Blair who, he said, had promised 'to take Baghdad without a bloodbath'" during the second Iraq war in March 2003. Pilger has attacked Marr further over an interview with Tony Blair
in which Blair was promoting his memoirs. Pilger is critical towards Marr for not questioning Blair on whether he had colluded with George Bush
to invade Iraq and for not bringing up the legality of the invasion.
During his time as political editor Marr assumed various presentational roles, and announced in 2005 that following the 2005 General Election
, he would step down as Political Editor to spend more time with his family. He was replaced as Political Editor by Nick Robinson
. In September 2005, he moved to a new role presenting the BBC's Sunday morning flagship news programme Sunday AM, known as The Andrew Marr Show since September 2007; the slot was previously filled with Breakfast with Frost
and hosted by Sir David Frost
. Marr also hosts the BBC Radio 4
programme Start the Week
.
In May and June 2007, the BBC broadcast Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
. He presented the five one-hour documentaries, and chronicled the history of Britain from 1945 to 2007. Unsold copies of the book of the series, a best seller, were recalled in March 2009 by publishers Macmillan
when legal action was taken over false claims that domestic violence campaigner Erin Pizzey
had been a member of The Angry Brigade
terrorist group. According to her own account, in a Guardian
interview in 2001, Pizzey had been present at a meeting when they discussed their intention of bombing Biba
, a fashion store, and threatened to report their activities to the police. Damages were paid to Pizzey and Marr's book was republished with the error removed.
Marr has written several books on politics and journalism, notably state-of-the-nation reflection The Day Britain Died (2000) and My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism (2004). The former was a three-part television series shown after Newsnight on BBC Two from 31 January to 2 February 2000. He has also written several articles for the British political magazine Prospect
.
In 2008, he presented the prime time
BBC One
series Britain From Above
. The following year, he contributed a three-part series called Darwin's Dangerous Idea to the BBC Darwin Season
, celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Darwin
and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his theory of evolution. He played a small role as himself in a Doctor Who
episode, "World War Three"; reporting Slitheen entering 10 Downing Street, he was noted as himself in the credits. In late 2009, BBC Two broadcast his six-part television series on British politics in the first half of the 20th century Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain
.
In September 2009 on the Sunday before the Labour Party conference in Brighton
, Marr interviewed Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Towards the end of the interview, Marr told Brown he wanted to ask about:
The Prime Minister responded: "No. I think this is the sort of questioning which is all too often entering the lexicon of British politics." Marr was later heavily criticised by Labour politicians, the media and fellow political journalists for what was described as a vague question which relied on its source being a singular entry on a political blog. In later interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
of Channel 4 News
, John Ward, the author of the Not Born Yesterday blog, admitted that he has no proof to back up the claim.
In the Daily Telegraph he claimed to be a libertarian
when discussing his conflicting views on smoking bans. However, writing in The Guardian, he said "And the final answer, frankly, is the vigorous use of state power to coerce and repress. It may be my Presbyterian background, but I firmly believe that repression can be a great, civilising instrument for good. Stamp hard on certain 'natural' beliefs for long enough and you can almost kill them off. The police are first in line to be burdened further, but a new Race Relations Act will impose the will of the state on millions of other lives too."
At an October 2006 BBC seminar discussing impartiality Marr highlighted alleged bias within the BBC. He stated: "The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities, and gay
people. It has a liberal bias, not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias."
Marr spoke at the Cheltenham Literary Festival on 10 October 2010 about political blogging. He claimed that "[a] lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people."
, and was the face of a Sense direct marketing appeal. He has also been involved with the charity Common Purpose UK
. Marr is President of the Galapagos Conservation Trust
.
, London, with his wife, the political journalist Jackie Ashley
of The Guardian
, whom he married in August 1987 in Surrey
. She is a daughter of the Labour
life peer Lord Ashley of Stoke
. The couple have a son and two daughters.
reported in The Independent
that Marr had obtained a High Court
injunction
preventing disclosure in the media of "private" information. An order—a super-injunction
—was also granted preventing the reporting of the injunction. The injunction was not mentioned in the UK media until Private Eye
commented on it.
On 26 April 2011, following legal action by Private Eye editor Ian Hislop
, an interview with Marr was published in the Daily Mail
, in which he revealed that the super-injunction had covered the reporting of an extra-marital affair with a female journalist. Marr said that he had believed that a child of the journalist was his, but had learned through a DNA test that it was not. He commented: "I did not come into journalism to go around gagging journalists. Am I embarrassed by it? Yes. Am I uneasy about it? Yes. But at the time there was a crisis in my marriage and I believed there was a young child involved. I also had my own family to think about, and I believed this story was nobody else's business." Hislop had filed a court challenge earlier in April 2011, and described the super-injunction as "pretty rank".
, and received the Journalist Award in the Channel 4
Political Awards of 2001.
He was considered for honorary membership of The Coterie for 2007. Marr has received two British Academy Television Awards
: the Richard Dimbleby
Award at the 2004 ceremony
and the award for Best Specialist Factual Programme (for his History of Modern Britain) at the 2008 ceremony
.
Marr and his wife were both awarded honorary doctorates from Staffordshire University
in July 2009.
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
and political commentator. He edited The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
for two years until May 1998, and was political editor of BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
from 2000 until 2005.
He began hosting a political programme Sunday AM, now called The Andrew Marr Show, on Sunday mornings on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
from September 2005. Marr also hosts the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
programme Start the Week
Start the Week
Start the Week is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor Andrew Marr...
. In 2007 he presented a political history of post-war Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain is a 2007 BBC documentary television series presented by Andrew Marr that covers the period of British history from the end of the Second World War onwards...
, followed by a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
in 2009 - Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain is a 2009 BBC documentary television series presented by Andrew Marr that covers the period of British history from the end of the death of Queen Victoria to the end of the Second World War...
focusing on the period between 1901 and 1945. Most recently, he presented a series, Andrew Marr's Megacities, examining the life, development and challenges of some of the largest cities in the world.
Early life
Marr was born on 31 July 1959 in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland to Donald and Valerie Marr. His father was an investment trust manager and Marr was educated in Scotland at the independent High School of Dundee
High School of Dundee
The High School of Dundee is an independent, co-educational, day school in the city of Dundee, Scotland which provides both primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils...
, Craigflower School and at Loretto
Loretto School
Loretto School is an independent school in Scotland, founded in 1827. The campus occupies in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh.-History:Loretto was founded by the Reverend Thomas Langhorne in 1827. Langhorne came from Crosby Ravensworth, near Kirkby Stephen. The school was later taken over by his son,...
, also an independent school in Musselburgh
Musselburgh
Musselburgh is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, six miles east of Edinburgh city centre.-History:...
, East Lothian
East Lothian
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
. He went on to study English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
gaining first class honours.
He was once a member of the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. At Cambridge, Marr says he was a "raving leftie
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
", and he acquired the nickname 'Red Andy'.
Newspaper career
Marr joined The ScotsmanThe Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
as a trainee and junior business reporter in 1981. He became a parliamentary correspondent for the newspaper in 1984, moving to London at this time, and then a political correspondent in 1986. During this period, Marr met the political journalist Anthony Bevins, who became Marr's mentor and close friend. Bevins was responsible for Marr's first appointment at The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
as a member of the newspaper's launch staff.
Marr left shortly afterwards, and joined The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, where he contributed the weekly "Bagehot" political column and ultimately became the magazine's political editor in 1988. Marr has remarked that his time at The Economist "changed me quite a lot" and "made me question a lot of my assumptions". He admits that while working at The Economist he earned himself the jocular nickname ‘Tearound Tessa’ because of his enthusiasm for trips to the canteen on behalf of his colleagues.A History of Andrew Marr
Marr returned to The Independent as the newspaper's political editor in 1992, and became its editor in 1996. His period as editor coincided with a particularly turbulent time at the paper. Faced with price cutting by the Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
-owned Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, sales had begun to decline, and Marr made two attempts to arrest the slide. He made use of bold 'poster-style' front pages, and then in 1996 radically re-designed the paper along a mainland European model, with Gill Sans
Gill Sans
Gill Sans is a sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill.The original design appeared in 1926 when Douglas Cleverdon opened a bookshop in his home town of Bristol, where Eric Gill painted the fascia over the window in sans-serif capitals that would later be known as Gill Sans...
headline fonts, and stories being themed and grouped together, rather than according to strict news value. This tinkering ultimately proved disastrous. The limited advertising budget meant the paper's re-launch struggled to get noticed, and when it did, it was mocked for reinterpreting its original marketing slogan 'It Is - Are You' to read 'It's changed - have you?'. The response from some was that many existing readers had indeed changed - to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. At the beginning of 1998 Marr was sacked after refusing to implement a further round of redundancies.
Three months later he returned to the Independent. Tony O'Reilly
Tony O'Reilly
Sir Anthony Joseph Francis O'Reilly is an Irish businessman and former international rugby union player. He is known for his involvement the Independent News & Media Group, which he led from 1973 to 2009, and as former CEO and Chairman of the H.J. Heinz Company. He was the leading shareholder of...
had increased his stake in the paper and bought out owners Mirror Group. O'Reilly, who had a high regard for Marr, asked him to collaborate as co-editor with Rosie Boycott
Rosie Boycott
Rosel Marie Boycott , better known as Rosie Boycott, is a British journalist and feminist.-Journalism career:Daughter of Major Charles Boycott and Betty Boycott née Le Sueur, Rosel Boycott was born in St Helier, Jersey and was educated at the independent Cheltenham Ladies' College and read...
, in an arrangement whereby Marr would edit the comment pages, and Boycott would have overall control of the news pages.
Many pundits predicted the arrangement would not last, and two months later Boycott left to replace Richard Addis
Richard Addis
Richard Addis is a British journalist and former editor of the Daily Express newspaper. He is a former novice Anglican monk....
as editor of the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
. Marr was sole editor again, but only for one week. Simon Kelner
Simon Kelner
Simon Kelner is a British journalist and newspaper editor. Kelner was editor-in-chief of The Independent and Independent on Sunday newspapers. He was appointed in May 1998 to succeed Andrew Marr and Rosie Boycott and ended his tenure in 2008...
, who had worked on the paper when it was first launched accepted the editorship, and asked Marr to stay on as a political columnist. Kelner was not Marr's "cup of tea" Marr observed later, and he left the paper for the final time in May 1998.
At the BBC
Marr wrote as a columnist for The Daily Express and The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
before being appointed BBC Political Editor in May 2000. Like his predecessor-but-one John Cole and his famous herringbone overcoat, he soon developed a trademark style, characterised by much gesticulation, as sent up in the comedy impersonation programme Dead Ringers
Dead Ringers (comedy)
Dead Ringers is a UK radio and television comedy impressions broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and later BBC Two. The programme was devised by producer Bill Dare and developed with Jon Holmes, Andy Hurst and Simon Blackwell. It starred Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Phil Cornwell, Kevin Connelly and Mark Perry...
where the impressionists use ridiculously long plastic arms when portraying him. He also became known and widely praised for his ability to describe the background to Westminster gossip and intrigue and explain to viewers and listeners how it would affect their lives. A great believer in the view that "politics matters", Marr championed the democratic process and saw it as part of his role as Political Editor of the BBC to help make politics meaningful and relevant for many people who tended to see politics as the preserve of a remote, largely male and middle aged Westminster clique.
Among his personal scoops as Political Editor were the second resignation of Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
, and the interview in late 2004 in which Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
told him that he would not seek a fourth term as Prime Minister should he win the forthcoming general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
. Marr was criticised for some of his on air statements during this period. John Pilger
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US....
claimed that Marr "rejoiced at the vindication of Blair who, he said, had promised 'to take Baghdad without a bloodbath'" during the second Iraq war in March 2003. Pilger has attacked Marr further over an interview with Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
in which Blair was promoting his memoirs. Pilger is critical towards Marr for not questioning Blair on whether he had colluded with George Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
to invade Iraq and for not bringing up the legality of the invasion.
During his time as political editor Marr assumed various presentational roles, and announced in 2005 that following the 2005 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
, he would step down as Political Editor to spend more time with his family. He was replaced as Political Editor by Nick Robinson
Nick Robinson
Nicholas Anthony "Nick" Robinson is a British journalist and political editor for the BBC. Robinson was interested in politics from a young age, and went on to study a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics degree at Oxford University, where he was also President of the Oxford University Conservative...
. In September 2005, he moved to a new role presenting the BBC's Sunday morning flagship news programme Sunday AM, known as The Andrew Marr Show since September 2007; the slot was previously filled with Breakfast with Frost
Breakfast with Frost
Breakfast with Frost was a talk show hosted by Sir David Frost on the BBC on Sunday mornings. The news presenter was Moira Stuart. The show ran for more than 12 years and exactly 500 editions between 3 January 1993 and 29 May 2005...
and hosted by Sir David Frost
David Frost (broadcaster)
Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE is a British journalist, comedian, writer, media personality and daytime TV game show host best known for his two decades as host of Through the Keyhole and serious interviews with various political figures, the most notable being Richard Nixon...
. Marr also hosts the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
programme Start the Week
Start the Week
Start the Week is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor Andrew Marr...
.
In May and June 2007, the BBC broadcast Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain is a 2007 BBC documentary television series presented by Andrew Marr that covers the period of British history from the end of the Second World War onwards...
. He presented the five one-hour documentaries, and chronicled the history of Britain from 1945 to 2007. Unsold copies of the book of the series, a best seller, were recalled in March 2009 by publishers Macmillan
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
when legal action was taken over false claims that domestic violence campaigner Erin Pizzey
Erin Pizzey
Erin Patria Margaret Pizzey is a British family care activist and a best-selling novelist. She became internationally famous for having started one of the first Women's refuges in the modern world, Chiswick Women's Aid, in 1971, the organisation known today as Refuge...
had been a member of The Angry Brigade
The Angry Brigade
The Angry Brigade was a small British militant group responsible for a series of bomb attacks in Britain between 1970 and 1972.-History:During the summer of 1968 there were a number of demonstrations in London against the American involvement in the Vietnam War, centred on the American Embassy in...
terrorist group. According to her own account, in a Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
interview in 2001, Pizzey had been present at a meeting when they discussed their intention of bombing Biba
Biba
Biba was an iconic and popular London fashion store of the 1960s and 1970s. It was started and primarily run by the Polish-born Barbara Hulanicki with help of her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon.-Early years:...
, a fashion store, and threatened to report their activities to the police. Damages were paid to Pizzey and Marr's book was republished with the error removed.
Marr has written several books on politics and journalism, notably state-of-the-nation reflection The Day Britain Died (2000) and My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism (2004). The former was a three-part television series shown after Newsnight on BBC Two from 31 January to 2 February 2000. He has also written several articles for the British political magazine Prospect
Prospect (magazine)
Prospect is a monthly British general interest magazine, specialising in politics and current affairs. Frequent topics include British, European, and US politics, social issues, art, literature, cinema, science, the media, history, philosophy, and psychology...
.
In 2008, he presented the prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
series Britain From Above
Britain From Above
Britain From Above is a 2008 six-part British television miniseries in which journalist Andrew Marr takes to the skies of the United Kingdom in search of the view of Britain from above to research all areas of past and present British life...
. The following year, he contributed a three-part series called Darwin's Dangerous Idea to the BBC Darwin Season
BBC Darwin Season
The BBC Darwin Season is a series of television and radio programmes commissioned by the BBC to celebrate the bicentenary of the great naturalist Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species in November, 1859...
, celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his theory of evolution. He played a small role as himself in a Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
episode, "World War Three"; reporting Slitheen entering 10 Downing Street, he was noted as himself in the credits. In late 2009, BBC Two broadcast his six-part television series on British politics in the first half of the 20th century Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain
Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain is a 2009 BBC documentary television series presented by Andrew Marr that covers the period of British history from the end of the death of Queen Victoria to the end of the Second World War...
.
In September 2009 on the Sunday before the Labour Party conference in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, Marr interviewed Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Towards the end of the interview, Marr told Brown he wanted to ask about:
The Prime Minister responded: "No. I think this is the sort of questioning which is all too often entering the lexicon of British politics." Marr was later heavily criticised by Labour politicians, the media and fellow political journalists for what was described as a vague question which relied on its source being a singular entry on a political blog. In later interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Krishnan Guru-Murthy , is a British television presenter and journalist employed by Channel 4. He presents the Channel 4 Evening News and the foreign affairs programme Unreported World.-Education:...
of Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in 1982.-Channel 4 News:...
, John Ward, the author of the Not Born Yesterday blog, admitted that he has no proof to back up the claim.
Politics
Marr has written about the need to remain impartial and "studiously neutral" whilst delivering news reports and "convey fact, and nothing more". Marr responded to criticism as "pernicious anti-journalism".In the Daily Telegraph he claimed to be a libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
when discussing his conflicting views on smoking bans. However, writing in The Guardian, he said "And the final answer, frankly, is the vigorous use of state power to coerce and repress. It may be my Presbyterian background, but I firmly believe that repression can be a great, civilising instrument for good. Stamp hard on certain 'natural' beliefs for long enough and you can almost kill them off. The police are first in line to be burdened further, but a new Race Relations Act will impose the will of the state on millions of other lives too."
At an October 2006 BBC seminar discussing impartiality Marr highlighted alleged bias within the BBC. He stated: "The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities, and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
people. It has a liberal bias, not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias."
Marr spoke at the Cheltenham Literary Festival on 10 October 2010 about political blogging. He claimed that "[a] lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people."
Other work
Marr has helped support the Sense-National Deafblind and Rubella AssociationSense-National Deafblind and Rubella Association
Sense is a national charity in the United Kingdom that supports and campaigns for children and adults who are deafblind.-History:Sense was founded in 1955 as a self-help and support group for the parents of children whose disabilities were neither recognised nor provided for, children born...
, and was the face of a Sense direct marketing appeal. He has also been involved with the charity Common Purpose UK
Common Purpose UK
Common Purpose UK is a British charity that runs leadership development programmes across the UK.Founded in 1989 by its current Chief Executive, Julia Middleton, its aim is to improve the way organisations and society work together by developing all kinds of leaders through a programme of diverse...
. Marr is President of the Galapagos Conservation Trust
Galapagos Conservation Trust
The Galapagos Conservation Trust is a British conservation charity established to raise funds for, and awareness of, for the Galapagos Islands. It is a member of the Friends of Galapagos network...
.
Family
Marr lives in East SheenEast Sheen
East Sheen, also known as 'Sheen', is an affluent suburb of London, England in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It forms part of the London post town in the SW postcode area....
, London, with his wife, the political journalist Jackie Ashley
Jackie Ashley
Jacqueline Ashley is a British journalist and broadcaster.Ashley is the daughter of Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke, the life peer and former Labour MP. Her mother was Pauline Kay Ashley née Crispin...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, whom he married in August 1987 in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. She is a daughter of the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
life peer Lord Ashley of Stoke
Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke
Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke, CH PC , is a Labour member of the United Kingdom House of Lords. He was Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent South for 26 years, from 1966 to 1992....
. The couple have a son and two daughters.
Super-injunction
On 28 June 2008, Richard IngramsRichard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie magazine.-Career:...
reported in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
that Marr had obtained a High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
injunction
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
preventing disclosure in the media of "private" information. An order—a super-injunction
2011 British super-injunction controversy
The British privacy injunctions controversy began in early 2011, when London-based tabloid newspapers published stories about anonymous celebrities that were intended to flout what are commonly known in English law as super-injunctions, where the claimant could not be named, and carefully omitting...
—was also granted preventing the reporting of the injunction. The injunction was not mentioned in the UK media until Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
commented on it.
On 26 April 2011, following legal action by Private Eye editor Ian Hislop
Ian Hislop
Ian David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye...
, an interview with Marr was published in the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, in which he revealed that the super-injunction had covered the reporting of an extra-marital affair with a female journalist. Marr said that he had believed that a child of the journalist was his, but had learned through a DNA test that it was not. He commented: "I did not come into journalism to go around gagging journalists. Am I embarrassed by it? Yes. Am I uneasy about it? Yes. But at the time there was a crisis in my marriage and I believed there was a young child involved. I also had my own family to think about, and I believed this story was nobody else's business." Hislop had filed a court challenge earlier in April 2011, and described the super-injunction as "pretty rank".
Awards
In 1995 he was named Columnist of the Year at both the What the Papers Say Awards and the British Press AwardsBritish Press Awards
The British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
, and received the Journalist Award in the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
Political Awards of 2001.
He was considered for honorary membership of The Coterie for 2007. Marr has received two British Academy Television Awards
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
: the Richard Dimbleby
Richard Dimbleby
Richard Dimbleby CBE was an English journalist and broadcaster widely acknowledged as one of the greatest figures in British broadcasting history.-Early life:...
Award at the 2004 ceremony
British Academy Television Awards 2004
The 2004 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 18 April at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, London. The ceremony was broadcast on the ITV Network, and hosted by television presenter Davina McCall.-Winners:*Best Actor...
and the award for Best Specialist Factual Programme (for his History of Modern Britain) at the 2008 ceremony
British Academy Television Awards 2008
The 2008 British Academy Television Awards were held on 20 April at the London Palladium Theatre in London. The ceremony was broadcast live on BBC One in the United Kingdom. The nominations were announced on 18 March 2008. Drama Cranford received the most nominations with four, making Judi Dench...
.
Marr and his wife were both awarded honorary doctorates from Staffordshire University
Staffordshire University
Staffordshire University is a university with its main campus based in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and with other campuses in Stafford, Lichfield and Shrewsbury.- History :...
in July 2009.
External links
- Press Office — Andrew Marr — BBC biography
- 'Marr quits as BBC political chief' — BBC News'
- TV is less up itself than newspapers — The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- Transcript - The Big Idea - BBC, 1996