Michael Barratt is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 television presenter and announcer. He is mainly known for his lengthy period as the main presenter on Nationwide

Nationwide (TV series)

Nationwide was a BBC News and Current affairs television programme broadcast on BBC One each weekday following the early evening news. It followed a magazine format, combining political analysis and discussion with consumer affairs, light entertainment and sports reporting...

.

His father was a civil servant. Barratt was educated at Rossall School

Rossall School

Rossall School is a British, co-educational, independent school, between Cleveleys and Fleetwood, Lancashire. Rossall was founded in 1844 by St. Vincent Beechey as a sister school to Marlborough College which had been founded the previous year...

, an independent boys' school

Independent school

An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...

 near Fleetwood

Fleetwood

Fleetwood is a town within the Wyre district of Lancashire, England, lying at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 26,840 people at the 2001 Census. It forms part of the Greater Blackpool conurbation. The town was the first planned community of the Victorian era...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, and at Paisley Grammar School

Paisley Grammar School

Paisley Grammar School, known for a period following 1896 as the Paisley Grammar School and William B. Barbour Academy, is a non-denominational state comprehensive secondary school in Paisley, the largest town in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The school was founded in 1576 and was formerly a selective...

 in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. After leaving school, he became a journalist for Kemsley newspapers, before moving to Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

 to be editor of the Nigerian Citizen and to work for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service. Following his return to the UK, he worked as a production journalist on several English regional newspapers including a period at the Wolverhampton Express & Star

Express & Star

The Express & Star is an evening newspaper based in Wolverhampton, England, published Monday to Saturday in nine different editions covering the Black Country, Birmingham and the wider West Midlands area from Tamworth to Kidderminster. It as widely perceived as being moderately right-wing...

.

At the same time, he contributed regularly to the BBC World Service

BBC World Service

The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...

 and began a freelance television reporting career, initially on the Midlands regional current affairs magazine Scan.

He became a reporter on the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 current affairs programme Panorama

Panorama (TV series)

Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...

, then 24 Hours

24 Hours (TV series)

Twenty-Four Hours is a long-running, late evening, daily news magazine programme that aired on BBC 1. It focused on analysis and criticism of current affairs and featured in-depth short documentary films that set the style for current affairs magazine programmes. Twenty-Four Hours launched in 1965...

. He was a Nationwide

Nationwide (TV series)

Nationwide was a BBC News and Current affairs television programme broadcast on BBC One each weekday following the early evening news. It followed a magazine format, combining political analysis and discussion with consumer affairs, light entertainment and sports reporting...

presenter from 1969 to 1977. He was also chairman of 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...

's Gardeners' Question Time

Gardeners' Question Time

Gardeners' Question Time is a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme in which amateur gardeners can put questions to a panel of experts.-History:...

from 1973 to 1979. He was also a presenter of Thames TV"s Reporting London and Chairman of Michael Barratt Limited production company until 1997..

He has appeared, as himself, in both films and television, including the film The Magic Christian

The Magic Christian (film)

The Magic Christian is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, with noteworthy appearances by John Cleese, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski. It was loosely adapted from the 1959 comic novel of the same...

and The Goodies

The Goodies (TV series)

The Goodies is a British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s. The series, which combines surreal sketches and situation comedy, was broadcast by BBC 2 from 1970 until 1980 — and was then broadcast by the ITV company LWT for a year, between 1981 to 1982.The show was...

. In 1972 he was elected Rector of the University of Aberdeen

Rector of the University of Aberdeen

The Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen is the students' representative and chairman in the University Court of the University of Aberdeen. The position is rarely known by its full title and most often referred to simply as "Rector". The Rector is elected by students of the University and...

. He is the author of several books including Michael Barratt's Complete Gardening Guide, Michael Barratt, Making the Most of the Media, and Making the Most of Retirement.

He was married first to Joan - they had three sons and three daughters before divorcing. In 1977 he married Nationwide presenter Dilys Morgan. They have two sons and a daughter.

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