Bob Friend (newscaster): Difference between revisions

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Bob Friend, MBE (20 January 1938 - 8 October 2008) was one of the original news anchors for the Sky News channel from its launch in 1989 until his retirement in late 2003.^[1]

News Corporation's chairman Rupert Murdoch paid personal tribute to Friend:^[1]

He was quick to understand the power of non-stop programming. He was there at the beginning of that long, hard road we all had to travel to make Sky News what it is today

Career

Friend started in 1953 aged 15 as a cub reporter on the Tunbridge Wells Advertiser,^[2] reporting on the Queen's Coronation. After a career in newspapers, during which he undertook National Service as an officer with the Royal Gurkha Rifles in Hong Kong,^[1] Friend moved in 1969 into a broadcast career with the BBC as the Northern Ireland correspondent of the Radio 4 Today programme.^[1] Friend served four years in Northern Ireland making his first appearances on television, becoming the BBC's first resident Australian correspondent, and finally five years as the BBC's Tokyo correspondent.^[2]

After 20 years with the BBC, he returned to the United Kingdom to work on the start-up Sky News. Friend's first appearance on Sky News was on 23 October 1989 alongside Vivien Creegor, but his best known on-screen partner was Anna Botting, and they became one of channel's most popular news duos.

Friend became the best recognised face of Sky News, and as a result, he had cameos in a number of News Corporation owned Twentieth Century Fox's 1990s films, including Independence Day and Mission Impossible.^[3]

In June 2003 he was awarded an MBE for services to broadcasting in the Queen's Birthday Honours List,^[2] shortly before his retirement presenting alongside Creegor on 23 October, exactly 14 years after his first appearance.

Personal life

Friend was married with two daughters.^[1] Friend died after suffering from a brain tumor, on 8 October 2008.^[1]

References

External links

• Sky News Tribute to Bob Friend
• Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.

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