Eddie Mair
Overview
Eddie Mair is a British
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...

 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...

 radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 presenter. He presents 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 daily news magazine PM
PM (Radio 4)
PM, sometimes referred to as the PM programme to avoid ambiguity, is BBC Radio 4's long-running early evening news and current affairs programme.-Broadcast times:...

 also the Radio 4 Saturday only iPM
IPM
IPM may refer to:Business*Indian Pharmaceutical Market*IPM Informed Portfolio Management, an investment manager*Integrated Project Management, a Capability Maturity Model Integration process area*International Project Management...

 and the BBC's NewsPod, is an occasional presenter of Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....

, the stand-in presenter for Any Questions replacing the late Nick Clarke
Nick Clarke
Nicholas Campbell Clarke , was an English radio and television presenter and journalist, primarily known for his work on BBC Radio 4....

, and was the original host of the 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...

 programme Time Commanders
Time Commanders
Time Commanders was a series of programmes made by Lion TV and PlayGen for BBC Two that ran for two seasons from 2003 to 2005. The programmes, originally hosted by Eddie Mair and more recently by Richard Hammond, featured a specially made game engine to reenact historical battles. A team of four...

.
Eddie Mair was born in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

, 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...

. His father was a lorry driver and his mother was a nurse. His amateur broadcasting career is reported to have started by using the tannoy in the school playground.
Quotations

[Concluding a slightly incomprehensible interview on financial affairs] ... remember, PM is not here to give financial advice. Your interest in the programme may go down as well as up.

...and if you want to hear more of that interview, fly to America and watch TV on Sunday night. - June 2003

[Concluding a report about a car accident on Abbey Road, a street which appeared on a Beatles album] ... that was an item about a Zebra crossing|zebra crossing in North London.

[Concluding an item in which a reporter asked random people on the street if throwing buckets of water at people was offensive, and whether he could do so] Moments later he punched her unconscious. [Pause] No, he didn't, don't send us letters.

[Question to the Sudanese ambassador concerning the government's complicit stance towards Janjaweed atrocities in Darfur] Do you have any trouble sleeping at night? [Reply] No, sir. I sleep very well.

[After an article attacking government policy] We asked a minister for an interview - you know the rest.

[On organisations that issue statements on video rather than give interviews] "...makes my TV work look professional."

[Mair was talking to a public figure on the subject of police investigations of allegations of homophobia against Sir Iqbal Sacranie. This person was quite hostile to the police action, and as he was speaking his mobile rang...] Mair: "That'll be the police for you now..."

[Reporter waiting to be arrested on cycle-path (a woman jogger had been arrested and cautioned earlier that week)] "I've been waiting to be arrested all day. I'm disappointed!" [Mair replies] "We're all with you on that one."

[After every single weather report on 'Broadcasting House' (Radio 4), no matter how sunny and hot] "...so do wrap up!"

 
x
OK