John Suchet
Encyclopedia
John Suchet is a British news reader and television presenter.
Suchet has two brothers, one of whom is David Suchet
, a British actor. His father was Jack Suchet
, who emigrated to England from South Africa in 1932, and trained to be a doctor at St Mary's Hospital, London. He is the uncle of broadcaster Richard Suchet.
n Jew who shortened his name from Suchedowitz to Suchet, and Suchet's Jewish father emigrated from South Africa to England in 1932; he became a medical student at St Mary's Hospital, London in 1933, and, later, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, working with Alexander Fleming
on the role of penicillin
in treating venereal disease. His mother, Joan, was Anglican. His maternal grandfather, James Jarché
, was a famous Fleet Street
photographer notable for the first pictures of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and also for his pictures of Louis Blériot
(1909) and the Siege of Sidney Street
.
Suchet was brought up with his two brothers Peter and David. He attended the private Uppingham School
, Rutland
, and then the University of Dundee
, from which he now holds an honorary doctorate. Peter is an advertising executive, and his younger brother David Suchet
is an actor, best known for his portrayal of Agatha Christie's Poirot
. His youngest son, Rory, is a news anchor at RT
(previously known as Russia Today).
in 1967, when he was taken on as a graduate trainee by Reuters
news agency. During that year he learned the rudiments of straightforward, unbiased news editing and reporting, under the tutelage of John Fawcus and Anton Wills-Eve.
He was on the Middle East
desk at the time of the six days war in June that year, an event that taught him how to edit his copy that was fast, accurate and acceptable to newspapers in both Israel and the Arab world. This objective attitude towards journalism never left him.
Suchet is most famous for being a newsreader for ITV News
from 1972
until 2004
. During this time, he presented News at 12.30 / News at One and News at Ten, but became best known for presenting the Early Evening News between late 1991 (when it was introduced to replace the News At 5:40) and 1999 when the bulletin was dropped. Initially, he alternated with Carol Barnes
as the regular presenter of the Early Evening News, but by 1994 he had become the sole main host and thereafter replaced predecessors Michael Nicholson
and Alastair Stewart
as "the face of the evening news".
He also anchored or contributed to countless special event programmes, including royal occasions (he was one of the main commentators on ITN's coverage of Princess Diana's funeral), the Budget and ITN's election coverage. He was voted fifth scariest TV and radio celebrity in the Radio Times
poll.
He retired from ITN in March 2004, then made a return to TV news, presenting Five News
, initially for a six-month period from March 2006, then extended to Christmas 2007.
's This Morning
, as well as being a guest panellist on Five's The Wright Stuff
. He hosted the revival of the quiz show Going for Gold
on Five and then later Wordplay
on Five.
In July 2009, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the NASA moon landings, ITN produced five special 10-minute programmes for ITV titled Mission to the Moon – News from 1969. Suchet, a former ITN newscaster, was the presenter of these specials. The first aired at 10:35 on ITV on Wednesday 15 July and ran across the following Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday evenings.
In July 2010, Suchet joined Classic FM
as the regular host of the Sunday lunchtime music show (12-3pm). He first appeared on the station in 2004 as guest presenter of the Composer's Notes series in which he examined the finances and wealth of famous composers. In September 2010 it was announced that he would be presenting the Classic FM weekday morning show from January 2011, taking over from the show's previous host Simon Bates
.
John Suchet is a fan of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven
and has become one of the UK's leading experts on the composer and his works, publishing five books about the composer.
in her early 60s. He appeared on the mainstream ITN / ITV and BBC news bulletins on 17 February 2009 to talk about this, to raise awareness of the disease and to campaign on behalf of Admiral Nurses. He explained that Bonnie would have no idea that he was on the news programmes.
Suchet is a huge fan of – and writer on – Ludwig van Beethoven
and has toured with his material.
Suchet lives in Docklands
, London.
Suchet has two brothers, one of whom is David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
, a British actor. His father was Jack Suchet
Jack Suchet
Jack Suchet was a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, who carried out research on the use of penicillin in the treatment of venereal disease with Sir Alexander Fleming in London...
, who emigrated to England from South Africa in 1932, and trained to be a doctor at St Mary's Hospital, London. He is the uncle of broadcaster Richard Suchet.
Early life
Suchet's paternal grandfather was a LithuaniaLithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n Jew who shortened his name from Suchedowitz to Suchet, and Suchet's Jewish father emigrated from South Africa to England in 1932; he became a medical student at St Mary's Hospital, London in 1933, and, later, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, working with Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy...
on the role of penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
in treating venereal disease. His mother, Joan, was Anglican. His maternal grandfather, James Jarché
James Jarché
James 'Jimmy' Jarché was a famous Fleet Street photographer notable for the first pictures of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and also for his pictures of Louis Blériot and the Siege of Sidney Street....
, was a famous Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
photographer notable for the first pictures of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and also for his pictures of Louis Blériot
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was a French aviator, inventor and engineer. In 1909 he completed the first flight across a large body of water in a heavier-than-air craft, when he crossed the English Channel. For this achievement, he received a prize of £1,000...
(1909) and the Siege of Sidney Street
Siege of Sidney Street
The Siege of Sidney Street, popularly known as the "Battle of Stepney", was a notorious gunfight in London's East End on the 2nd of January 1911. Preceded by the Houndsditch Murders, it ended with the deaths of two members of a supposedly politically-motivated gang of burglars supposedly led by...
.
Suchet was brought up with his two brothers Peter and David. He attended the private Uppingham School
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...
, Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, and then the University of Dundee
University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....
, from which he now holds an honorary doctorate. Peter is an advertising executive, and his younger brother David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
is an actor, best known for his portrayal of Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
. His youngest son, Rory, is a news anchor at RT
RT (TV network)
RT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual television news network based in the Russian Federation run by the state-owned state-run RIA Novosti....
(previously known as Russia Today).
Career
Suchet began his career in journalismJournalism
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...
in 1967, when he was taken on as a graduate trainee by Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
news agency. During that year he learned the rudiments of straightforward, unbiased news editing and reporting, under the tutelage of John Fawcus and Anton Wills-Eve.
He was on the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
desk at the time of the six days war in June that year, an event that taught him how to edit his copy that was fast, accurate and acceptable to newspapers in both Israel and the Arab world. This objective attitude towards journalism never left him.
Suchet is most famous for being a newsreader for ITV News
ITV News
ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. Since 1955, ITV's news bulletins have been produced by Independent Television News . The channel's news coverage has won awards from the Royal Television Society, Emmy Awards and BAFTAs. Between 2004 and 2008, the...
from 1972
1972 in television
The year 1972 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1972.For the American TV schedule, see: 1972-73 American network television schedule.-Events:...
until 2004
2004 in television
The year 2004 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2004.For the American TV schedule, see: 2004–05 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:...
. During this time, he presented News at 12.30 / News at One and News at Ten, but became best known for presenting the Early Evening News between late 1991 (when it was introduced to replace the News At 5:40) and 1999 when the bulletin was dropped. Initially, he alternated with Carol Barnes
Carol Barnes
Carol Lesley Barnes was a British television newsreader and broadcaster. She worked for ITN from 1975 to 2004.-Early life:...
as the regular presenter of the Early Evening News, but by 1994 he had become the sole main host and thereafter replaced predecessors Michael Nicholson
Michael Nicholson
Michael Nicholson OBE is an English journalist and former ITN Senior Foreign Correspondent.- Journalistic career :Born in Romford, Essex, Nicholson attended the University of Leicester. Nicholson was a war reporter for ITN, who reported from wars in Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Vietnam, Cambodia,...
and Alastair Stewart
Alastair Stewart
Alastair James Stewart OBE is an English journalist and newscaster. Stewart is currently employed by ITN where he is a main newscaster for ITV News.-Early life:...
as "the face of the evening news".
He also anchored or contributed to countless special event programmes, including royal occasions (he was one of the main commentators on ITN's coverage of Princess Diana's funeral), the Budget and ITN's election coverage. He was voted fifth scariest TV and radio celebrity in the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
poll.
He retired from ITN in March 2004, then made a return to TV news, presenting Five News
Five News
5 News is the news programme of British broadcaster Channel 5, produced by Sky News. From 1 January 2005, Sky News was awarded the contract to provide the news for Channel 5, replacing ITN, which had provided the channel's news service from the channel's launch in 1997...
, initially for a six-month period from March 2006, then extended to Christmas 2007.
Recent work
Suchet has also been a guest presenter for ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
, as well as being a guest panellist on Five's The Wright Stuff
The Wright Stuff
The Wright Stuff is a British television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, and currently airing on Channel 5 each weekday morning from 9:15 to 11:10am....
. He hosted the revival of the quiz show Going for Gold
Going for Gold
Going for Gold is a British television game show that originally aired on BBC1 between 12 October 1987 and 9 July 1996.It has since been revived for Channel 5 from 13 October 2008 to 20 March 2009...
on Five and then later Wordplay
Wordplay (game show)
Wordplay is an American game show which ran on NBC from December 29, 1986 to September 4, 1987. It was hosted by Tom Kennedy and announced by Charlie O'Donnell...
on Five.
In July 2009, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the NASA moon landings, ITN produced five special 10-minute programmes for ITV titled Mission to the Moon – News from 1969. Suchet, a former ITN newscaster, was the presenter of these specials. The first aired at 10:35 on ITV on Wednesday 15 July and ran across the following Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday evenings.
In July 2010, Suchet joined Classic FM
Classic FM (UK)
Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.-Overview:...
as the regular host of the Sunday lunchtime music show (12-3pm). He first appeared on the station in 2004 as guest presenter of the Composer's Notes series in which he examined the finances and wealth of famous composers. In September 2010 it was announced that he would be presenting the Classic FM weekday morning show from January 2011, taking over from the show's previous host Simon Bates
Simon Bates
Simon Bates is a UK disc jockey and radio presenter. Between 1976 and 1993 he worked at BBC Radio 1, presenting the station's weekday mid-morning show for most of this period. He later became a regular presenter on Classic FM...
.
John Suchet is a fan of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
and has become one of the UK's leading experts on the composer and his works, publishing five books about the composer.
Personal life
Suchet and his wife Bonnie have five grown-up sons between them from previous marriages, and live in London. In 2006, Bonnie was diagnosed with Alzheimer's diseaseAlzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
in her early 60s. He appeared on the mainstream ITN / ITV and BBC news bulletins on 17 February 2009 to talk about this, to raise awareness of the disease and to campaign on behalf of Admiral Nurses. He explained that Bonnie would have no idea that he was on the news programmes.
Suchet is a huge fan of – and writer on – Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
and has toured with his material.
Suchet lives in Docklands
Docklands
Docklands is the semi-official name for an area in east London, England. It forms part of the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port of London, at one time the world's largest port. They have now been redeveloped principally for...
, London.
External links
- John's profile at Sky.com
- BBC Radio 3 biography bbc.co.uk
- John Suchet's Presenter Page on Classic FM