Maxine Mawhinney
Encyclopedia
Maxine Mawhinney is a newsreader
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...

 on BBC News, 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...

's 24 hour rolling news channel.

Biography

She trained as a newspaper journalist in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, then joined BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...

 and Radio in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, before moving to Ulster Television and then ITN in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

She joined Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...

 at its launch in 1989, as Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 correspondent, remaining for two years before going to Tokyo as News Editor for Asia for Reuters Television.

After two years in Asia, she spent a year in Frankfurt, Germany, for Reuters Television before being appointed Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 Correspondent for GMTV
GMTV
GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...

 at its launch in 1993.

In 1996 she returned to London joining the BBC's international news channel BBC World
BBC World
BBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel in the world...

. She was the duty presenter in the early hours of 31 August 1997 when news broke of the car crash of Diana, Princess of Wales
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Fayed's...

. Although she was soon replaced by the channel's senior presenter Nik Gowing
Nik Gowing
Nik Keith Gowing is a British television journalist. He was educated at the Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury and Latymer Upper School in London, followed by Bristol University....

, she continued to give updates on the story throughout the night. She can be seen in this role in the 2006 feature film The Queen
The Queen (film)
The Queen is a 2006 British drama film directed by Stephen Frears, written by Peter Morgan, and starring Helen Mirren as the title role, HM Queen Elizabeth II...

.

In November 1997 she joined BBC News (then BBC News 24) as one of the launch presenters. Since then she has presented various timeslots on the channel, including a period in the afternoon slot alongside Matthew Amroliwala
Matthew Amroliwala
Matthew Amroliwala is a BBC newsreader who presents on the BBC News Channel each weekday from 11am - 2pm alongside Jane Hill. He is an occasional relief presenter of the BBC Weekend News on BBC One and appears in the revamped Crimewatch programme on BBC One, with Kirsty Young.-Biography:He was...

 and Chris Eakin
Chris Eakin
Chris Eakin is a newsreader on the BBC's 24 hour rolling news channel, BBC News.-Early life:He was born in Northern Ireland and lived at Helen's Bay in County Down, then briefly moved to Spain. His father was a civil engineer....

, before being shifted to Sunday afternoons in April 2006. She has since also taken on the Saturday and Monday morning slots and the Friday afternoon slot as well as also regularly covering other shifts on the channel. Mawhinney also appears on the 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...

 weekend lunchtime bulletins as part of her weekend shifts. In the past she has also presented BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast is the morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. It is presented live from BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items...

 and the BBC One O'Clock News
BBC One O'Clock News
The BBC News at One is the afternoon news bulletin from the BBC. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel on Monday to Sunday 1:00pm....

.

In March 2011, Mawhinney covered a majority of news time on the BBC News Channel for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...

over the weekend after it occurred on 11 March 2011.

Maxine is married with two daughters.

External links

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