News

James Hanson is an award-winning broadcaster and journalist. He’s currently heard on Times Radio, where he presents programmes across the schedule including the flagship Breakfast Show, as well as Frontline, an interview series about the war in Ukraine which has tens of millions of monthly viewers on YouTube. Since 2024, James has also hosted History Undone with James Hanson, a new YouTube series produced by NewsUK about the most consequential battles and military campaigns in history. His broad knowledge of current affairs and geopolitics also sees him write regular articles for publications including The Spectator and UnHerd.

James started his broadcasting career with the BBC, where he presented BBC Radio Bristol’s Breakfast Show until 2023. His interview in September 2022 with then Prime Minister Liz Truss made national and international news and went on to win a Broadcast Press Guild Award, with the judges describing it as “game-changing”. Through his work on Times Radio, James continues to interview leading UK politicians on a regular basis, including Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage. He has also developed a deep knowledge of geopolitics and global affairs, both through his work on Frontline and having hosted The Times newspaper’s World in 10 podcast.

When he’s not broadcasting, James is also an experienced event host, as comfortable chairing industry panels as he is presenting corporate awards. He has also provided voiceovers for BBC News and a range of commercial clients. Outside of work, James has a passion for travel, culture and sport and one of his lifetime goals is to visit every presidential library in the US!

Carole Walker is a high-profile journalist and broadcaster who now presents her own highly-regarded show on Times Radio. The programme is essential evening listening, bringing you tomorrow’s news today, great guests, updates on all the latest developments and a first look at the next day’s papers.

She is the author of Lobby Life – Inside Westminster’s Secret Society, drawing on more than twenty years’ experience as a BBC Political Correspondent.

During those decades as a BBC Political Correspondent, she covered some of the biggest political stories in recent history including eight general elections, the EU and Scottish referendums, the rise and fall of Conservative, Labour and coalition governments, resignations, rows and parliamentary debates. She has travelled to Iraq and Afghanistan with Prime Ministers and reported on international summits.

Carole has a career in news spanning more than 40 years and reported on the first Gulf War, revolution in Moscow, the break-up of the Soviet Union and civil war in the Balkans and Somalia. She also covered the Lockerbie bombing, terror attacks in London, riots and demonstrations. She has presented the BBC News Channel, the Westminster Hour on BBC Radio 4 and other discussion programmes.

She left the BBC in 2017 and worked as a freelance political commentator/analyst and presenter, appearing on CNN, Sky News, Talk Radio, RTE and other broadcasters and contributing to the Times Red Box and the CNN website.

Her podcast The View from Here reflected politics outside the Westminster bubble, focussing on the concerns of people in rural communities and small towns.

Carole has an inside knowledge of politics with excellent contacts and understanding of policies and legislation. She regularly contributes to discussions and debates on a range of issues including British and global politics, media relations, rural affairs and devolution.

Clare McDonnell is an award-winning journalist and Broadcaster who can be heard daily across the UK on the news programme BBC Radio 5Live Drive, she’s also a regular Presenter on BBC Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour, has reported for BBC 1’s The One Show and anchored the BBC’s most listened to news programme around the world “Newsday” on the BBC World Service and its most listened to news podcast “Global News podcast”.

Clare has been at the forefront of many major historic news events, announcing the death of Her Majesty the Queen live on national radio, and then broadcasting from Buckingham Palace in the week leading up to the Monarch’s funeral and on the day itself.
Clare has been the voice that has informed the nation of major political developments too. She anchored a rolling news outside-broadcast from Westminster’s Central Lobby when Prime Minister Boris Johnson was facing a no confidence vote, then presented live from Downing Street when he resigned. She was there too for Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership and her subsequent resignation.

Clare is a sure footed, experienced pair of hands when it comes to handling complex and fast-moving news events but is also noted for her wit and warmth on air. She is passionate about sport and is now a regular voice on the Wimbledon Championships presenting from Centre Court and around the grounds. She also covered the Women’s European Football Championships and was side stage interviewing the Lionesses during their Trafalgar Square victory celebration attended by thousands.

Clare is also an awards host and is regularly asked to chair panel discussions and audience Q and A’s, anything from large events in the Excel Arena in London’s Docklands, to more intimate events with special interest groups and charities.

Clare has a passion for music and the arts too. She was one of the launch Presenters of cutting edge music station BBC 6Music and a reporter on BBC3 TV’s Nightly Entertainment Show “Liquid News” which saw her broadcasting live from, amongst other places, Elvis’s Graceland home and Abbey Road studios in London following George Harrison’s death.

Clare is a broadcaster, event host and panel chair of immense experience who never loses sight of the fact that the most important aspects of her job are holding the powerful to account and allowing those without a voice to be heard.

Alistair Bunkall is Sky News Middle East Correspondent.

He is a multi-award winning journalist who has reported from more than thirty countries on five continents and covered conflicts around the world from Yemen to Afghanistan, Syria, Gaza, Iraq and Ukraine, for which he was part of Sky’s Emmy winning entry in 2023.

Currently based in Jerusalem, he is the face of the channel’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas War and its wider regional repercussions.

Previously Defence and Security Correspondent for the channel for many years, he reported extensively on Islamic State and Al Qaeda and has been given unprecedented access to some of the UK’s most secretive establishments: GCHQ, the Trident nuclear deterrent, the country’s highly secure air command bunker and covert drone bases. He is one of the few journalists in the world to have reported from North Korea and secured the first ever interview with a North Korean official.

Alistair has reported on smuggling operations along the mountainous Lebanese-Syria border, with human traffickers in northern Iraq, the effect of climate change in Africa and in the Islamic State prison camps, including a rare interview with Shamima Begum. During the Covid pandeminc, he spent months in New York with his team as the US locked down and the death toll became the worst in the world.

Alistair has also been a central figure in Sky’s coverage of many elections including the 2020 US Presidential elections, votes in Turkey, Pakistan and the UK, the Eurozone crisis, humanitarian disasters around the world, and he was inside Windsor Castle for the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh.

He has interviewed many world leaders including British Prime Ministers and world Presidents, military commanders and intelligence chiefs.

His 2023 exclusive interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, was described by Israeli newspapers Haaretz as “piercing” and “probably the last British interview Netanyahu will ever dare do”.

His personal podcast series Off the Record with Alistair Bunkall was a portfolio of interviews with world leaders including the NATO Secretary General, and Archbishop of Westminster. The episode with Sir Alex Younger was the first ever interview by a serving Chief of MI6 and made national headlines.

Alistair has deep knowledge of the Middle East and wider global security issues, and experience operating in some of the world’s most hostile zones. He is a highly experienced broadcaster with many hours of live television during his career and deploys at short notice to many of the biggest stories around the world.

Jon Kay is a Chief Presenter on BBC Breakfast, the UK’s most-watched morning show. He co-hosts the live programme Monday-Wednesday every week – providing more than five million viewers with their daily fix of breaking news, political interviews, features, finance and fun.

Since joining the famous red sofa as a full-time host in 2022, Jon has played a key role in the BBC One team anchoring live coverage of major national events including the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the Coronation of King Charles III.

A true all-rounder who is interested in everything and everyone, Jon has fronted a wide range of live programmes including BBC One’s Crimewatch, Radio 4’s Saturday Live, 5Live Drive – and a mid-Atlantic edition of The One Show marking the centenary of the Titanic disaster.

Jon has been a journalist for more than thirty years. You name it, he’s covered it – from crime scenes to courtrooms, riots to red carpets. He has worked as a correspondent in Los Angeles and Washington, as well as reporting from South Africa, Australia, Central America, Iraq – and every part of the UK.

With a first-class degree in Politics from Exeter University, Jon has interviewed the Prime Minister inside 10 Downing Street and criss-crossed the United States presenting a series of road-trip reports for the US Presidential election. Straight-talking and unstuffy, Jon is highly experienced at interpreting and explaining complex and challenging subjects for global and national audiences.

During the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Jon co-presented a series of prime-time BBC One special programmes explaining the lockdown rules to an anxious nation. He has also fronted live outside broadcasts dealing with the cost-of-living crisis – chairing debates which include economists, politicians, business leaders and members of the public.

His style is reassuring, relatable, human and, when appropriate, cheeky. He famously discovered “Brenda from Bristol” while conducting vox-pops in the street during the 2019 General Election (“Not ANOTHER one!”)

People are always at the heart of Jon’s work. A trusted and empathetic broadcaster, in recent years he has led the BBC’s news coverage of the Madeleine McCann case and won a Royal Television Society documentary award for his BBC Panorama investigation which reunited a young man from Baghdad with the family who he thought had been killed in the Iraq War.

Jon’s award-winning true-crime series Fairy Meadow – about the mysterious disappearance of Cheryl Grimmer from an Australian beach – is one of the BBC’s most popular podcasts, with millions of global downloads. Judges at the British Podcast Awards praised Jon’s compassion and sensitivity. His online articles about this story and many others regularly appear in the most-read section of the BBC website.

Jon also regularly presents Radio 4’s Saturday Live programme.

Jon is passionate about children’s literacy and is currently the face of the UK’s biggest writing competition, 500 Words. In that role, he has promoted the contest across the media, in schools across the UK and is chairing the final judging panel at Buckingham Palace.

Born in Hull and brought up near Manchester, Jon has lived and worked all over the UK. He now splits his time between Salford and Bristol, where he lives with his wife, three children and elderly cocker spaniel.

Ali Fortescue is a Political Correspondent at Sky News. She has been at the forefront of Sky’s coverage during some of the biggest political events of the decade, reporting live on Downing Street on the day Boris Johnson and Liz Truss resigned, following Rishi Sunak’s leadership campaign around the country and securing several exclusive with cabinet ministers. Ali’s interview with Boris Johnson in the weeks before he resigned was a memorable moment in the downfall of his premiership.

Her areas of interest, alongside British politics in general, include immigration (she regularly interviews senior home office ministers, including the Home Secretary) and European politics. She was one of two Sky Correspondents who covered the French election in Paris, following ‘Camp Le Pen’ in the build up to the election. In the weeks leading up to the outbreak of war in Ukraine Ali was sent to the Baltic States where she followed NATO exercises and reported live from the Russian border.

Ali also often presents Sky News’ weekly PMQs round-up, “PMQs unwrapped”, and data screens on big political days (for example the recent parliamentary inquiry into Boris Johnson). She regularly has an analysis slot on Kay Burley at Breakfast, called “Ali’s Take”. As well as TV, Ali also writes analysis for Sky News online, contributes to the weekly politics podcast and Sky’s social media channels.

Before Sky, Ali worked at BBC News, reporting for the News Channel and BBC Breakfast.

Sathnam is an author, broadcaster and journalist.

Sathnam was born to Punjabi parents in the West Midlands in 1976. He entered the education system unable to speak English but, after attending Wolverhampton Grammar School, graduated from Christ’s College, Cambridge with a first-class degree in English Language and Literature.

He has been shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards twice, for his memoir The Boy With The Topknot and his novel Marriage Material, the former being adapted by BBC Drama in 2017 and named Mind Book of the Year in 2009. His third book, Empireland: How Imperialism Has Been Shaped Modern Britain became an instant Sunday Times bestseller on release in 2021, was named a Book of the Year at the 2022 British Books Awards, and resulted in Empire State of Mind, the acclaimed two-part documentary for Channel 4 for which he earned a Best Documentary Presenter shortlisting at the 2022 Grierson Awards.

The book also inspired a sequel, Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe, which became an instant Sunday Times bestseller on release in 2024, and Stolen History: The Truth about the British Empire and How it Shaped Us, which went to No 1 on several children’s books charts when it was released in 2023 and was shortlisted for a British Book Award and Children’s Book of the Year by Foyles. His work has been recognised with the awarding of numerous honorary doctorates and journalism prizes, including Young Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2002, Media Commentator of the year in the 2015 Comment Awards and the Edgar Wallace Trophy for Writing of the Highest Quality at the 2017 London Press Club Awards. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2016, and elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in recognition of his contribution to historical scholarship in 2023.

Before becoming a writer Sanghera (among other things) worked at a burger chain, a hospital laundry, a market research firm, a sewing factory and a literacy project in New York. Between 1998 and 2006 he was at The Financial Times, where he worked (variously) as a news reporter in the UK and the US, specialised in writing about the media industries, worked across the paper as Chief Feature Writer, and wrote an award-winning weekly business column. Sathnam joined The Times as a columnist and feature writer in 2007 and is a regular contributor on national radio and TV, having appeared on programmes including Have I Got News For You and BBC Front Row Late and presented a range of television documentaries, including The Massacre That Shook The Empire on Channel 4, which was shortlisted for best Factual TV show at the 2019 Asian Media Awards, and Empire State of Mind, described by The Daily Telegraph as “necessary”, The Mail on Sunday as “riveting and moving”, and The Sun as “personable, funny, measured and… extremely powerful”.

Sathnam has presented many programmes for BBC Radio 4 including Empire of Tea, Open Book, and Mercury (An Archive on Freddie Mercury).
He was a studio guest for ITV’s coverage of the Coronation of King Charles III. During Covid he presented a film for Channel 4 News about the effect of the virus on diverse communities.

Sathnam’s first book, The Boy With The Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Biography Award, the 2009 PEN/Ackerley Prize and named 2009 Mind Book of the Year. It was adapted for BBC2 by Kudos/Parti Productions, was BBC TWO’s highest-rated single drama of the year, featured Bafta-nominated and EEACTA-winning performances, won a Mipcom Diversify TV Excellence Award, was named Best TV Programme at the 2018 Asian Media Awards and Best Single Drama at the RTS Midlands Awards, and was described by The Radio Times as a “smash hit”. His novel, Marriage Material, has been shortlisted for a 2014 South Bank Sky Arts Award and a 2013 Costa Book Award, been longlisted for the 2014 Desmond Elliot Prize, picked by The Sunday Times, The Observer and Metro as one of the novels of 2013, and cited as one of the Guardian Readers’ Books of the Year in 2014. It is being adapted for the stage by award-winning playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti. Amongst other awards, Empireland was named Non-Fiction Book of the Year in Eastern Eye’s 2022 Arts, Culture and Theatre Awards (ACTAs), longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje and Parliamentary Book Awards. It was also named History Book of the Year by The Independent (“10/10”) and one of the Books of the Year by The Financial Times, The Times, The New Statesman, The Observer, The Daily Express, The Sunday Express and The Week.

Among the other prizes for his journalism, there has been the accolade of Article of the Year in the 2005 Management Today Writing Awards, Newspaper Feature of the Year in the 2005 Workworld Media Awards, and HR Journalist of the Year in the 2006 and 2009 Watson Wyatt Awards for Excellence. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters for services to journalism by The University of Wolverhampton in September 2009 and received an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 2023 in recognition of his “distinguished contribution to the social sciences” through his “writing on race, identity and shared British history”, and was given a President’s Medal by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2010. He was bestowed with the Pride of Pothohar Award in 2018 for his contribution to the Sikh community, while in 2013 writer Jonathan Coe named him one of “The Men of Next 25 years” in GQ Magazine saying that “whether he’s writing autobiography or fiction, Sathnam is busy carving out his own literary niche – in the multicultural British Midlands – which he explores with incredible grace, generosity and humour”.

The Boy With The Topknot, was originally published by Penguin in hardback as If You Don’t Know Me By Now. In the USA, Marriage Material is published by Europa Editions, Empireland by Pantheon and Empireworld by PublicAffairs. He has been a judge for The Wellcome Book Prize and The Costa Book Awards, was formerly a trustee for mental health charity Rethink and chair of media charity Creative Access, and is a patron for Writing West Midlands. He lives in London.

Dominic Sandbrook is a historian, broadcaster and columnist.

He is known for his best-selling series of books on life in post-war Britain- Never Had It So Good, White Heat, State of Emergency and Seasons in the Sun, The Great British Dream Factory and Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982– He has also written two books on recent American history, Eugene McCarthy and Mad as Hell and a six book series called Adventures in Time for younger readers.

Dominic has written and presented several series for television including the four-part series The 70s and The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook for BBC Two, Dominic has presented a number of other series including, Tomorrow’s Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction, a three-part series, Strange Days; Cold War Britain and a four-part series, Let Us Entertain You, in which he explored the extraordinary success of British popular culture over the last century all on BBC Two. He also presented a documentary about the German car industry’s successes, Das Auto: The Germans, Their Cars and Us for the channel.

Dominic co-presents the world’s most popular history podcast, The Rest is History, which has tens of thousands of subscribers and more than 100 million downloads. He has presented live history shows to sell-out audiences in New York, Washington, Dublin, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, as well as venues across Britain, including the West End.

He has been a book critic for the Sunday Times for almost twenty years, and joined The Times as a columnist in 2023. He wrote a column in BBC History for more than a decade and was previously a columnist for the Evening Standard, the New Statesman and the Daily Mail. Marking their 25th anniversary in 2007, Waterstones picked him as one of their 25 Authors for the Future. Dominic was nominated as Critic of the Year in the National Press Awards for 2018, and as Comment Journalist of the Year in the British Journalism Awards for 2021.

Dominic was born in Shropshire and educated at Malvern College before studying at Balliol College, Oxford, the University of St Andrews and Jesus College, Cambridge. He was formerly a history lecturer at Sheffield and senior fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is also a fervent Wolverhampton Wanderers fan.

Graham is an experienced television and radio presenter having worked for ITV, BBC, Sky and Classic Gold. He is a naturally inquisitive interviewer with a warm and trusted presentation style.

On radio, Graham has presented a live daily programme for BBC Radio Wiltshire. He was the presenter of the Classic Gold Networked Morning Show.

On television, Graham both produced and presented ITV’s Late-Night-Late & Nightime. He presented for Setanta Sports News, Simply Money and the Exercise Helping Hand documentaries in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

As a continuity announcer, Graham was the voice of ITV. He has provided the voice-over for many television and radio programmes including ITV’s National Television Awards & 60 Minute Makeover, Hello Goodbye for Sky, Football First for ITV2 and The Brightonomicon for BBC Audio.

He is an accomplished conference & event host. Graham was the lead host of the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. He has hosted events for Microsoft, Iomega, Heist, Peugeot and The Institute of Directors Annual Convention at The Royal Albert Hall.

Graham has a keen interest in news, entertainment, travel, motoring and food.

Liam Halligan is a leading economist, author, columnist and broadcaster – who also has extensive business experience. Since 2003, he has written his multiple award-winning weekly Economic Agenda column in The Sunday Telegraph – which enjoys a large domestic and international following and has been recognised with a British Press Award, the highest prize in UK print journalism.

Widely read in the City and other financial capitals, Liam has a reputation for prescient economic predictions, often made against conventional wisdom. In March 2021, with UK inflation at just 0.7%, way below the Bank of England’s 2% target, Liam laid out the reasons in Economic Agenda why “inflation could soon surge” – a forecast senior policymakers publicly derided. A year later, inflation had indeed surged to 7%, a 30-year high, before pushing to a 40-year high in the aftermath of the escalation of war in Ukraine.

Similarly, in July 2024, when Keir Starmer was widely-described as a “lucky general” following that month’s landslide election win, Economic Agenda explained why pressing fiscal constraints and looming bond market turmoil  meant “Starmer’s all-conquering administration could be a one-term government”. Several months later, government debt costs indeed began to spiral upward, culminating in the worst bond market turbulence since the 2008 financial crisis and persistent questions about Labour’s economic competence.

Aside from his writing on economics, Liam also created the Telegraph’s hugely popular Planet Normal podcast, covering broader political and societal themes, which he co-presents each week with fellow Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson. Planet Normal regularly appears in the Apple news podcast top ten global rankings.

Liam’s latest book – Home Truths: The UK’s Chronic Housing Shortage – How it Happened, Why it Matters and How to Solve it – was published in 2021 to rave reviews. The Times described the book as “vivid and lucid, a brilliantly written gem” while the housing charity Shelter said Home Truths was “full of eloquence and moral clarity – a call to arms for politicians and campaigners of all parties and none”.

Along with his roles at the Telegraph, Liam also writes regularly for The Spectator and has appeared countless times on flagship BBC shows – including Question Time, Any Questions and Today, as well as on Sky News, CNBC, Times Radio, Bloomberg TV and many others.

He previously featured three times a week on CNN-Talk – analysing global political and economic news on live television, for a worldwide television audience.

Earlier in his career, Liam was based in Russia – where he wrote an influential column in The Moscow Times, while covering Russia and the Former Soviet Union for The Economist and The Economist Intelligence Unit. He then became Political Correspondent for The Financial Times (based in Parliament) before spending almost a decade leading the economics and business coverage at Channel 4 News.

Since then, Liam has continued to research, write and present hard-hitting Dispatches documentaries for Channel 4 – and has won the Wincott Business Broadcast Award a record four times, as well being twice recognised as the World Leadership Forum Business Broadcaster of the Year. He has, for many years, served on the judging panel of the Royal Television Society journalism awards.

Alongside his extensive media experience, Liam was a founder board member and partner of a leading asset-management company focussed on emerging markets, helping to manage a $4-5 billion portfolio of investment on behalf of highly sophisticated private and sovereign institutional investors from the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has extensive board room experience and maintains an active pro bono portfolio, not least in the education sector, currently serving as a governor of both The John Lyon School (which he attended on a scholarship) and Harrow School.

Liam is a very experienced and sought-after public speaker – who combines widely recognised expertise across economics, finance and politics with personality and humour. He has given keynote addresses to numerous high-level audiences, in person and on-line, in both conference and after-dinner settings, headlining events run by Thomson Reuters, Euromoney, JCB, the CFA Institute, Deutsche Bank and the St Petersburg International Economic Forum among many others.

He has also hosted an array of conferences, often on complex economic and financial issues, for clients ranging from the Association of British Insurers, The Financial Conduct Authority, Eversheds, Microsoft, the Telegraph Festival of Business and the OECD’s flagship 50th Anniversary Forum.

As a leading economics journalist and recognised policy expert, Liam has been called upon to testify in front of numerous committees of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords – on subjects ranging from housing to global central banking, UK trade policy, the future of the BBC and “Britain’s digital divide”.

But his range of experience and expertise, as both a speaker and convener, extends beyond economic and business themes, to include diplomatic and geo-strategic issues too – relating to the UK, US, Europe and beyond. He has a particularly deep knowledge of the post-Communist world, emerging markets more broadly and global energy markets.

Liam holds a first-class BSc. (Econ) degree from the University of Warwick and an MPhil (Econ) from St Antony’s College, Oxford University. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Social Market Foundation, a Westminster-based think-tank, and the Economics Department of The University of Warwick.

A citizen of both the UK and the Republic of Ireland, Liam is listed in Who’s Who, De Bretts and the Dictionary of International Biography.

“Liam Halligan is the best economics journalist of his generation – his writing is always prescient, vivid and lucid”.
Lord Nigel Lawson, former Chancellor

“Liam Halligan is a one-off – a card-carrying economist, with high-level political access, who can explain complex issues in readable, vivid prose”.
Andrew Neil, Times Radio presenter

“Liam Halligan is required reading for anyone who wants to understand how our housing market – and the broader UK economy – really works”
Merryn Somerset Webb, Financial Times

“Many people claim to speak truth to power but very few actually do. Liam Halligan is one of the few – a great and fearless truth-teller”.
Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times

“What Liam Halligan doesn’t know about the UK economy – and economics more generally –isn’t worth knowing”.
Iain Dale, LBC presenter.

“Liam Halligan isn’t only a brilliant journalist. He is an economist of genuine substance, with deep and widely-recognised expertise, who can explain complex ideas to a broad audience better than anyone I know”
Konstantin Kisin, presenter, Triggernometry podcast

“Liam Halligan is an economist I respect enormously, whose work I have followed closely for many years”.
Lord David Owen, former Foreign Secretary and Independent Peer

Tim Harford is an economist, award-winning journalist and speaker, TV and radio personality, and bestselling author. His books, most famously The Undercover Economist, have been translated into 30 languages and have sold nearly one million copies worldwide, hitting the bestseller lists not only in the US, UK and Canada but in translation from Spain to South Korea.

Tim is well-known as the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s More or Less (named by The Times as its favourite Politics & Economics podcast) and the global hit series 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy on BBC World Service and Radio 4. The podcast version has topped the iTunes charts and has been called “superbly informative” by the Sunday Times. Tim also presented the weekly Radio 4 series How to Vaccinate the World which followed the race to roll out an effective vaccination against Covid-19 and most recently the 10-part series Understand: The Economy for Radio 4 & BBC Sounds and The Economy: What They Aren’t Telling You with Tim Harford for Channel 4 in the lead up to the 2024 UK General Election. He also presents the popular podcast Cautionary Tales.

Although Tim is a serious economist – after a career spanning Shell, the World Bank and tutoring at Oxford University, he is now a visiting fellow at Nuffield college, Oxford – his unique talent lies in the humorous touch he brings to his subject. His weekly Financial Times columns have attracted a cult following.

As we all as The Undercover Economist Tim is the author of nine other books including Adapt, Messy, 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy, The Next 50 Things, How to Make the World Add Up and the childrens’ book The Truth Detective.

Tim has also been published in Slate, Esquire, Forbes, New York Magazine, Parade, Wired, the Washington Post, The Times (London), and the New York Times. He won the 2006 Bastiat Prize for economic journalism in 2006 and 2016, the Wincott journalist of the year award in 2020, and has been made an honorary fellow pf the Royal Statistical Society. A regular commentator on TV and radio shows on both sides of the Atlantic, Tim fronted the BBC 2 television series Trust Me. I’m an Economist.

Tim was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to improving economic understanding.

He lives in Oxford with his wife and three children.

Best-selling author Patrick Jephson is a consultant, broadcaster and award-winning journalist based in Washington DC. He writes, presents and advises on factual and drama programmes, appearing on every major US network as well as cable and international platforms worldwide.

In a notable recent assignment, he advised on several seasons of the acclaimed Netflix drama The Crown. His byline has appeared in every major UK newspaper and international titles as varied as TIME magazine, Vanity Fair, People, The Spectator, Paris Match, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the National Catholic Reporter. He is also a published authority on corporate and personal branding, addressing conferences on all six continents as well as events at the US State Department, the American University and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Patrick owes much of his practical communications experience to Princess Diana, who chose him to be her equerry and only private secretary/chief of staff. He served the Princess for eight years (1988-96), responsible for every aspect of her public life, worldwide humanitarian initiatives, and private organization. Under relentless media scrutiny, his tenure covered the period of Princess Diana’s greatest popularity as well as the constitutional controversy of her divorce from Prince Charles.

In 2022 he received an unreserved apology and substantial damages from the BBC when it was revealed that Panorama journalist Martin Bashir falsified documents to deceive Princess Diana that Patrick had betrayed her. He donated all the damages to the Ty Hafan Children’s hospice, the final patronage he arranged for Diana.

Patrick was born and raised in Ireland and holds a Master’s degree in political science from Cambridge University. A keen amateur historian, his ancestors include notable courtiers to Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and William III. As an officer in the Royal Navy, he served all over the world before being selected for royal duty. In March 2015 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Patrick is currently working on a variety of publishing and television projects in the UK, USA and Australia. A qualified private pilot, he has recently added travel writing to his portfolio.

He is married to Mary Jo Jacobi, formerly special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and Assistant Secretary of Commerce to President George H W Bush.

Martin Lewis CBE, the Money Saving Expert, is a campaigning broadcast journalist who founded and Chairs MoneySavingExpert.com, by far the UK’s biggest consumer website – over 8m people receive his weekly email. He has completed 11 series of his eponymous, now live, prime-time ITV show, his podcast is one of the BBC’s most listened to, he is a regular presenter of Good Morning Britain, and resident expert on This Morning.

In profile pieces, the FT called him “the most successful journalist in the world, ever”, the Guardian “the most trusted man in Britain” and the Economist said he “has a good claim to be the most influential man in British politics” and Google once named him the most searched for British Man.

Over the years he’s spearheaded major financial justice campaigns including £1bn of bank charges reclaiming back, £10bn of PPI reclaiming back and got financial education on the national curriculum. He was a key voice in the pandemic to improve and communicate state support schemes, and got major policies shifts on energy and mortgages amidst the cost of living crisis.
In 2016 he founded and funded the influential Money and Mental Health Policy Institute charity, which he still chairs.

Awards include:
– CBE (2022) for broadcasting and consumer rights, OBE (2014) for consumer rights and charity.
– National Television Awards, inaugural and still only Best Expert (2022) winner, Top Presenter nominee (2023)
– Beacon Philanthropy Fellowship ‘Trailblazer’ award
– New Statesman Positive Impact in Society Award (2022)

BAFTA nominated Keme is one of the most recognisable faces on Channel 4. In the media world he’s a journalist, presenter and film-maker.

He’s also a dynamic conference host, and has years of experience chairing and MCing complex multi day events involving keynotes, panels, and audience participation.

Washington – Moscow – Johannesburg – Rio – London – for the past two decades Keme has reported from around the globe on wide ranging issues from corruption, politics, and human rights – to sport. Keme’s work and his stories are known for nuance and sensitivity and have included major stories such as the Grenfell fire, paedophiles in football, World Cups & Olympic Games, the election of Barack Obama, and Hurricane Katrina.

Keme presented Channel 4 News’ BAFTA nominated Black to Front day coverage, which aimed to elevate Black stories and Black production staff. He’s also an RTS Journalism Award winner – narrating a film about the US troop surge in Iraq in 2007.

Keme is a trustee for the Ethical Journalism Network, which works to promote best practise in journalism.

And he recently co-founded Opening Up The Outdoors, a non profit that works to break down barriers for People of Colour in adventure sport and the great outdoors. He’s also Vice President of the Europe-wide Its Great Out There Coalition. This work is very dear to his heart; Keme a sought after judge on the global adventure film circuit, and his own social media is a window into his life long passions of back country skiing and cycling, from the Himalaya to the Cairngorms.

Keme is the proud father of two school age daughters.

Nicholas Owen is one of news broadcasting’s best-known faces. He re-joined BBC News in 2007 as a Presenter on the News Channel and BBC One bulletins. For well over a decade before that he hosted all ITN’s major bulletins, including Channel Four News and News at Ten. He has appeared too in a wide range of other TV and radio programmes, including BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2006. On radio, he presented shows on Classic FM for many years. He regularly appears on both the Camilla Tominey show and Mark Dolan Tonight on GB News.

From 1994 to 2000 he was Royal Correspondent for ITV News. In that capacity he played a major role in reporting on the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, for which ITN won an RTS Award. He compiled a book on her life entitled “Diana: The People’s Princess”.

He was a regular contributor to ITN’s Budget programmes, having joined ITN originally as Channel Four News Business and Economics Correspondent. During the first Gulf War Nicholas presented the highly-acclaimed Midnight Special Programmes when they were launched on Channel Four. He also anchored The Parliament Programme, Channel Four’s first daytime political series.

Nicholas began his journalistic career on the Surrey Mirror in 1964, moving to national newspapers in 1968. He worked for the Evening Standard and the Daily Telegraph before spending seven years with the Financial Times.

In 1981 Nicholas switched to television reporting, joining the BBC in the North of England, covering general and industrial stories for both regional and national news and current affairs programmes. He moved to ITN in 1984.

Nicholas Owen was born in 1947. He has a close interest in transport matters, especially railways and light rail schemes. His publications include a history of the British trolleybus. His memoirs “Days Like This” were published in 2012. He is married to a newspaper journalist, lives in Surrey, has four children – and a dozen grandchildren.

Stewart Purvis is an author, former media executive and broadcaster. He regularly comments on media matters across all broadcasters, both in the UK and the US.

Stewart’s media career which began as a local radio reporter, a regional television presenter and a Sunday tabloid freelance while still at University. He was then chosen as one of the BBC’s first three News Trainees in 1969.

He moved to ITN in 1972 where he went on to win Royal Television Society awards for news and documentaries, two BAFTA awards as Editor of Channel Four News and also collected a TV Times award and even an ‘Office Building of the Year’ award for ITN’s Norman Foster -designed headquarters in Gray’s Inn Road, London.

He became Editor-in-Chief of ITN and Chief Executive, and also President of the international news channel, EuroNews, based in Lyon, France. He helped to launch EuroNews into Russia as the country’s first international news channel in Russian on terrestrial television.

After Stewart retired from ITN in 2003 he became a Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at Oxford University and the first Professor of Television Journalism at City University London. He was on the panel set up by the BBC Governors to report on the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Stewart was also a columnist for the Financial Times and the London Evening Standard.

From 2007 to 2010 he was Ofcom’s Partner for Content and Standards, effectively the regulator of UK broadcast content, responsible for the implementation of the Ofcom Broadcast Code and other broadcasting regulation. He also chaired the UK Government’s Media Literacy Working Group and was one of the founders of the online academic resource Newsfilm Online.

Among the honours and awards he has received, in 2000 he was made a CBE for services to broadcast journalism, in 2005 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Law by Exeter University and in 2009 he received the Royal Television Society’s Gold Medal for an outstanding contribution to television. He has also been a Specialist Advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications. He was also a non-executive director of Channel 4 and Chairman of the Royal Television Society’s TV Journalism Awards.

His first book, co-written with Jeff Hulbert, When Reporters Cross the Line was based on a BBC radio programme of the same name. The pair then co-wrote Guy Burgess: The Spy Who Knew Everyone, a biography of the Cambridge spy, published in Autumn 2015.

One of Stewart’s specialisms is the British Royal Family. In 1981 he produced the ITN elements of ITV’s coverage of the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales using pioneering digital effects. When the Prince and Princess took Prince William on their first overseas tour to Australia and New Zealand he travelled with a mobile documentary team sending back six weekly half hour programmes for transmission on Sunday afternoons on ITV. The programmes later won an award from TV Times.

In 1985 the royal couple subsequently granted ITN exclusive access which enabled him to produce ’The Prince and Princess of Wales Talking Personally’ on ITV which was one of the top ten most-watched programmes of 1985 and the two-part documentary ‘In Private, In Public’ which was watched by 18.45 million, putting it into the top five programmes of 1986. In December 1992 he broke the story of the separation of the Prince and Princess on the ITV Lunchtime News, before the announcement later that day by Prime Minister John Major.

In 1997 he was the Executive Producer of the first Queen’s Christmas Broadcast made by ITN looking back on the year Princess Diana died.

During his career he has worked in more than 25 countries and has appeared as an expert witness before every media-related committee in the parliaments of the UK, France and the European Parliament.

Onscreen, Stewart has participated in several documentaries on a variety of topics including the royal family and the miners strike and the Falklands War. He regularly appears as an expert on news programmes such as Radio 4’s Today programme, Sky News and Channel 4 News, discussing major media stories.

Stewart conducts a regular London Walk, The Hampstead Spies – the KGB in NW3 based on his extensive research of the area’s connections with espionage.

Adam Boulton is a pioneering broadcaster and veteran political journalist.

He currently presents Times Radio’s flagship Sunday morning programme as well as stints presenting Drive as well as the Worldview podcast for Englesberg Ideas. He is a weekly columnist for Sky News online and Reaction Life, as well as being a political commentator on the BBC, LBC, i newspaper, Talk TV and numerous international outlets. Adam also speaks to and moderates at conferences and private meetings, most recently at the FII Future Investment Forum and the LEAP Tech Event.

Adam’s insatiable appetite for breaking news, ability to think on his feet and innate analytical skills have seen him host countless hours of live television including rolling Election Coverage from the UK, US, Ireland, France and Germany.

Adam was the founding Political Editor of Sky News. Over more than three decades at the network he reported from every continent with a wide-ranging brief, encompassing everything from politics to popular culture. Programmes he presented included the eponymous weekly show, and post-Brexit, the daily All Out Politics programme and podcast. In 2010 Adam was instrumental in brokering a deal with David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg to stage the ground-breaking General Election Leaders Debates, so far the only UK election cycle in which they have taken place. He moderated the second debate in Bristol, the most watched Sky News programme to date.

In at the beginning of two start-ups, Sky in 1989 and TVam in 1983, Adam redefined political news coverage in the UK, harnessing developing technology to introduce on-location reportage, reaction and analysis in real time. Unique at the time, this is now the industry standard. Never shy to speak his mind, Adam’s celebrated on-air spat with Alastair Campbell in the aftermath of the 2010 election is still one of the most memorable moments of that campaign. Adam was a popular choice as winner of the Royal Television Society’s supreme Judges’ Award.

Adam has the distinction of having interviewed every UK Prime Minister from Sir Alec Douglas Home to Rishi Sunak. He has covered all major developments in US politics since the Reagan years, from the USA-USSR Summits through to correctly ‘calling’ the election of President Joseph R Biden live on Sky News. He was in Washington DC again covering the second impeachment of Donald J Trump.

Adam served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Lobby, the elite band of senior political journalists in Westminster, he continues to hold a lobby ticket.

His books include Tony’s Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration, an acclaimed account of the Blair government, and the equally well received Hung Together: The 2010 Election and the Coalition Government. He was the political columnist for The Sunday Times for seven years and now writes for a number of leading newspapers and periodicals.

Much in demand as a public speaker, Adam has delivered keynote lectures for multi-national businesses, economic forums, universities, and media companies. A series of interviews he gave recently on the changing face of the British media has sparked a national debate that shows no sign of abating.

Although best known for his political programmes, Adam has a wide spectrum of interests and is both well informed and witty on a range of subjects. He was a long-serving governor of King’s College London and Sevenoaks School. His TV portfolio includes appearances on such diverse shows as Have I Got News for You, Newsnight, Celebrity Mastermind and Christmas University Challenge. He is proactive on social media, with over 220,000 followers on Twitter.

Antoine Allen is a presenter and reporter for ITV News. He has been shortlisted for many journalism awards due to exclusive interviews and engaging reports and documentaries.
Antoine reports for the ITV current affairs series On Assignment, presents Good Morning Britain’s London bulletins and ITV London’s late show.

Many of Antoine’s reports for ITV News have been viewed extensively online. His reports cover a wide range of subjects including police brutality, crime and community interest stories. Antoine was commissioned to cover the rise in gun crime in Sweden and the impact on its marginalised communities. Antone’s work was shortlisted at the British journalism awards.

Antoine frequently conducts live and exclusive interviews for broadcast, live events and conferences.

He has written for The Guardian on race and technology and his own blog tackles topics from relationships to movie reviews. Antoine was a regular co-presenter on Penny Smith’s weekend TalkRadio show.

Antoine frequently reports for ITV’s coverage of the FA Cup. His pre and post-match interviews with Boreham Wood’s manager and players were widely shared across the media.
He was the youngest nominee shortlisted by the Sports Journalists Association in 2022 as Broadcast Journalist of the Year, having secured exclusive interviews with boxer Anthony Yarde about the death of his father and grandmother to covid, Jahid Ahmed about the racism he faced as a cricketer, and Arsene Wenger about invincible season with Arsenal.

Antoine’s live sports presenting has included being the fan zone presenter for ICC England and Wales Cricket World Cup, he presented the Sail GP in Plymouth and was the Twickenham stadium presenter for two England Rugby internationals.

Antoine’s interview with Anthony Joshua for ITV News has been viewed nearly one million times. He has interviewed many of the biggest names in politics, entertainment, sport and media. VIPs such as Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya. nominee Kristen Stewart; the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt; rugby legends Martin Johnson, Jason Robinson and Jonah Lomu; football legends, Arsène Wenger, Sir Geoff Hurst, Jose Mourinho, and many current managers and players like Frank Lampard, Mikel Arteta, Patrick Vieira and England captain Leah Williamson plus former world champions Sir Lewis Hamilton, Sir Mo Farah, Frank Bruno; as well as many others from the world of business, fashion and popular culture.

Antoine was born in Northampton, and studied at Northampton School for Boys. He graduated in War Studies at King’s College London.
Before reporting for ITV News, Antoine presented his first international documentary about Black Face in Europe, for Maffick Media in Germany.

Antoine has over 200k followers across social media, due to his reports, writing and live event hosting.

Antoine has hosted many conferences and awards events. He was even the live presenter of the World Championship for Bartenders in Berlin, a 4 hour live non-scripted show.

Tim Bouverie is a historian and journalist. His first book Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War was a Sunday Times Bestseller and was shortlisted for the prestigious Orwell Prize. The book has been translated into eleven languages and is regarded as the first major narrative account of appeasement.

Having studied history at Oxford, Tim worked on historical and political documentaries before joining Channel 4 News, where he worked as a political journalist alongside Michael Crick.

During Tim’s four and a half years at Channel 4, he covered almost every significant political event, including two General Elections and the Scottish and EU referendums.

Tim regularly reviews history and politics books for The Times, Spectator, Observer and Daily Telegraph and has written for the Wall Street Journal.

Tim’s second book, Perfect Pitch: 100 pieces of classical music to bring joy, tears, solace, empathy, inspiration (& everything in between) was published in October 2021. He is currently writing a new book on Allied diplomacy during WWII.

A confident public speaker, Tim has given lectures and after dinner speeches across the United States and Britain and is a regular contributor to the Chalke Valley History Festival, where he has interviewed John Major, Peter Mandelson, George Osborne and Alan Johnson. For the last two years he has hosted a series of interviews for the Birley Clubs with guests including, Joanna Lumley, Ben Macintyre and Max Hastings.

‘One of the most promising young historians to enter our field for years’ – Max Hastings

‘Appeasing Hitler is the stunning debut of a major new narrative historian.’ – Professor Margaret Macmillan

‘Brilliant and sparkling … reads like a thriller. I couldn’t put it down’ – Peter Frankopan

‘The best account of the subject that I have ever read… Not only dramatic but sparkling and
witty’ – Professor Sir Michael Howard

Michael has been journalist for more than 40 years and was a founding member of Channel 4 News in 1982, and later served as the programme’s Washington Correspondent. He joined the BBC in 1990 and worked on Panorama before joining Newsnight in 1992. He was political editor of Newsnight from 2007-11 and then re-joined Channel 4 News as political correspondent from 2011 until 2019. He later presented his own show on Mail Plus, The Michael Crick report.

Michael has also presented Dispatches programmes for Channel 4 including Boris v Dave: The Battle for Europe and Plebs, Lies and Videotape. He has presented on LBC Radio together with a number of programmes for BBC Radio 4 including How to Win a Tory Leadership Election and the ten-part series Tales from the Lobby.

He won Royal Television Society awards in 1989 and 2002 and has twice been awarded RTS Specialist Journalist of the Year, in 2013 and 2017. In 2018 he was awarded the prestigious Charles Wheeler Award.

Crick is the author of several books, including biographies of Nigel Farage, David Butler, Arthur Scargill, Jeffrey Archer and Alex Ferguson, and of Michael Howard and Michael Heseltine.

It has been said that the five most terrifying words in the political lexicon are: “Michael Crick is in reception”. It has also been said that “One of the crowning glories of the uncodified British constitution is called “Michael Crick”.”
Former special advisor to the Office of the Prime Minister, Theo Bertram, said of Michael – “If I was a Minister, I’d sooner face a million angry Tweeters & their online petitions, than one Michael Crick.”

John Dickie is Professor of Italian Studies at University College London. He is the author of the best-sellers Cosa Nostra. A History of the Sicilian Mafia (+/- a million copies sold, translated into 21 languages) and Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and their Food (translated into 10 languages, winner of several prizes), as well as many other books and articles on diverse aspects of Italian history, including natural disasters, national identity, the Catholic church, and bandits. He has a high public profile in Italy, particularly as an expert on organized crime and Italian food.

John presented The Mafia’s Secret Bunkers (BBC2, 2013). Since then, he has presented and co-written a trilogy of documentaries on the problems of the Catholic church: Holy Money (2014); The Cross and the Gun (2015); and Behind the Altar (2017). In 2016 his book Delizia! was turned into a 6-part series (Eating History: Italy—or De gustibus in Italy), presented and co-written by John.

The series aired right round the world, apart from the UK. In Italy, it was History Channel Italia’s second most popular programme of the year.

John has also contributed to documentaries for Sky History (Mafia and Britain) and Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy for CNN and BBC.

In 2017 John hosted the Barilla Pasta World Championships, held over three days in Milan and Parma. In 2010 he was a judge in the Pesto World Championships in Genoa. He appears regularly on TV, radio and other media across the world to comment on his areas of expertise.

In 2005, the President of the Italian Republic appointed John a Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana (Commander of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity), a senior civil honour.

John presents and writes both in English and Italian.

Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University, where he is Senior Research Fellow of Worcester College and Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. He works on the history of the Eastern Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East, Central Asia and China. His work on the history of the Crusades was seen as ‘overturning a millennium of scholarship’ and making ‘the most significant contribution to rethinking the origins and course of the First Crusade for a generation.’

His book, The Silk Roads: A New History of the world has been described as ‘magnificent’ (Sunday Times) ‘ dazzling’ (Guardian), ‘a rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world’ (Wall St Journal), ‘a treasure’ (Libre Belgique), ‘phenomenal’ (Die Welt), ‘a joy’ (Le Point) and ‘not just the most important history book in years, but the most important in decades’ (Berliner Zeitung). A New York Times Bestseller, it has topped the Non-Fiction charts all around the world, including in the UK, India and China.

His second book The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World was published in November 2018. It is a ‘masterly mapping out of a new world order’ (Evening Standard) and nothing less than ‘a state of the world address’ (The National).

Peter’s most recent book The Earth Transformed: An Untold History, traces the history of the natural world, the disasters it has faced and our part in them – ‘The Earth Transformed is Sapiens for grown-ups … it holds lessons for a world grappling with rapid climate change caused by human industry’ (Sunday Times). This is a ‘spellbinding’ (Financial Times) ‘Elegant and cogently argued’ (Publishers Weekly) book with ‘the intellectual weight and dramatic force of a tsunami’ (The Times) – ‘A dazzling compendium of global research’ (Spectator).

He works with UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) on the future of sustainable cities and on the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2017, he was appointed Senior Advisor and Academic Expert to a major project for the World Bank and Department for International Development (DFID) on Transport Corridors in South Asia. Professor Frankopan advises governments, inter-government agencies, multi-lateral institutions and corporations around the world about geopolitics.

Peter writes regularly for the press in the UK, US, China and South Asia about international affairs. He has presented his own podcast series with Global, I’ve Been Thinking…with Peter Frankopan, meeting and debating with high profile and topical interviewees. Peter also presents the Legacy podcast, which looks at the lives of extraordinary men and women throughout history and asks whether they are deserving of their reputations.

Peter is frequently interviewed on Channel 4 News and Sky News and has commented extensively on the state of current relations between the East and West.

She is a very recognisable face on 5 News and often presents the main show at 5 as well as evening updates. She has covered big moments such as the pandemic, Brexit and the Extinction Rebellion protests. She is just as comfortable grilling top ministers as she is talking to celebrities.

Before this, Dani could be seen and heard on various BBC outputs, including BBC World News covering big moments such as the Paris terror attack, Brexit, the missing plane MH370 and the annexation of Ukraine. She was also a regular business presenter covering the markets on the News Channel.

Dani is mixed race herself and hails from Liverpool. She works with a number of charities and has hosted various corporate events. She is a versatile presenter.

Ayesha is a highly respected award-winning solicitor with more than 25 years of experience in the legal field. She runs her own law firm in Manchester which covers areas of law including personal injury, family law, criminal injuries compensation, will writing and civil litigation. She is acclaimed for providing clear, no-nonsense advice when it comes to divorce, child contact and domestic abuse in particular.

Ayesha is a legal expert on the BBC One programmes Rip Off Britain and Morning Live. She has also contributed to Sunday Morning Live, BBC Breakfast, The Victoria Derbyshire Show, Steph’s Packed Lunch, The One Show and Sky News. She has written articles for numerous publications and blogs. She has her own live call in show on a local radio station where she gives legal advice.

Ayesha co-presented Crime, Are We Tough Enough?, a five-part series for BBC One. In the programmes Ayesha examined why many believe the criminal justice system has broken down. Ayesha, who has represented many victims of crime advocated a tougher system with longer sentences, harsher prison environments and increased police powers to restore law and order back on our streets. Utilising her vast experience, she interviewed victims, ex-villains, prison officers, doctors and spent time with police on the front line. The programme was a widespread ‘pick of the week’ in the press.

Ayesha combines a warm and empathetic interviewing style with pursuing the truth; cross examining and grilling interviewees. She is able to explain legal concepts in a clear manner for a wide range of legal subjects providing useful take home advice for the consumer.

In 2019, she received awards for Best Business Women Awards and The English Asian Awards at the Law Society’s Excellence Awards.

Ayesha is proud of her working class heritage having grown up in Manchester. As a Pakistani Muslim woman, she is strong in her faith and commitment to issues that affect ethnic minorities.

Carolyn Quinn has been a much loved voice on BBC Radio 4 for decades. She started out in broadcasting “as a hobby”, by getting involved with hospital radio at Charing Cross Hospital. It was an unlikely beginning to a journalism career that has stretched over five decades and seen her hosting some of the nation’s best known and important radio shows. After taking a degree in French, Carolyn joined the BBC Local Radio reporters’ scheme. She moved to the BBC’s political and parliamentary team in 1989 and became a Political Correspondent on TV and radio in 1994.

In 2004 Carolyn joined the presenting line-up on Radio 4’s Today programme, staying with Today until 2008. From 2001 she was also a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s PM programme while becoming the main presenter of Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour in January 2007, stepping down in March 2023. She has also presented Radio 4’s overnight election programmes covering the referendums as well as general and local elections. All that means she has had a front-row seat for political events, from Blair to Brexit to Covid and beyond but as a live broadcaster she has also covered a wide range of non-political domestic and foreign affairs topics and has fronted documentaries.

Much respected by her peers, Carolyn was the first woman elected Chair of the Westminster Press Gallery in 2011.

Carolyn’s skills at chairing and moderating debates mean she’s in demand as a host for book and product launches, front of audience events, Q&As and audio projects including podcasts and audio books requiring a warm and experienced broadcast voice.

Angela Rippon has been a familiar face and voice in British broadcasting for nearly 60 years. She is an award-winning journalist who has embraced an impressive variety of programmes on both radio and television for both commercial and BBC channels in Britain, America and Australia.

Camilla Tominey is Associate Editor covering Politics and Royals at The Daily Telegraph in London.

She is also the resident royal expert on ITV’s This Morning and appears frequently on royal documentaries on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. She currently presents her own Sunday morning political programme on GB News, and co-hosts The Daily T podcast for The Daily Telegraph.

Camilla often takes part in the BBC’s Question Time and Politics Live in her capacity as a member of the Westminster Lobby.

Camilla was formerly Political Editor, Royal Editor and columnist for the Sunday Express. She first started reporting on the British Royal Family in 2005, when she covered the King’s marriage
to Camilla Parker-Bowles at the Windsor Guildhall, watched by millions around the world.

Since then she has reported on all the major Royal stories, including Prince William’s engagement to Kate Middleton, their subsequent marriage and the births of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Her world exclusive scoops include breaking the news of Prince Harry’s relationship with Meghan Markle, which was nominated for Scoop of the Year at the 2016 British Press Awards.

Camilla co-anchored both recent Royal Weddings for NBC’s Today Show, contributing to programming across the network that was watched by 55 million viewers.

An authority on Royalty, Camilla has spent the past decade shadowing the Royals at home and on tour. A seasoned interviewer, Camilla has been granted exclusive access to interview many
members of the Royal Family including Prince Harry, Zara Phillips, the Duchess of York and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

Internationally, as well as NBC she has worked with CBC, CTV and Global in Canada, Nine Network Australia, Germany’s ZDF and ARD, RTL in France and countless more broadcasters.

In 2019, she was awarded Journalist of the Year by the McLean-DB Recovery+ Awards, the ‘Oscars’ in the field of recovery from addiction for her work highlighting the plight of children of alcoholics.

She was nominated Multimedia Journalist of the Year at the 2021 London Press Club Awards, and Journalist of the Year at the Digital Publishing Awards 2023.
Camilla lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and three children.

Cathy Newman is the first female main presenter of Channel 4 News. She spent over a decade in Fleet Street, latterly with the Financial Times. Since joining Channel 4 News in 2006 she has broadcast a string of scoops, including allegations of violent abuse against the British barrister John Smyth, sexual harassment allegations against the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Rennard, and an investigation into a British sex offender, Simon Harris, which saw him jailed for 17 years.

She was also the only broadcast journalist to travel with Angelina Jolie and the foreign secretary William Hague to the Congo as part of a campaign against sexual violence.

Cathy’s studio interviews are frequently news-making, and many have gone viral – watched by millions online – including combative encounters with the Canadian academic Jordan Peterson and the former motor-racing tycoon Max Mosley. The latter was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award in 2019, and made the front cover of Private Eye.

Cathy also presents the Friday Drivetime programme on Times Radio.

On television she has presented other Channel 4 programmes including Britain Decides: Everything But Brexit debate in the lead up to the 2019 General Election. She previously co-presented the Alternative Election Night with Jeremy Paxman. She regularly presents Channel 4’s Dispatches programmes – recent programmes include The Prince and the Paedophile, focussing on Prince Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. She has also appeared several times on Have I Got News For You and Christmas Celebrity Genius.

Her first book – Bloody Brilliant Women: Pioneers, Revolutionaries & Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention – about female pioneers in 20th century Britain, was published by HarperCollins in Autumn 2018. Cathy was described by the Observer as a “brilliant writer”. Author Michael Morpurgo said: “This book is so important. No library, no school or university, should be without a copy.” Her follow-up book, It Takes Two, telling the stories of the power of pairings to achieve great things, was published in 2020. The Ladder, based on her Times Radio feature of the same name, shares the wisdom of extraordinary women and was published in early 2024.

Cathy has frequently written about politics for the Daily Telegraph. She was a judge on the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2015 and the Red Magazine Women of the Year Award 2016. She is a patron of Kids, a charity for disabled children, and an ambassador for Young Minds.

Prior to arriving at Channel 4 News, Cathy worked as chief political correspondent for the Financial Times for three years. Before that she covered politics and media for the FT. Cathy joined the FT from the Independent where she was media business correspondent.

In 2000, Cathy won the prestigious Laurence Stern Fellowship, spending four months following in the footsteps of Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post.

She is married with two young children.

Nina is the Arts Editor of ITV News. Her role involves specialist arts and media coverage for ITV, including covering the Oscars every year and interviewing the biggest names in film, music and TV. She is also a regular contributor to ITV programmes on entertainment, and popular culture.

She is a member of Bafta and regularly chairs the press launches of new ITV dramas.

Nina regularly reports for ITV’s On Assignment programme, with past documentaries including groundbreaking treatments in San Francisco in the battle against Aids and HIV, the moves to find alternative food sources in the world and Morocco’s booming film industry.

Nina started out at the BBC as a trainee, then working on regional and national television and radio, including presenting Asian Perspective for 3 years, a live news and current affairs programme on BBC Radio Five Live. She joined ITV News in 2002 after leaving the BBC.

In 2007 Nina was awarded an Honorary doctorate for Services to the Media.

She is an Ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, and for the British Asian Trust. and is a Governor at the National Centre for Writing and The Young Norfolk Arts Trust.

Nina is also Patron of Akademi, the South Asian Dance Company, the Norwich Film Festival, the domestic abuse charity Leeway, the Autumn Arts Festival and an Ambassador for Kidney Research UK, for whom she recently hosted a fundraising event, alongside former Manchester United footballer Andy Cole.

She is a judge of the Bafta Film and TV Awards, the RTS news awards, and has judged the Grierson Documentary awards.

Nina has also hosted and spoken at numerous events, including Latitude Festival, Women of the World Festival, and RTS awards.

Amongst the non news programmes Nina has appeared on are The Weakest Link, Unforgotten and Pointless.

Nina Myskow’s distinguished career has been driven and characterised by her love of conversation – whether it be an intimate interview or a sparky debate. She is a journalist and broadcaster, writing for newspapers and magazines and presenting on television, radio and podcasts. She has always stamped her mark.

Nina frequently appears on Jeremy Vine on Channel 5 and Good Morning Britain on ITV where she deploys her well-honed critical faculties. She has presented a podcast interview series where she interviewed long-term contacts such as Sir Michael Palin and Roger Daltrey. She also presented the Saga podcast series Not Going Out Club which was made in the Pandemic lockdown period and featured Joanna Lumley, Alan Titchmarsh, Prue Leith and Elaine Paige. Her honesty, level headed and creditable approach to her interviews and her steadfastness is proven by the trust she has built up with the world’s famous. She is as good as her word and they know it.

The celebrity profiles which Nina now writes for The Times have ranged from Andrea Bocelli and Sir Richard Branson to Jane Fonda and Goldie Hawn.

Nina’s first encounter with the entertainment world was on the iconic 1970s magazine, Jackie. She became the first female editor in its history and made a life-long contact with a young Elton John.

She went on to The Sun where she was known as the ‘Queen of Pop’ interviewing the likes of Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury and then TV critic roles on major newspapers and a celebrity interview series for The Mirror. Her fame saw a move to television where she was a judge on the ITV talent show New Faces.

On television Nina presented a talk show, Nina vs The Rest for Sky, was the winner of Channel 5’s Trust Me, I’m a Holiday Rep and won the coveted trophy when she appeared on Pointless Celebrities.

On radio, Nina presented her Radio 4 series Food for Thought for many years where she interviewed Yoko One, Nigella Lawson and Carlos Acosta. She also presented her Radio 4 documentary, Meet the Wainwrights on Rufus Wainwright’s family which won Best Music Special at the New York Festival of International Radio Awards. She also presented I was a Teenage Hearthrob for BBC Radio 2. She also created and presented two other series for Radio 2 – First Ladies of Fleet Street and Lose and Found (featuring Linda Ronstadt and Mary Steenburgen).

Lucrezia Millarini is journalist and anchor for ITV News, presenting across all main programmes including ITV Lunchtime News, ITV Evening News and News At Ten.

Lucrezia also presents ITV London’s flagship show and is a regular reporter for ITV’s documentary series On Assignment. With more than 15 years live broadcast experience, Lucrezia has reported on RTS award-winning coverage of the Grenfell Tower Fire, anchored ITV’s breaking news of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death and was part of ITV team covering Harry and Meghan’s Windsor wedding.

Other prime-time credits include co-hosting a Mortgage Crisis Special and Mental Health Special for ITV’s The Martin Lewis Money Show: Live, appearing as a guest commentator on This Morning and fronting a documentary for current affairs programme Tonight: Botched? Inside the Beauty Business.

Not afraid of a challenge, Lucrezia has been a contestant on ITV’s Dancing on Ice, competed in the multi-discipline athletics challenge The Games and C4’s hugely popular Celebrity Hunted for Stand Up To Cancer. She is also a Celebrity Mastermind champion.

As former Entertainment Correspondent for ITV London, Lucrezia is as comfortable on the red carpet as she in the studio. From politicians to National Treasures, she has interviewed everyone from Blondie to Beyonce, Dame Joan Collins to Sr Elton John, Stephen Spielberg to Meryl Streep. She remains one of the few journalists to quiz Tom Cruise about Scientology and even presented Rihanna with her first Oyster card!

Lucrezia studied law at Bristol and trained as a barrister before becoming a journalist.

She was born in London and lives there with her husband and highly demanding dog, Milo.

Aside from the day job, she has chaired conferences, hosted a number of corporate events and award ceremonies, with clients always noting her warmth and natural presence.

A keen supporter of animal rights, Lucrezia is Patron to the charities Dogs on the Street and Support Dogs. She’s also backed campaigns for Alzheimer’s Society.

Louise Minchin is a well-known and respected broadcaster, journalist and TV presenter. She presented the UK’s most watched Breakfast programme BBC Breakfast on BBC One for 20 years.

Louise currently co-presents the BBC’s flagship consumer series, Rip Off Britain.

Before joining BBC Breakfast, she was one of BBC News 24’s main anchors and was one of BBC Radio 5 Live’s main presenters. She has also guest presented The One Show and presented the BBC One series Real Rescues, Missing Live and Crime and Punishment. Louise starred in ITV’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in Autumn 2021 and also competed in Celebrity MasterChef, coming runner up in the final, and Channel Four’s Time Crashers.

She is the host of the top-rated podcast, Push Your Peak. In this podcast series, Louise interviews first class athletes who have done extraordinary things, to learn what it takes mentally and physically to get to the top of their game.

Louise’s passion is endurance sport. Having given up competitive sport as a teenager, after a BBC Breakfast Christmas cycling challenge she was inspired to attempt her first triathlon in 2013 and went on to qualify for the GB age-group team to race in Chicago in 2015. Since then, she has raced in five World and European Championships and has gone on to compete in extreme triathlons including one of the toughest triathlons in the world, Norseman in 2019.

In February 2020 Louise took part in a 100 mile hike across the Namibian desert for Sport Relief – The Heat is On – raising awareness of mental health.

Louise’s first book, Dare to Tri, was released in 2019 by Bloomsbury and charted her journey from the BBC Breakfast sofa to competing internationally in triathlon.

Her second book Fearless, Adventures with Extraordinary Women, was published in 2023 by Bloomsbury and reflects her passion for celebrating women’s sporting success. In each chapter Louise takes on a difficult challenge with a different courageous woman to tell their incredible stories. As part of it she has swum from Alcatraz, free dived under ice in the dark in Finland, went wild caving, and walked across Dartmoor.

Louise’s third book Isolation Island is her first work of fiction. The novel tells the story of ten celebrities competing in a reality show on a remote Scottish island that takes a deadly turn. Isolation Island released in September 2024 and was a Sunday Times Pick of the Month.

She was chair of the 2023 judging panel for the prestigious literary award, the Women’s Prize for Fiction and is a successful author and podcaster.

Rosie Millard OBE is Chair of BBC Children in Need, Chair of Firstsite arts centre in Colchester and Deputy Chair of Opera North.

She is a journalist and broadcaster and has been reporting on and writing in the national press on the arts, popular culture, lifestyle and politics for over 30 years.

Rosie was BBC Arts Correspondent 1995-2004, Arts Editor, New Statesman 2004-2007, and has also been a theatre critic, columnist, feature writer, travel writer and profile writer, writing for most of the national broadsheets. She is a familiar voice on radio and familiar face on TV with regular appearances on Radio 4, Radio 2, Five Live, Newsnight and Sky News.

She presented Dead Famous, a 3-part podcast series for BBC Radio 4 that analyses the legacies of artists who have gained posthumous recognition and fame.

For four years she led Hull 2017 City of Culture as Chair of the Board. This was a £35 million national event which achieved unprecedented acclaim and international repute for the city of Hull, and for which she was appointed OBE. Rosie is now Chair of the London International Festiva of Theatre (LIFT) and president of the Philip Larkin Society.

She has written four books, one of which, The Tastemakers: British Art Now, is recommended reading for arts students at London University of the Arts.

Rosie is a dedicated marathon runner with eleven marathons under her belt and a PB of 3.48. She is one of only 2000 women in the world to have run all six Marathon Majors. She’s also run the Great Wall of China Marathon.

She studied at Hull University, the London College of Communications and the Courtauld Institute, has four children and lives by a canal in central London with her partner Alex Graham.

Juliet Mann is an experienced TV anchor, specialising in business news, currently host of The Agenda, the weekly current affairs talk show on CGTN Europe.

Juliet has worked in fast-paced newsrooms across the world – in London, Paris, New York and Frankfurt – for CNBC, CNN, Sky News, TRT World and Reuters. She also appeared on BBC’s Pointless Celebrities, starred in Danny Boyle’s TV pilot Babylon and presents podcast: A Week in my Flexible Working Life.

On the road as anchor and correspondent for CNN’s weekly business features show Marketplace Europe, she interviewed CEOs like Sir James Dyson, political heavyweights and influencers including EU policymakers, and bosses of global brands like Nestle, L’Oreal, Geox & Lafarge.

Highlights at Sky News include having a seat on the very last transatlantic Concorde flight and interviewing sporting legends like David Beckham when London won the 2012 Olympic Games bid in Singapore.

Juliet has interviewed Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the BBC, presented for corporate channels including EY TV and HSBC TV, and written occasional travel & features pieces for the Daily Telegraph and Economia magazine.

She also comperes events and awards ceremonies and moderates discussion forums across Europe and the United States, on a vast range of topics from entrepreneurship to sustainability.

Juliet is British, read Politics at Bristol University and speaks good French.

Kasia Madera is a Chief BBC News Presenter on BBC World News & the BBC News Channel with over 20 years of broadcasting experience.

Kasia was one of the first international broadcasters to report live from the Poland-Ukraine border at the start of the Ukraine war, witnessing as thousands fled. Of Polish heritage Kasia is bilingual and was able to sensitively interview many refugees in Polish and Ukrainian. One of her many interviews was used in the BBC News Channel’s RTS Award nomination tape.

More recently Kasia anchored BBC News from the NATO summit in Madrid as well as played a role in the extensive coverage of the UK’s mourning period for Her Majesty, Queen Elisabeth II. Kasia broadcast from outside Buckingham Palace on the night of the Queen’s death as well as spending hours interviewing mourners in the legendary Queue to file past Her Majesty’s coffin in the Palace of Westminster.

From breaking the UK’s first full Covid lockdown in March 2020, Kasia was a reassuring presence throughout this time, regularly hosting the BBC Papers Review. Kasia was live on air to break the news that Boris Johnson was admitted into intensive care, a clip used in Charlie Brooker’s Anti-Viral Wipe.

Kasia is as confident on set as on location. She has proven versatility from extensive experience in breaking news on location, from covering floods in Germany in 2021 to rolling in the early hours of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, she broke the disappearance of flight MH370 in 2014, a clip used in the new Netflix documentary, Flight MH370: The Plane That Disappeared.

Kasia’s original stories have featured across BBC News platforms, including BBC Network News, BBC Breakfast, Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent, Ukrainecast and the World Service Global News podcasts, as well as BBC News Online and digital platforms like BBC IPlayer.

Kasia was a regular presenter of Outside Source, the graphics-based explainer format programme which was popular on digital platforms. For over ten years she was a regular presenter on BBC Newsday, the fast-paced Asia facing tv breakfast programme.

Interrupting scheduled programming on BBC One, Kasia broke the news of Nelson Mandela’s death in 2013. She anchored straight after the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony when the BBC News Channel recorded its highest viewing figures.

Kasia is an extremely experienced events host and gets repeat bookings from high profile organisations including hosting on a number of occasions the United Nations Population Fund’s Annual Leader’s Meeting and the International Advertising Association’s Creativity 4 Better conferences. Kasia also has immense experience in hosting webinars and online events for the consultancy Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the think tank Emerging Europe. Kasia adds glamour to awards ceremonies and has regularly hosted the International Association of Press Clubs’ Freedom of Speech Awards as well as the Emerging Europe Business Awards. As a Chief BBC News Presenter, Kasia regularly represents the broadcaster on behalf of BBC Studios.

Judi James is a leading communication and body language expert whose expertise is sought after in broadcast, corporate and public relations circles. She regularly appears on a number of high-profile TV and Radio programmes across many channels, analysing major political, royal and celebrity events.

She has appeared regularly on BBC News, Sky News, GB News, CNN, Big Brother, Big Brother’s Bit on The Psych and Bit on the Side, The Extra Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, BBC2’s Newsnight and had a nightly news spot covering the General Election. She has been involved in documentaries like Why Women Shop, Camilla The Uncrowned Queen, Office Wars and had her own 4-part body language series on Channel 5 called Naked Celebrity, which she researched and presented.

Judi delivers thorough and insightful analysis of the body language of politicians, world leaders, celebrities and other public figures.

She has written 26 fiction and non-fiction books covering a range of subjects from body language, business impact, charisma, boosting your confidence and decreasing stress levels in the work place to improving flirting techniques, job interview techniques and even tips on how to win a poker game, titles include: The Body Language Bible, You’re Hired, Being Confident, Supermodel, Naked Angels and The Wedding Suit.

Judi has worked on many public relations campaigns with a wide range of multinational companies. She works closely with the client helping them deliver the key messages of the campaign through radio and print interviews, TV appearances and supporting the survey results and press release by adding personalised quotes and tips. The client feedback has always been positive and some of Judi’s recent public relations work includes campaigns for Google, Vodafone, Morrisons, Dove, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Colgate, L’Oreal and others. She also works closely with major international brands such as Gucci, Chanel, Mediacom, WWP and Deloitte.

She works as a pitch coach for business pitches to clients and runs training courses & keynote seminars in business on the subjects of body language, charisma, empathy, motivation skills, communication skills and networking.

She also coaches one to one for high level clients.

Judi started her career as a leading catwalk model and trained many big names at her modelling school in Chelsea, Naomi Campbell among them.

Broadcaster and journalist Jennie Bond appears regularly on a wide range of television and radio programmes – from news reports and documentaries to light entertainment. Her expertise and long experience of reporting on the Royal Family over the past 35 years is internationally recognised.

She’s also known to young and old for her exploits in the jungle of ITV’s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here when she was buried in a coffin full of rats and had to eat a variety of live insects.

Since then, she has been a presenter on two of the BBC’s most popular shows: Cash in the Attic and Rip Off Britain.  She also presented the highly successful BBC2 series Great British Menu.

Jennie reported on the death of Queen Elizabeth and the Coronation of King Charles. She has appeared on Richard Osman’s House of Games, The Weakest Link, and numerous documentaries including The Day I Met The Queen. Other projects include Channel 4’s Drugs Live, Royals at War, Masterchef, Too Many Cooks, Stars in their Eyes, Holiday of My Lifetime with Len Goodman, Christmas of My Lifetime with Len Goodman, The Big Call and Jennie’s own personal account of her time as a royal correspondent in a three-part documentary series for Channel Five, Jennie Bond’s Royals.

As the BBC’s Royal Correspondent during 14 of the most turbulent years the monarchy has endured, Jennie was at the heart of events that made headlines around the world: from the fairytale marriages to the adultery, the divorces and the deaths.

Jennie still enjoys commentating and writing about royalty today and likes to share her experiences and often hilarious adventures with audiences at home and abroad. She loves to make people laugh and to show them that she is quite different from how people imagined her when she stood outside the Palace.

For many years Jennie was also a regular news presenter on BBC Television and presented the main bulletins as well as Breakfast.

She began her career in journalism after graduating from Warwick University in 1972. She worked on local papers as a reporter for five years before joining BBC Radio News. During the next few years, she gained a thorough grounding in radio news, editing the main bulletins. She also worked as a producer on current affairs shows, including the very popular Woman’s Hour, and in light entertainment, with Noel Edmonds.

She returned to full-time reporting in 1986 with BBC Radio, covering major news stories, for example in Northern Ireland. She also began her career as a presenter, anchoring among other programmes, the top current affairs show in the UK, Today, on Radio 4.

Jennie Bond has written a book Reporting Royalty that tells in detail of her years keeping tabs on Britain’s Royal Family. It was published in September 2001 by Headline. In the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Year, Carlton Books published her Elizabeth: 50 Glorious Years, a commemoration of the Queen’s reign. She updated this book for the Queen’s 80th birthday. Married with a daughter, she lives in Devon and thoroughly enjoys getting away from it all at her seaside home.

Jennie also chairs conferences and seminars and is a highly skilled conference facilitator and after dinner speaker. She has a wealth of experience hosting events and award ceremonies, both at home and abroad.

Nayha Ahmad is a Radio and TV presenter who currently hosts the Official Asian Chart show on the BBC Asian Network and presents the Sky Arts show ‘Unmuted’ and ‘Desi Beat’ on Colors TV, Sky.

Nayha is an experienced TV presenter, having covered the ITV Gala, National TV Awards, Perfume Awards, Camden’s Music Video Awards, Asian Achievement Awards and the Asian Wedding Show. Nayha has also interviewed a catalogue of high-profile celebrities and artists. Starting out at the digital channel Media Spotlight UK, Nayha has interviewed celebrities such as Sean Paul, Abhishiek Bachan, Shaggy and Christina Milian. In 2017, Nayha joined Whats Up TV (now known as ‘Unmuted’) team as a presenter on the Sky series, where she’s interviewed the likes of Sara Pascoe, Russell Kane, Seal, Rosie Jones and Ella Eyre.

Her first break in radio came at her hometown station Asian Star 101.6FM before progressing to West London’s Westside Radio where she hosted the Westside Chart Show. Other experience included London’s Vibe 107.6FM and commercial radio station Aspen Waite Radio. After featuring regularly on the BBC Asian Network, Nayha was announced as the host of the networks Official Asian Chart show in March 2021.

Alongside her presenting and radio work, Nayha loves talking about dating and is the host of her own podcast, the “Dating Dilemmas Podcast”. The series has been featured on BBC Radio London’s “The Scene” as a top Podcast to listen to.

Beyond broadcasting, Nayha is a massive foodie. She can be seen weekly on TV covering a variety of Desi cooking and food from chefs to Mela’s and festivals on the Sky, Colors TV show ‘Desi Beat’.

Nayha is also a fashion guru who loves vintage shopping and regularly shops in Shoreditch and thrift shops. Using this passion for style, Nayha has done a range of interviews; with stylists on skyline to festival fashion on YouTube. Nayha’s professional modelling and fashion work ranges from Asian wedding fairs to catwalks up and down the country as well as magazines.

As a big supporter of children’s charities, Nayha has supported the NSPCC throughout the years, raising funds in various ways including running a pop-up photo shooting business that donated all its earnings to the NSPCC. Another charity close to Nayha’s heart, who she regularly contributes towards is Edhi International Foundation, who provide care and shelter for young orphans.

Award winning journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed presents the BBC’s flag ship arts show, Front Row on Radio 4, where she regularly interviews leading writers, actors and directors; and scrutinises BBC journalism and editorial decision making on behalf of viewers and listeners, on her Newswatch programme on BBC1.

In 2023, she made headlines around the world for uncovering the earliest complete concert recording of the Beatles performing in the UK, at Stowe School in 1963 and helped secure its acquisition by the British Library for the nation.

She was named British Broadcasting Press Guild audio presenter of the year in 2020, the same year she won a landmark sex discrimination employment tribunal against the BBC for equal pay on Newswatch.

Her acclaimed three-part BBC4 documentary series Art of Persia (2020) was one of the first major Western tv series to be filmed in Iran for 40 years.

She was previously a news anchor and correspondent for Channel 4 News, where she won the Stonewall Broadcast of the Year award for her film about the so-called “corrective” rape of lesbian women in South Africa; and for BBC News, where she covered the OJ Simpson case while LA Correspondent.

Her many documentaries explore the intersection of popular culture, science, politics, and social change. They include I Dressed Ziggy Stardust, Laura Ingalls’ America, John Ruskin’s Eurythmic Girls, HG Wells and the H Bomb, The Fundamentalist Queen about Elizabeth Cromwell (wife of Oliver Cromwell) and Disgusted, Mary Whitehouse, for which she spent months studying the diaries of the famous morality campaigner.

Samira is a trustee of the Centre for Women’s Justice and on the advisory board of the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford and the editorial review board of Doctor Who magazine. She is an honorary fellow of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford and holds honorary doctorates in law and arts, from UEA University of East Anglia, City – University of London and Kingston University.

Award winning broadcaster and writer Fiona Armstrong has been a familiar face on national and regional news for many years. Her work ranges from news, to features, to sport. She is currently presenting on ITV’s Border Life in Scotland which received an ITV award for Best Current Affairs programme for her report on the Lockerbie air disaster.

Fiona has been a national newscaster and reporter for ITV and the BBC. She has covered the plight of Aids orphans in Africa, the removal of landmines in Cambodia, and the work of the Mercy Ships in West Africa. Closer to home she fronted a series looking at domestic abuse. Other lighter projects include the countryside series, River Journeys, and Reivers, which featured clan history. Under the Hammer saw her filming in Scottish auction houses whilst Fantastic Facts took her round Europe. She has also produced more than 20 films and videos on Scottish clans. As one of the UK’s best-known female anglers, Sky TV’s Tight Lines programme saw her fishing at home and abroad.

Fiona started her broadcasting career with Radio 210 in Reading and the BBC in Manchester. She has since worked for ITV Border, ITN, GMTV, BBC World News, the BBC News Channel, Sky TV and the Carlton Food Network, where she presented the series Easy as Pie. for the American network, NBC, she fronted several series of the business programme, Executive Lifestyles. She has also contributed to programmes for Radios 2 and 4.

Away from work, Fiona likes to swim, fish, cook, and garden. She is kept busy as the Lord-Lieutenant of Dumfries, the King’s personal representative in her area. Married to a Scottish clan chief, she writes about her tartan life in columns for magazines and newspapers. She has penned fishing books and quirky cookbooks and is working on a biography about a family member who was literary confidante to Queen Victoria.

Fiona was given an Outstanding Contribution Award at the Royal Television Society North-East and Border Awards. She has a Doctorate in history from the University of Strathclyde and is a Fellow of the University of Central Lancashire and the University of Cumbria. She also received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Glasgow.

Marverine Cole is a multi-award-winning journalist and broadcaster from Birmingham. She can often be seen as newsreader on ITV1’s Good Morning Britain.

She has been a regular media commentator on Channel 4’s BAFTA-nominated daytime show, Steph’s Packed Lunch and ITV1’s This Morning, bringing her sharp journalistic knowledge and fantastic sense of humour to the table at every appearance.

Celebrating more than twenty years as a live news and current affairs broadcaster, Marverine’s media career spans more than three decades. She has worked as Reporter, Producer, TV & Radio Presenter and News Anchor for many of the UK’s most watched and listened to broadcasters, including ITV1, Sky News, 5 News, BBC 5 Live, the BBC & ITV in the Midlands and BBC Radio 4.

RADIO PRESENTER
As an ardent lover of classical music, Marverine has hosted afternoon shows for Classic FM, fronted speech and phone-in programmes for BBC Radio WM, Up All Night on BBC 5 Live and has co-presented BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live with Reverend Richard Coles.
She has presented her own podcast, The Trouble With Politics and other podcasts for BBC Storyworks, Vintage Books, Faber & Faber, FANE Productions and BBC Good Food magazine.

DOCUMENTARY MAKER
When it comes to Radio Documentaries, Marverine conceived and presented Luck Be A Lady Tonight about female gambling addicts for BBC Radio 4, Ladies with Lyrics – The Rise of the Female MC for BBC 1Xtra, executive-produced Where are All the Black Girls in Grime for BBC Radio 4.

However, she is best known for Black Girls Don’t Cry, a BBC Radio 4 documentary which she produced and presented, and which earned her the accolade of ‘Journalist of the Year’ at the Mind Media Awards. Sir Lenny Henry asked her to contribute a personal essay about mental health to his 2021 book (co-edited with Professor Marcus Rydder), Black British Lives Matter.

AWARD-WINNING BEER WRITER & SOMMELIER
Marverine is the resident Beer Columnist for BBC Good Food magazine and online, where she exercises her credentials as one of the first women in the UK to become an accredited beer sommelier. As one Britain’s leading female beer experts, she has appeared hosting TV beer tastings on shows like ITV1’s ‘Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh’ and talked all things beer on Channel 4’s Countdown.

LIFESTYLE PRESENTER
The consummate broadcaster, Marverine has also presented lifestyle, food, technology, beauty and fashion shows live from London, for Britain’s most successful and profitable shopping channel, QVC. She was the channel’s first Black female main presenter in over 20 years.

AWARDS & CONFERENCE HOST
Her warm, natural and engaging presenting style means she is often booked to host conferences and award ceremonies. Clients include PRCA, Black Talent Awards, The Voice of Black Opera Awards, Birmingham Royal Ballet: An Evening of Music & Dance, Inspire Construction & Housing Awards, Everywoman Awards, Capital Letters conference.

Kate Gerbeau (nee Sanderson) is an award-winning broadcaster and journalist. In June 2014 she launched, as main presenter, the UK’s first ever television channel about the Armed Forces and Defence aimed at both the military community and the wider public. She also anchors its nightly news programme British Forces News, broadcast both on Forces TV and BFBS. On radio she hosts a weekly half hour Defence and International Affairs programme on BFBs, “SitRep” which won a Sony Award in 2012. Her work for BFBS and Forces TV gives her wide access to a range of interesting interviewees from the Prime Minister to the Head of the Armed Forces to Formula One racing drivers. Kate also presents the podcast series The Case Files.

Kate’s network television career began in 1997 (after working on Regional TV and radio) when she became the presenter of the Newsround, the BBC’s longest running news programme for children. During her 4 years there, she reported live from the earthquake in Gujarat, from the foot of a live volcano in Montserrat and went undercover in Russia to expose the treatment of disabled children in orphanages. The report earned her a BAFTA. Kate went on to be a regular Newsreader on BBC Breakfast on BBC 1, co-presented the corporation’s consumer programme ‘Watchdog,’ and was a regular Reporter and Presenter on the BBC1 Sunday morning programme ‘Heaven and Earth.’ She left the BBC in 2004 to join the relaunch of Five News, where she fronted the live, daily lunchtime programme for 3 years, interviewing a broad range of guests from pop stars to politicians. Kate also presented a range of other programmes for Five News, including a live tomb excavation from the desert in Egypt and an animal rescue series.

She holds a BA in French and German from the University of Bristol and loves languages. She’s fluent in French, speaks German and is learning Spanish. She’s also an animal lover and keen horse rider having recently started competitive show jumping. She can also swing a (golf) club and enjoys scuba diving.

Kate is married to Frenchman and “serial entrepreneur” PY Gerbeau and has a daughter.