News

Clare McDonnell

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.

Antoine Allen

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.

Mike Bushell

Sports presenter Mike Bushell is unique. As well as presenting the main sports bulletins of the day he has profiled and personally sampled nearly 400 different sports and activities during Saturday morning slot on Breakfast. This is believed to be a world record and he also holds the unusual world record, for crossing one mile of water in a large inflatable ball known as a zorb, or waterwalker. This was for sport relief and with oxygen breaks, it took Mike 1 hour 57 seconds.

Mike is now well known to a wider audience after appearing on Strictly Come Dancing, attracting a large following and praise of his progression through the competition. He also danced on the Strictly Come Dancing tour, performing in major arenas throughout the UK, including the Birmingham NIA and the London 02.

Mike’s Saturday Breakfast slot started in 2006, with the aim being to prove there is a sport out there for all. He’s the guinea pig, going into bat on behalf of the beginner, trying to inspire others like him off the sofa at the weekend, to try something new. As well as profiling main stream sports events, with the top stars, whether it be a game of tennis against Novak Djokovic, or trying to bowl out Alistair Cook, he has often featured different new initiatives by well-known sports which are trying to tempt in new participants, by becoming more accessible. These have included Rush Hockey, and Cage Cricket. However, many of the hundreds of activities and sports he has featured, will be ones most people haven’t heard of before. Whether it be nurdling, or tchouckball, or shin kicking, whip cracking, bog snorkelling, or even worm charming, they all have one thing in common: they bring people together, exercising, getting fitter, and gaining confidence. They engage peoples’ passion, take up their weekends and show the power of sport. Mike says : “I am determined to prove that however un-sporty someone might feel, there is definitely out there, a sport for everyone.” You can now read about some of Mike’s suggestions and experiences discovering new sports in the book Bushell’s Best Bits.

Mike has vast experience of covering big sporting events, having reported and presented on the Olympics, Paralympics, the Winter games, Football World Cups, Commonwealth Games, and Asian Games. He has reported on these for Breakfast, the BBC News Channel and BBC World.

Mike has always been a keen sportsman, having played football, cricket and hockey at school. He also represented the county of Hertfordshire, at Chess, but it’s cross country running that he really excelled in, and in the 1980’s as a teenager, he ran 175miles in 6 days, setting off from his new home in Yorkshire to his old one in Hertfordshire, to raise money for charity.

Mike’s other passion was in acting, after he was spotted by the National Youth Theatre. He spent four years there and a degree in theatre and television followed, but while trying to make ends meet as an actor, he broke into journalism on a local newspaper in Winchester and the rest is history.

After a break from his journalism course (to tour Europe as lead singer in a rock band) he returned to newspapers in Derby and Windsor, before joining the BBC in 1990 as a reporter with Radio Solent.

In a way he was back to his roots. He wrote and published his own first newspaper called “The Daily Owl”, as an eager 8 year old.

His big TV break came with a job on the Isle of Wight – as the BBC reporter there for BBC South Today. Once there, after spells reading the news and presenting a Millennium history series, his passion for and knowledge of sport, shone through and he ended up reporting and presenting sport for BBC South.

Mike was on of the first faces on air when News 24 started in 1997 (now the BBC News channel), and still occasionally presents the sport on BBC News.

As well presenting duties on Breakfast, he has been doing some reporting for the programme, including the story of the robot camel jockeys that have saved the lives of children in the Middle East.

Mike’s hobbies include still playing football, (he supports Leeds United) running, (often with the Hash House Harriers), music, theatre and he spends most of his spare time with his wife Emily and his three daughters, from his previous marriage, and he’s hoping to eventually find a sport for all of them.

Lucrezia Millarini

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.

Kait Borsay

Kait Borsay has been bringing her conversational style to Times Radio for over two years, and currently presents The Evening Edition, from 8-10pm every Monday to Thursday. She has built a loyal audience of listeners as she delves into the stories of the day covering news, politics, education, health and social affairs. Insightful, sparky and always with a smile, Kait has a passion for bringing diverse stories and fresh voices to the airwaves.

Whilst at Times Radio, Kait has championed particular causes, developing an engaged following as she returns to issues like Long Covid, rights for care home residents, children’s mental health, the rights and advocacy of young people, and neurodiversity in women.

A broadcast journalist for over two decades, in the last five years, Kait has expanded her portfolio into news and current affairs. A keen self-starter, often pitching her own stories, Kait has been commissioned by the Audio Content Fund and was runner up at the IRN Commercial Radio Awards for a documentary on loneliness. She has recently started writing for The Times and The Sunday Times across health, lifestyle and social affairs.

Clear, authoritative and comfortable on screen, Kait has presented television news programming for Sky News, Reuters and ITN. She has also developed audio projects for The Telegraph and hosted podcasts for large corporate brands, like P&G and EY. She covered news and politics as an in-vision reporter for talkRADIO, and presented the station’s Drivetime show alongside Eamonn Holmes.

Kait started her career in sports journalism at Sky Sports. She has covered several major sporting tournaments from the beaches of Brazil to the Highlands of Scotland. She is co-founder of The Offside Rule, an awarding-winning, female-fronted football podcast and website. It has featured in the Guardian’s top five sport podcasts and was listed as Vogue’s best football podcast of 2018. In 2022, The Offside Rule was part-acquired by the New York Times.