Victoria Derbyshire

Victoria Antoinette Derbyshire (born 2 October 1968) is an award-winning British journalist, newsreader and broadcaster. Her eponymous current affairs and debate programme was broadcast on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel from 2015 until March 2020.[1][2] She has also presented Newsnight and BBC Panorama. She was one of eight women to appear in ITV's The Real Full Monty: Ladies Night – an entertainment documentary to raise awareness of breast cancer - which won an International Emmy, an RTS and was BAFTA-nominated. She formerly presented the morning news, current affairs and interview programme on BBC Radio 5 Live between 10 am and 12 noon each weekday and was a 5 Live presenter for 16 years, departing in late 2014. She left at the same time as fellow 5 Live broadcasters Richard Bacon and Shelagh Fogarty. She won gold Sony awards in 1999, 2002, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, a BAFTA award in 2017, and two Royal Television Society awards in 2018.

For the current affairs programme, see Victoria Derbyshire (TV programme).

Victoria Derbyshire
Victoria Derbyshire in 2011
Born
Victoria Antoinette Derbyshire

(1968-10-02) 2 October 1968
Ramsbottom, Lancashire, England
NationalityBritish
EducationBury Grammar School for Girls
Alma materUniversity of Liverpool
Preston Polytechnic
OccupationJournalist, newsreader, television presenter
Years active1993–present
EmployerBBC
TelevisionBBC News at Nine
Victoria Derbyshire
Newsnight
Partner(s)Mark Sandell
Children2
RelativesNick Derbyshire (brother)

Early life

Derbyshire was born in Ramsbottom, Lancashire, to Pauline and Anthony Derbyshire. She attended Bury Grammar School for Girls, an independent school, before studying English language and literature at the University of Liverpool. At the university, she wrote for the student newspaper and gained work experience with Toxteth Community Radio for a few hours each Sunday. Afterwards, she attended a postgraduate diploma course in radio and TV journalism at Preston Polytechnic (now the University of Central Lancashire).[3] She has said that her father Anthony physically abused her, her mother, and her younger brother and sister.[4] Derbshire's mother eventually walked out leaving with the three children; Victoria was 16 and never saw her father again. She talked about these events during an edition of the BBC's Panorama Derbyshire presented on domestic abuse in lockdown in August 2020.[3][5]

Career

Radio

Derbyshire worked as a reporter for BBC Coventry & Warwickshire and later worked for BBC GMR Radio. From the later, she joined BBC Radio 5 Live in 1998, at first deputizing for Jane Garvey on the breakfast show, and later as the regular co-presenter with Julian Worricker when Garvey moved on.[3][6] The programme won Gold Sony Awards in 1998 and 2002. In January 2003, Worricker left the breakfast show, and Derbyshire was partnered by Nicky Campbell.[6] After being on maternity leave, she took over the morning news programme in August 2004.[6][7]

She covered some of the biggest global stories since joining 5 Live: 9/11, the Paris Concorde crash, general elections, World Cups and Olympic Games. On TV she has covered the Grenfell Tower fire and the Manchester Arena bombing.

In September 2010, she interviewed her own BBC Radio 5 Live superior about why he was not moving to MediaCityUK in Salford when the station moved in autumn 2011. Describing the interview, The Guardian said: "Derbyshire's grilling of the station's controller Adrian Van Klaveren made Jeremy Paxman's infamous interview with Mark Thompson look like a vicar's tea party."[8] Derbyshire did not move to Salford and sometimes presented her programme from London.[9]

Television

Derbyshire has worked on television news and political programmes including This Week, an interview series, Victoria Derbyshire Interviews.., on the BBC News Channel, and Watchdog, as well as Panorama. She hosted a sports chat show on Channel 4 on Saturday mornings called SportsTalk.

In October 2011, Derbyshire made her debut on Have I Got News for You.[10] In autumn 2013, under the new editorship of Ian Katz, Derbyshire began presenting Newsnight while continuing to present her daily 5 Live programme. Her final Radio 5 Live show was broadcast on 5 September 2014.

The Victoria Derbyshire current affairs programme was her own idea and she suggested it to James Harding, then head of BBC News, who commissioned it three days later.[4] It began airing on 7 April 2015 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel.

Derbyshire's eponymous programme on the BBC News Channel was cancelled in January 2020 owing to financial cutbacks in the budget of BBC News.[11] She was not informed of the decision before the story appeared in The Times.[12] The last programme was broadcast in March 2020.[1] Since then. Derbyshire has presented BBC News 9am-11am on BBC One/BBC Two, BBC News Channel and BBC World News. She appeared on screen during lockdown with the telephone number of the National Domestic Abuse hotline written on her hand.

In November 2020, it was announced that Derbyshire would be taking part in the twentieth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here. She was the fourth celebrity to be eliminated alongside Beverley Callard on 30 November. In 2019, she was one of six candidates shortlisted and then auditioned to replace David Dimbleby as the regular host of Question Time.[13]

Awards

In 2009, she won the Nick Clarke Award for her sensitive handling of an interview with a man accused and then cleared of date rape.[14] At the 2011 Sony Awards she won the Gold award for Best News & Current Affairs Programme. At the 2012 Sony Awards she became the Sony Academy's Speech Broadcaster of the Year; the other nominees were Dame Jenni Murray, Evan Davis and Jeremy Vine. In December 2013, her broadcast from an animal testing laboratory received the 2013 "Best Live Journalism" Award at the Association for International Broadcasting; the judges said it was "classic investigative journalism, in-depth reporting, well-balanced and thoroughly researched". At the 2014 Radio Academy Awards (formerly the Sony Awards), she again won the Speech Broadcaster of the Year award, ahead of BBC colleagues Justin Webb, Jane Garvey and Melvyn Bragg, and in November 2014, the Association for International Broadcasting awarded her the best radio programme for a live broadcast from a dementia clinic that specialises in treating those with early onset dementia.

She was named PinkNews Broadcaster of the Year in October 2015 and 2016.[15] In January 2016 and January 2017, she was nominated for RTS Network Presenter of the Year.[16] In 2017, she won a BAFTA Television Award for her interview with four former footballers about the alleged sexual abuse they experienced as boys. In her acceptance speech, which she dedicated to the men, she said: 'You cannot underestimate the courage it took for these men to talk about this on national television, live. As a result of what they did, hundreds more potential victims have come forward to the police'.

In March 2018, she won two Royal Television Society Awards - Network Presenter of the Year, beating Andrew Neil and Julie Etchingham; and Interview of the Year, for her interview with the 4 footballers. Derbyshire was nominated for a fourth and fifth year running for Network Television Presenter of the Year at the 2019 and 2020 Royal Television Society Journalism Awards.

Her TV programme was nominated for a BAFTA in 2020 for her programme with eleven men who had lost loved ones to knife crime.

Personal life

Family and relationships

Derbyshire married Mark Sandell in 2018; the couple have two children. Her younger brother, Nick Derbyshire, was a county cricketer for Essex and Lancashire between 1994 and 1996.[17][18][19]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Derbyshire told the Radio Times she would break the rule of six for Christmas to be with her family of seven. She justified her public comment by stating that, "everyone else would be doing it". However she later apologised for her comments.[20][21]

Health

In August 2015, Derbyshire announced on Twitter that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and would be having a mastectomy, but would continue to present her programme as often as possible during treatment.[22] She recorded video diaries about her cancer treatment, from her mastectomy through chemotherapy and radiotherapy which went viral and were viewed millions of times.[23]

In 2018 she took part in an ITV programme, The Real Full Monty: Ladies' Night, in which she and seven other women affected by breast cancer encouraged women to check their bodies for signs of the disease.[24]

References
  1. Waterson, Jim (17 March 2020). "BBC to broadcast Question Time without an audience". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  2. "Victoria Derbyshire Show to come off air". BBC News. 22 January 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  3. Lang, Kirsty (20 December 2020). "Victoria Derbyshire on surviving abuse and why she loved I'm a Celebrity". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 20 December 2020. (subscription required)
  4. Saner, Emine (22 August 2014). "Victoria Derbyshire interview: 'I can be bold to anyone'". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  5. Derbyshire, Victoria (17 August 2020). "Victoria Derbyshire: My father was violent - I understand the terror of lockdown". BBC News. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  6. "Victoria Derbyshire to host mid mornings on Radio Five Live". BBC Press Office. 15 October 2003. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  7. Plunkett, John (17 November 2006). "Bannister fills in for Derbyshire". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  8. "Media Monkey's Diary". The Guardian. London. 20 September 2010.
  9. Keevins, Barry (24 February 2013). "BBC wastes money as webcams show host Victoria Derbyshire is not in Salford". Daily Express. London.
  10. "Have I Got News for You: Season 42, Episode 3, Lee Mack, Victoria Derbyshire, Ross Noble". TV.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 5 December 2011. Aired October 28, 2011
  11. Giordano, Chiara (23 January 2020). "Victoria Derbyshire: BBC drops award-winning show 'in bid to cut costs'". The Independent. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  12. Quinn, Ben; Bindman, Polly (23 January 2020). "BBC facing backlash over decision to axe Victoria Derbyshire show". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  13. Sabbagh, Dan (9 October 2018). "Victoria Derbyshire and Fiona Bruce filmed for Question Time job". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  14. Ponsford, Dominic (12 October 2009). "Derbyshire wins Nick Clarke prize for rape-claim interview". Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012.
  15. Victoria Derbyshire [@vicderbyshire] (21 October 2015). "OMG!! Readers of @pinknews voted our programme & team 'Broadcaster of the Year'. THANKYOU lovely people" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  16. Victoria Derbyshire [@vicderbyshire] (28 January 2016). "Totally totally happy & honoured to be nominated for @RTS_media Network Presenter of Year alongside @julieetchitv & @mattfrei" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  17. "Index entry Derbyshire Victoria Antoinette, _ulrooney, Bury". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  18. "Index entry Derbyshire Nicholas Alexander, Mulrooney, Heywood". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  19. Player Profile: Nick Derbyshire from CricInfo.
  20. "Victoria Derbyshire apologises for saying she would break 'rule of six' at Christmas". Sky News. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  21. "Victoria Derbyshire sorry for Christmas rule-breaking comments". BBC News. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  22. Victoria Derbyshire diagnosed with breast cancer, bbc.co.uk; accessed 19 August 2015.
  23. "Victoria Derbyshire's breast cancer diary". BBC News. 12 October 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  24. Loughrey, Clarissa (30 March 2018). "Victoria Derbyshire breaks down in tears during Real Full Monty burlesque performance". The Independent. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
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