Anna Ford: Difference between revisions

'''Anna Ford''' (born 2 October 1943) is an English formerretired journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She first worked as a researcher, news reporter and later newsreader for [[ITV Granada|Granada Television]], [[ITN]], and the [[BBC]]. Ford helped launch the British breakfast television broadcaster [[TV-am]]. She retired from broadcast news presenting in April 2006 and was a non-executive director of [[Sainsbury's]] until the end of 2012. Ford now lives in her home town of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.<ref>{{cite news|author=James Thompson |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/anna-ford-signs-off-from-sainsburys-7936490.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/anna-ford-signs-off-from-sainsburys-7936490.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Anna Ford signs off from Sainsbury's – Business News – Business |publisherwork=The Independent |date=12 July 2012 |access-date=28 September 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Ford was born in [[Tewkesbury]], [[Gloucestershire]], to parents who were both [[West End theatre|West End]] actors. Her father, John, had declined an offer from [[Samuel Goldwyn]] to work in Hollywood, and her mother, Jean (née Winstanley; sister of MP and broadcaster [[Michael Winstanley, Baron Winstanley]])<ref>{{Cite webnews|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/13/newsid_4151000/4151459.stm|title=1978: Ford makes her ITN debut|date=13 February 1978|via=news.bbc.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite webnews|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/dec/07/women-equality-anna-ford-feminism|title=Women's special: Tim Adams interviews Anna Ford|first=Tim|last=Adams|newspaper=The Observer |date=7 December 2008|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> had worked with [[Alec Guinness]].<ref name="Hagerty">Bill Hagerty [https://archive.today/20121224025838/http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2007/no3_hagerty "Anna Ford: Try a little tenderness"], ''British Journalism Review'', 18:3, 2007, ppp. 9–16</ref> Her father later became ordained as an [[Anglican]] priest and took Ford and her four brothers to live at [[Eskdale, Cumbria|Eskdale]] in the [[Lake District]]. She went to primary school at St Ursula's School, [[Wigton]], then to [[The Nelson Thomlinson School|Wigton Grammar School]], where she was a contemporary of [[Melvyn Bragg]]. After her father became the parish priest at [[St Martin's Church, Brampton|St Martin's Church]] in [[Brampton, Carlisle, Cumbria|Brampton]] she moved to the [[William Howard School|White House Grammar School]]. She also attended Minehead Grammar School in Somerset and lived in nearby Wootton Courtenay.

Ford worked as a teacher for four years, including teaching [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] prisoners at the [[HM Prison Maze|Her Majesty's Prison Maze]] in [[Northern Ireland]] for two years.<ref name="Hagerty"/> She was later an [[Open University]] social studies tutor in Belfast for two years. Ford was thirty by the time that she joined [[ITV Granada|Granada Television]] as a researcher in 1974. Initially, she was told she was too old to be a newsreader, but became a reporter and newsreader on ''[[Granada Reports]]''.<ref name="AFHP">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/1471987.stm Anna Ford: Hardy perennial] BBC News – 3 August 2001</ref> She joined the BBC in January 1977, but only after several months as security clearance from [[MI5]] was required because she was then living with a former communist. This led to her BBC personnel file being [["Christmas tree" files|marked with a "Christmas tree" symbol]].<ref>Mark Hollingshurst and Richard Norton Taylor ''Blacklist: The Inside Story of Political Vetting'', London: Hogarth Press, 1988, p. 106; David Leigh and Paul Lashmar [http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/mi5.bbc.page9_obs_18aug1985.html "The Blacklist in Room 105"], ''The Observer'', 18 August 1985, p. 9</ref> Ford subsequently worked on ''[[Man Alive (British TV series)|Man Alive]]'' and ''[[Tomorrow's World]]''.

In February 1978, Ford moved to [[ITN]], and wasbriefly faced with quickly abandoned legal threats from the BBC for breaking her contract.<ref name="BBCOTD">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/13/newsid_4151000/4151459.stm "1978: Ford makes her ITN debut"], BBC On This Day, 13 February</ref> Future colleague [[Reginald Bosanquet]] said at the time: "I have never been averse to working with ladies ... I do not know Anna but I have heard that she is a very competent and professional lady.",<ref name="BBCOTD"/> Ford remains fond of his memory, and theyhe formed a good professional relationship.<ref name="Hagerty"/> Ford began presenting ITV's ''[[ITV Lunchtime News|News at One]]'' in March and later the 5:45PM45 pm bulletin, but within two months had become the first female newscaster on ''[[ITV News at Ten|News at Ten]]''.<ref name="BBCOTD"/>

In 1979, Ford appeared in a skit along with [[John Cleese]] and [[Terry Jones]] of the [[Monty Python]] troupe as part of "The Amnesty International Comedy Gala", a comedy programprogramme performed at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket, London. The film version is called "The Secret Policeman's Ball".

In 1981, she left ITN to join the presenting team of the soon-to-launch [[TV-am]]. ITN were bidding for the breakfast franchise themselves and had positioned Ford as the lead anchor in their bid, unaware that she was involved with another bidder. When her subterfuge was exposed, ITN immediately terminated her contract and publicly criticized her dishonesty and disloyalty.<ref name="Leapman, Michael 1984">Leapman, Michael. ''Treachery: The Power Struggle at TV-am''. Unwin Hyman 1984. {{ISBN|978-0-04-791041-8}}</ref> Her tenure at TV-am was short lived in part due to fierce competition from the BBC's casually styled ''Breakfast Time''. The loss of viewers resulted in a relaunch which was perceived as "dumbing-down" of the station, and only three months after the station's launch, Ford was dismissed from TV-am partly due to her on-air support for chairman [[Peter Jay (diplomat)|Peter Jay]] (who had already resigned) and partly because she refused to stand down from ''[[Good Morning Britain (1983 TV programme)|Good Morning Britain]]'' when the ratings slumped.<ref name="Leapman, Michael 1984"/> Ford was involved in an incident at a party in which she threw her wine over [[Jonathan Aitken]] to express her outrage over his involvement in her sacking from the channel.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/6b9f6a72 | work=BBC | first=Kirsty | last=Young | title=Desert Island Discs: Anna Ford | date=18 March 2012}}</ref>

Ford rejoinedre-joined the BBC in 1988summer 1986, Firstly to cover for Wogan in June, and other minor roles. From January 1987 was given her own programme "Network" in which member of the public were able discusses issues with BBC management.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/2de95fc811084e0d9e9961994dae01a3 | title=BBC Programme Index | date=20 January 1987 }}</ref> Anna, becomingbecome part of the presentation team for both [[BBC One]]'s ''[[BBC News at Six|Six O'Clock News]]'' from February 1989 '' and the [[BBC Radio 4]] ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'' programme in 1993. From 1999, she fronted the relaunched ''[[BBC News at One|One O'Clock News]]''.

Ford had an early marriage to Alan Bittles (1970–div), although this was dissolved before her television career and,began. inIn the late 1970s, she was briefly engaged to [[Jon Snow (journalist)|Jon Snow]], a colleague at ITN.<ref name="indep">{{cite news| url=http://www.independent.ie/national-news/feisty-anna-ford-leaps-to-the-defence-of-her-moon-walker-boyfriend-514383.html | work=Irish Independent | first=Bairbre | last=Power | title=Feisty Anna Ford leaps to the defence of her moon walker boyfriend | date=21 May 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/012705/r012705_01.htm |title=Camden New Journal |publisher=Camden New Journal |date=28 January 2005 |access-date=28 September 2013 |archive-date=4 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204063829/http://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/012705/r012705_01.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> She married the magazine editor and cartoonist [[Mark Boxer]] in 1981;<ref name="indep"/> with himwhom she had two daughters, Claire (b. 1982) and Kate (b. 1985), before he died of a brain tumour in 1988 at their home in [[Brentford]], Greater London.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mark Boxer, Editor, Cartoonist And Social Satirist, Is Dead at 57|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/23/obituaries/mark-boxer-editor-cartoonist-and-social-satirist-is-dead-at-57.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=23 July 1988}}</ref>

She was briefly engaged in 2000, to former astronaut [[David Scott]], the seventh man to walk on the moonMoon.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Smith (author) |title =Moondust: in search of the men who fell to Earth |publisher=Fourth Estate |year=2005 |location=New York |pages=324–325 | oclc=58720734 |isbn=978-0-00-715541-5}}</ref> Ford became the subject of news stories in August 2001, when she lost a high-profile court case. She claimed unsuccessfully that photographs of her in a bikini with Scott, taken by a press photographer in [[Mallorca|Majorca]], with a powerful zoom lens and published in the [[List of newspapers in the United Kingdom|British media]], constituted an invasion of her privacy.<ref name="AFHP"/>

In a letter to ''[[The Guardian]]'' in February 2010, Ford accused [[Martin Amis]] (a friend of her late husband Mark Boxer) of having neglected his duties as godfather to herone daughterof her Clairedaughters and also having been disrespectful to Boxer at the time of his death.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/20/martin-amis-anna-ford-media The root of Martin Amis's anger] ''The Guardian'' – 20 February 2010</ref> Amis rejected her allegations in a reply, but accepted that he had been remiss in his duties as godfather.<ref name="amis responds">{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/22/martin-amis-anna-ford-letter | work=The Guardian | first=Charlotte | last=Higgins | title=Martin Amis responds: A poor godparent, yes, but I did not 'fill in time' at friend's deathbed | date=22 February 2010}}</ref>

* [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fordanna/fordanna.htm Biography at the Museum of Broadcast Communications] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070418025542/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fordanna/fordanna.htm |date=18 April 2007 }}