Tim Luckhurst

Tim Luckhurst  (journalist, academic, author)
Born	Timothy Colin Harvey Luckhurst 8 January 1963
Alma mater	Cambridge University

Tim Luckhurst (born 8 January 1963) is a British journalist and academic, currently Principal of South College Durham University and Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Engagement.

Between May 2007 and November 2019 he served as Professor of Journalism at the University of Kent, and the founding head of the university's Centre for Journalism. At Kent, Luckhurst was a leading member of the team that founded and launched KM Television Ltd , a local television station for Kent and Medway. He served as a Director of KM Television Ltd between 2016 and 2019

Tim Luckhurst is a former editor of The Scotsman, and worked for many years as a journalist for the BBC. His academic research focuses on the history of journalism and particularly on the depiction of political dissent in British newspapers during the era of appeasement and the Second World War. He has also written about the work of war correspondents on the Western Front during the First World War.

Early life and career

Luckhurst was born on 8 January 1963 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Peebles High School, a comprehensive school in Peebles, Peeblesshire, Scotland. He studied history at Robinson College, Cambridge, graduating in 1983 and accepting a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1986. As a student at Cambridge, he played bass guitar in Tony Tiger and the Frosties alongside Andy White, the Northern Irish singer, songwriter and poet.

Between 1985 and 1988 he worked as Parliamentary Press Officer for Donald Dewar MP, then Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, and for the Scottish Labour group of MPs at Westminster. He stood as the Labour candidate in the Roxburgh and Berwickshire constituency at the UK/1987 General Election.

Today Programme

Between 1988 and 1994, Tim Luckhurst produced, edited and reported from the UK and abroad for BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, covering the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and the First Gulf War. He was the BBC's Washington Producer during the first year of the Clinton presidency and reported on the Waco siege for BBC Radio.

Tim Luckhurst is the author of "This is Today – a Biography of the Today Programme" published in 2001. In January 2002, he wrote about the impending departure of presenter Sue MacGregor:

The organs of Middle England are agog. Sue MacGregor and the late Leonard Rossiter were once an item. Well, strike me down with a Laura Ashley tea cosy! The nation's favourite schoolmistress once had an affair with a funny, charming actor. And, Sir Robin Day lusted after her. Who would have thought it?

The frantic gossip inspired by the imminent publication of MacGregor's autobiography, "Woman of Today", resembles nothing so much as the tittering in a girls' school common-room. Well it just goes to show, doesn't it?

Yes, it does. But precisely what it goes to show requires a slightly more sophisticated analysis than the typecasters appear to realise, and they include most of MacGregor's colleagues at the BBC.

First, the obvious: innocent, demure, otherworldly Sue is bright enough to generate some pre-launch publicity for her book. A luminously clever woman who has been a full-time presenter of Britain's most erudite current-affairs show since 1987 is media-savvy? Astonishing.

Questions about Today

On 2 June 2020, Patrick Haseldine tweeted:

@TCHL With your #BBCR4today background, are you able to confirm the substance of the interview on 11 January 1989 with SA Foreign Minister Pik Botha who attended Lockerbie victim Bernt Carlsson's funeral in Stockholm? (Bernt_Carlsson#Nelson Mandela accused) Grateful for any help you can give.

Tim Luckhurst replied:

I do not recall the interview. The BBC archives keep a complete record. You should request a copy of the relevant edition.

I do not have access to the original interview. A recording exists in the BBC archive. This is the only way to find an authoritative answer.

Haseldine responded:

Many thanks Tim. In April 2007 ex-#WorldInAction journalists John Coates and Laurie Flynn undertook to look in the #BBCR4today archives, but apparently drew a blank. Grateful if you would ask Sue MacGregor if she can help locate the Pik Botha interview.

Luckhurst rejoined:

If it is not in the archive, I fear I cannot help. I have no recollection of this alleged incident and I was at Today at the time.

Haseldine nonetheless asked:

@TCHL Would be most grateful if you could ask Sue MacGregor to help locate this #PikBotha interview (Sue MacGregor#Lockerbie interview). I know that Sir Robin Day used to keep VCRs of all the #bbcqt editions he presented (Robin Day#The Apartheid Question).

Post Today

Returning to the UK Tim Luckhurst became a senior member of the team that designed and launched BBC Radio 5 Live. From 1995 to 1997 he was Editor of News Programmes at BBC Scotland in which role he introduced bi-media working in BBC Scotland newsrooms and thoroughly revised the design and presentation of programmes including Good Morning Scotland, Newsdrive and Reporting Scotland. During his time at the BBC, Luckhurst won two Sony Radio Academy Awards for news broadcasting (The Romanian Revolution 1989 for Radio 4's Today programme and the IRA ceasefire of 1995 for Radio Five Live). Later he reported on the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the fall of Slobodan Milošević for The Scotsman.

Books and publications

Tim Luckhurst is the author of books and chapters including Assessing the Delivery of BBC Radio 5 Live's Public Service Commitments (Abramis Academic 2019) and the essays, "Compromising the First draft?" in Afghanistan, War and the Media: Deadlines and Frontlines, edited by Richard Lance Keeble and John Mair, Bury St, Edmunds: Abramis, 2010; and Dr Hack I presume? Liberal Journalism in the Multimedia Age in Face the Future: Tools for the Modern Media Age, Edited by John Mair and Richard Lance Keeble, Bury St. Edmunds, Abramis, 2011.

He contributed a chapter, "Missing the Target and Spurning the Prize" to the book, The Phone Hacking Scandal: Journalism on Trial (Arima Publishing, 2012) This chapter formed the basis of his submission to the Leveson Inquiry. In March 2014 he co-authored an essay, "Good Behaviour Can be Taught" to British Journalism Review in which he argued that ethical training, not state-sanctioned regulation, is the most appropriate way to promote quality journalism in a democratic society. He is a historian of newspapers and has published academic essays in Contemporary British History, Journalism Studies, Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics and George Orwell Studies.

He has also written about motorcycling and about politics and media for the Independent newspaper, and for The Independent on Sunday. Among other publications he has written for are The Guardian the New Statesman, The New Republic, The Spectator, the British Journalism Review, The Times and The Globe and Mail. Between 2000 and 2007 he was a political columnist for the Scottish Daily Mail. He is a frequent contributor to programmes on LBC Radio, Talksport and BBC Radio. He is a member of the Society of Editors and the National Union of Journalists.

Personal life

In 1989, Luckhurst married Dorothy Williamson. together they have four children: three daughters and one son.

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