Nick Clarke
Encyclopedia
Nicholas Campbell Clarke (9 June 1948 – 23 November 2006), was an English radio and television presenter and journalist, primarily known for his work on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

.

Clarke was born in 1948 in Godalming, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, and educated at Westbourne House School
Westbourne House School
Westbourne House School is an independent preparatory school 1½ miles east of Chichester, West Sussex, England. It is co-educational and serves around 450 boarding and day-school pupils from ages 3–13. The headmaster is Martin Barker.- History :...

, West Sussex, Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...

, Berkshire and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Fitzwilliam College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in England.The college traces its origins back to 1869 and the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer students from less financially privileged backgrounds a chance to study...

. Following his death, friends from university established the 'Nick Clarke Prize'.

Clarke began his career in newspapers on the Yorkshire Evening Post
Yorkshire Evening Post
The Yorkshire Evening Post is a daily evening publication published by Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

, before joining the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in 1973 as Northern Industrial Correspondent. He then joined The Money Programme
The Money Programme
The Money Programme is a finance and business affairs television programme on BBC2.It was first broadcast on 5 April 1966 and presented by "commentators" William Davis, Erskine Childers and Joe Roeber. At this time David Attenborough was the controller of BBC2...

and eventually joined Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....

in 1984. His first major job in radio was on BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend
The World This Weekend
The World This Weekend was launched on 17 September 1967. It is a weekly news and current affairs programme broadcast from 1pm to 1:30pm on BBC Radio 4 every Sunday, essentially the Sunday version of The World at One....

.
He presented Radio 4's lunchtime news programme, The World at One
The World At One
The World at One, or WATO for short, is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs programme, which is broadcast from 1pm to 1:30pm from Monday to Friday. The programme describes itself as "Britain's leading political programme. With a reputation for rigorous and original...

, from 1994 until his death. During the 1991 Gulf War he was a volunteer presenter on the BBC Radio 4 News FM service. He also presented the Round Britain Quiz
Round Britain Quiz
Round Britain Quiz is a panel game that has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 since 1947, making it the oldest quiz still broadcast on British radio...

, the debate series Straw Poll and Any Questions?
Any Questions?
Any Questions? is a topical debate radio programme in the United Kingdom.-Format:It is broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on Friday evenings and repeated on Saturday afternoons, when it is followed by a phone-in response programme, Any Answers?, previously a postal response slot...



Clarke won the Broadcasting Press Guild
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....

 broadcaster of the year award in 2001. He wrote a biography of the writer and journalist Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke
Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992...

 and a social history of Britain in the second half of the 20th century entitled The Shadow of a Nation: How Celebrity Destroyed Britain.

In December 2005, it was announced that Clarke was suffering from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

  and subsequently had surgery which entailed the loss of his left leg . During this time he documented his experiences with the disease for an audio diary that was broadcast on Radio 4 in June 2006.

Clarke returned to hosting The World at One programme in August 2006, but his last appearance was on 12 September. He died on 23 November 2006 .

In 2007, the BBC created the 'Nick Clarke Award
Nick Clarke Award
The Nick Clarke Award is a journalism prize created by the BBC in honour of Nick Clarke, former presenter of BBC Radio 4's The World At One, who died in November 2006...

' to celebrate and recognise the best broadcast interview of the year, which is awarded annually at the Cheltenham Literature Festival
Cheltenham Literature Festival
The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, a large-scale international festival of literature in the Spa town of Cheltenham, and part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for the Jazz, Music and Science Festivals that run every year....

.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...

, Nick presented a faux World at One for the Quandary Phase alongside Patrick Moore
Patrick Moore
Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS is a British amateur astronomer who has attained prominent status in astronomy as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter of the subject, and who is credited as having done more than any other person to raise the profile of...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK