Sophie Raworth
Encyclopedia
Sophie Jane Raworth is an English
newsreader
and journalist
who works for British broadcaster the BBC
. She is the main presenter of the BBC News at One, presenting Tuesday to Friday, and regularly appears on the BBC News at Six and occasionally on BBC News at Ten.
to a florist mother and a businessman father, Raworth was brought up in Twickenham
, south west London and attended the independent Putney High School
and St Paul's Girls' School
in Hammersmith
. After completing a degree in French
and German
at the University of Manchester
, Raworth spent a year teaching English
to teenagers in Toulouse
before studying for a postgraduate course in broadcasting and journalism at City University London.
in 1992 as a news reporter, first for Greater Manchester Radio and then as BBC Regions correspondent in Brussels
in April 1994. In May 1995, she became the regular joint presenter of BBC's Look North
programme in Leeds
, moving to BBC Breakfast News in 1997.
She then joined the BBC's early morning news programme Breakfast
at its launch in 2000, which she presented alongside Jeremy Bowen
on Monday–Thursdays. She then moved to the BBC Six O'Clock News in January 2003 which she presented alongside George Alagiah
; she was a presenter on this bulletin until October 2005 when she went on maternity leave, and was replaced by Natasha Kaplinsky
. In March 2006 Raworth was named as the main presenter of the BBC News at One, replacing Anna Ford
on Monday-Thursdays. She took up the position in June 2006 after returning from maternity leave. She also can occasionally be seen presenting relief shifts on the rolling news channel BBC News channel.
Raworth has presented several BBC specials, including coverage of the Queen's Golden Jubilee and Our Monarchy - the Next 50 Years, both alongside David Dimbleby
. In addition, she has appeared on Tomorrow's World
and entertainment programmes such as Dream Lives and the Judgemental quiz-show in autumn 2002.
In 2004 Raworth appeared on the BBC fashion show What Not to Wear, in which she was given a makeover by style advisors Trinny Woodall
and Susannah Constantine
. In 2006 she was part of the television coverage of the Children's Party at the Palace
, an event to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday. Along with Huw Edwards
, she presented some fake news updates for the programme, which led to many complaints from viewers. Raworth had a cameo role as a newsreader in the last series of the BBC comedy series My Hero.
In August 2007, it was reported by The Guardian
that with the departure of Kirsty Young
from Five News
, the broadcaster was on the lookout for a big name to replace her; Raworth was seen as a possibility. However, another BBC newsreader, Natasha Kaplinsky
was recruited.
At the end of the One O'Clock News on 31 January 2008, she announced that she would be leaving the programme until the summer, and confirmed Kate Silverton
as presenting the bulletin during her absence. Raworth returned on 25 August 2008, after the birth of her third child, with the presentation of the Bank Holiday edition of the BBC News at One, BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten. Raworth ran The Great North Run on 5 October 2008.
Since early 2009, Raworth has been a regular relief presenter on the BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten, often presenting when regular presenters Huw Edwards
, Fiona Bruce
and George Alagiah
aren't available. She has also appeared in place of Andrew Marr
on The Andrew Marr Show, and presented on the BBC News Channel (formerly known as BBC News 24).
In May 2009 she presented 'The Trouble with Working Women' with reporter and father-of-three Justin Rowlatt on the BBC. The programme looked at the role of the working woman. In 2009, she presented Crimewatch Roadshow on BBC1 on weekday mornings.
On 17 April 2011 she completed the London Marathon
despite collapsing two miles from the finish line.
Richard Winter of Savills
in Hammersmith and Fulham
, London, in December 2003, after he proposed to her on the Amalfi Coast
. The couple have two daughters, both born in Kensington and Chelsea
, London: Ella Rose (born 2004) and Georgia Grace (born late 2005 / early 2006) and a son Oliver (born March 2008); they live in west London.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
newsreader
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...
and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
who works for British broadcaster 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...
. She is the main presenter of the BBC News at One, presenting Tuesday to Friday, and regularly appears on the BBC News at Six and occasionally on BBC News at Ten.
Early life
Born in SurreySurrey
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...
to a florist mother and a businessman father, Raworth was brought up in Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
, south west London and attended the independent Putney High School
Putney High School
Putney High School is an independent all-girls school in Putney, London. It is run by the Girls' Day School Trust, a union of 26 schools with 19,500 students and 3,500 staff.-Location and information:...
and St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School is a senior independent school, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England.-History:In 1904 a new day school for girls was established by the trustees of the Dean Colet Foundation , which had run St Paul's School for boys since the sixteenth century...
in Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
. After completing a degree in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
, Raworth spent a year teaching English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to teenagers in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
before studying for a postgraduate course in broadcasting and journalism at City University London.
Career
Raworth joined the BBCBBC
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 1992 as a news reporter, first for Greater Manchester Radio and then as BBC Regions correspondent in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
in April 1994. In May 1995, she became the regular joint presenter of BBC's Look North
BBC Look North (Yorkshire and North Midlands)
BBC Look North is the BBC's regional television news service for West & South Yorkshire, parts of North Yorkshire and the North Midlands. The programmes as produced and broadcast from the BBC Broadcasting Centre at St...
programme in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, moving to BBC Breakfast News in 1997.
She then joined the BBC's early morning news programme Breakfast
BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast is the morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. It is presented live from BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items...
at its launch in 2000, which she presented alongside Jeremy Bowen
Jeremy Bowen
Jeremy Francis John Bowen is a Welsh journalist and television presenter. He was the BBC's Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem between 1995 and 2000, and has been its Middle East Editor since 2005.-Background:...
on Monday–Thursdays. She then moved to the BBC Six O'Clock News in January 2003 which she presented alongside George Alagiah
George Alagiah
George Maxwell Alagiah OBE is a British newsreader, journalist and television news presenter.Since 3 December 2007, he has been the sole presenter of the BBC News at Six and has also been the main presenter of GMT on BBC World News since its launch on 1 February 2010...
; she was a presenter on this bulletin until October 2005 when she went on maternity leave, and was replaced by Natasha Kaplinsky
Natasha Kaplinsky
Natasha Margaret Kaplinsky is a British newsreader and television presenter, currently employed by ITV having previously worked for Channel 5, Sky News and the BBC...
. In March 2006 Raworth was named as the main presenter of the BBC News at One, replacing Anna Ford
Anna Ford
Anna Ford is a retired English journalist and television presenter, best known as a newsreader....
on Monday-Thursdays. She took up the position in June 2006 after returning from maternity leave. She also can occasionally be seen presenting relief shifts on the rolling news channel BBC News channel.
Raworth has presented several BBC specials, including coverage of the Queen's Golden Jubilee and Our Monarchy - the Next 50 Years, both alongside David Dimbleby
David Dimbleby
David Dimbleby is a British BBC TV commentator and a presenter of current affairs and political programmes, most notably the BBC's flagship political show Question Time, and more recently, art, architectural history and history series...
. In addition, she has appeared on Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World
Tomorrow's World was a long-running BBC television series, showcasing new developments in the world of science and technology. First aired on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003.- Content :...
and entertainment programmes such as Dream Lives and the Judgemental quiz-show in autumn 2002.
In 2004 Raworth appeared on the BBC fashion show What Not to Wear, in which she was given a makeover by style advisors Trinny Woodall
Trinny Woodall
Trinny Woodall is an English fashion advisor and designer, television presenter and author. She was raised in a wealthy family and was privately educated...
and Susannah Constantine
Susannah Constantine
Susannah Caroline Constantine is an English fashion journalist, advisor, television presenter, author and designer. Her second book, entitled What Not to Wear, has won her a prestigious British Book Award and sold 670,000 copies....
. In 2006 she was part of the television coverage of the Children's Party at the Palace
Children's Party at the Palace
The Children's Party at the Palace was an event organized by Peter Orton of Hit Entertainment and David Johnstone of DJI consult, held at Buckingham Palace Garden on 25 June 2006 in honour of the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. The event, which had the theme British children's literature, was...
, an event to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday. Along with Huw Edwards
Huw Edwards (journalist)
Huw Edwards is a BAFTA award-winning Welsh journalist, presenter and newsreader.He is a news presenter for BBC News in the United Kingdom. Edwards presents Britain's most watched news programme, BBC News at Ten, which is also the corporation's flagship news broadcast...
, she presented some fake news updates for the programme, which led to many complaints from viewers. Raworth had a cameo role as a newsreader in the last series of the BBC comedy series My Hero.
In August 2007, it was reported by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
that with the departure of Kirsty Young
Kirsty Young
Kirsty Jackson Young is a Scottish television presenter and radio presenter. She is the main presenter of Crimewatch and Desert Island Discs. She is married to millionaire club owner Nick Jones.- Career :...
from Five News
Five News
5 News is the news programme of British broadcaster Channel 5, produced by Sky News. From 1 January 2005, Sky News was awarded the contract to provide the news for Channel 5, replacing ITN, which had provided the channel's news service from the channel's launch in 1997...
, the broadcaster was on the lookout for a big name to replace her; Raworth was seen as a possibility. However, another BBC newsreader, Natasha Kaplinsky
Natasha Kaplinsky
Natasha Margaret Kaplinsky is a British newsreader and television presenter, currently employed by ITV having previously worked for Channel 5, Sky News and the BBC...
was recruited.
At the end of the One O'Clock News on 31 January 2008, she announced that she would be leaving the programme until the summer, and confirmed Kate Silverton
Kate Silverton
Kate Silverton is an English journalist, currently employed by the BBC.- Early life and education :Silverton was born in Essex, England, the daughter of English parents; Terry Silverton, a black-cab driver turned registered hypnotherapist and Patricia Silverton, who now heads her daughter's...
as presenting the bulletin during her absence. Raworth returned on 25 August 2008, after the birth of her third child, with the presentation of the Bank Holiday edition of the BBC News at One, BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten. Raworth ran The Great North Run on 5 October 2008.
Since early 2009, Raworth has been a regular relief presenter on the BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten, often presenting when regular presenters Huw Edwards
Huw Edwards (journalist)
Huw Edwards is a BAFTA award-winning Welsh journalist, presenter and newsreader.He is a news presenter for BBC News in the United Kingdom. Edwards presents Britain's most watched news programme, BBC News at Ten, which is also the corporation's flagship news broadcast...
, Fiona Bruce
Fiona Bruce
Fiona Elizabeth Bruce is a British journalist, newsreader and television presenter. Since joining the BBC in 1989, she has gone on to present many flagship programmes for the corporation including the BBC News at Six, BBC News at Ten, Crimewatch, Call My Bluff and, most recently, Antiques Roadshow...
and George Alagiah
George Alagiah
George Maxwell Alagiah OBE is a British newsreader, journalist and television news presenter.Since 3 December 2007, he has been the sole presenter of the BBC News at Six and has also been the main presenter of GMT on BBC World News since its launch on 1 February 2010...
aren't available. She has also appeared in place of Andrew Marr
Andrew Marr
Andrew William Stevenson Marr is a Scottish journalist and political commentator. He edited The Independent for two years until May 1998, and was political editor of BBC News from 2000 until 2005....
on The Andrew Marr Show, and presented on the BBC News Channel (formerly known as BBC News 24).
In May 2009 she presented 'The Trouble with Working Women' with reporter and father-of-three Justin Rowlatt on the BBC. The programme looked at the role of the working woman. In 2009, she presented Crimewatch Roadshow on BBC1 on weekday mornings.
On 17 April 2011 she completed the London Marathon
London Marathon
The London Marathon is one of the biggest running events in the world, and one of the five top world marathons that make up the World Marathon Majors competition, which has a $1 million prize purse. It has been held each spring in London since 1981. The race is currently sponsored by Virgin Money,...
despite collapsing two miles from the finish line.
Personal life
Raworth married her old friend, estate agentEstate agent
An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting or management of properties, and other buildings, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent...
Richard Winter of Savills
Savills
Savills plc is a global real estate services provider listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. They have an international network of more than 200 offices and associates throughout the Americas, the UK, continental Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle...
in Hammersmith and Fulham
London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham is a London borough in West London, and forms part of Inner London. Traversed by the east-west main roads of the A4 Great West Road and the A40 Westway, many international corporations have offices in the borough....
, London, in December 2003, after he proposed to her on the Amalfi Coast
Amalfi Coast
-In popular culture:The Amalfi Coast is a popular destination among tourists. It was featured in "Positano," a short story written by American author John Steinbeck in 1953...
. The couple have two daughters, both born in Kensington and Chelsea
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a central London borough of Royal borough status. After the City of Westminster, it is the wealthiest borough in England....
, London: Ella Rose (born 2004) and Georgia Grace (born late 2005 / early 2006) and a son Oliver (born March 2008); they live in west London.
External links
- BBC News Profile of Sophie Raworth
- Sophie Raworth Profile TV Newsroom
- Telegraph article April 2005
- Raworth Steps in for Ford