Anna Ford - Career, Away from the newsdesk, Personal life

Broadcaster, born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, SWC England, UK. She studied at Manchester University, then worked in further education as a lecturer and tutor. She joined Granada TV as a presenter and reporter (1974–6), then moved to the BBC, where her programmes included Man Alive (1976–7) and Tomorrow's World (1977–8). Joining ITN as a newscaster (1978–80), she helped to present TV am (1980–2), worked as a freelance broadcaster and writer, and (from 1989) with BBC news and current affairs, retiring in 2006.

Anna Ford (born 2 October 1943 in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire) is a retired British television presenter.

During her long and distinguished career, she initially worked as a researcher, news reporter and later news reader for Granada Television, the BBC, became the first female newsreader on ITN, and helped launch the first British Breakfast television program TV-am.

Career

Anna Ford's parents were both West End actors, with her father having declined an offer from Samuel Goldwyn to work in Hollywood.

Ford studied Economics at the Victoria University of Manchester and was president of the students' union in 1966. After a failed marriage and a spell as an Open University tutor, Anna Ford was 30 by the time she joined Granada Television as a researcher in 1974, being told she was too old to be a newsreader She joined the BBC in 1976, and worked on Tomorrow's World in 1977.

In 1978 she moved to ITN, becoming the network's first female newsreader. 18 nights with Anna Ford

Ford helped ITN to launch TV-am in 1981, with its original high-brow "mission to explain".

She rejoined the BBC in 1986, becoming part of the presentation team for both BBC One's Six O'Clock News and the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in 1989.

On October 30, 2005, Ford announced her plans to retire from broadcasting in April 2006 in order to pursue other interests while she still has the interest and energy She also talked tough on ageism, stating: I might have been shovelled off into News 24 to the sort of graveyard shift, and I wouldn't have wanted to do that because it wouldn't have interested me.

On 2 May 2006, J Sainsbury plc, the UK supermarket group, announced Ford was joining the company as a non-executive director.

Away from the newsdesk

Ford was always a thoroughly professional newsreader, thought of as both male fantasy and feminist icon, with Sir Robin Day once commenting that: all men wanted to sleep with Anna Ford - even though Ford's feisty personality and pleasure in speaking her mind had meant Ford had previously pushed him into a bush. Her love of academic study, and writing the book Men - a documentary in 1985 have given her a prim and aloof reputation

Entertainment

Ford, under her newsreader image, has always had a sense of theatre, fun and self-humour. You may as well have fun.

She turned down the chance of a part in the film Chariots of Fire, but in 1983 her duet with Noddy Holder, a cover version of the Shakin' Stevens hit "You Drive Me Crazy", reached number 37 in the UK pop charts ( ). In December 2005 she was a guest presenter of Have I Got News For You - even though team captain Ian Hislop's publication Private Eye had appraised her as a 'talented autocue reader' on her retirement

Her biggest regret is having turned down repeated invitations to appear on the Morecambe and Wise Show

Academia

On 17 December 2001 she was installed as Chancellor of the Victoria University of Manchester. Her work was praised by the Dean of Arts, in both her broadcasting and academic career

Personal life

Ford had an early marriage dissolve before her television career, and in the late 1970's she was briefly engaged to TV news anchorman, Jon Snow She married cartoonist Mark Boxer, with whom she had two daughters Claire and Kate, before he died of a brain tumour in 1988 at their home in Brighton, East Sussex. In September 1999 she was involved in an incident when a man smashed his way into the BBC newsroom at White City, while in 2000 a stalker, later jailed, turned up at Ford's home at Brentford.

She was then briefly engaged in 2003 to former Astronaut David Scott, with whom she was photographed.