Nick Ross - Early life, Career, Away from broadcasting

Broadcaster and journalist, born in London, England, UK. He studied at Queen's University, Belfast, and joined the BBC in Northern Ireland in 1971. Moving to London, he became a reporter on such programmes as World At One, Today, and Newsdesk, becoming nationally known for his investigative reporting in Call Nick Ross (from 1987). He has also presented a wide range of news and discussion television programmes, notably Crimewatch UK (from 1984) and Westminster with Nick Ross (from 1994). He has also been much involved in work on social issues, such as medical ethics, crime, and road safety.

Nick Ross (born in London on 7 August 1947) is a presenter of the BBC TV show Crimewatch UK.

Early life

Raised in Surrey, south of London, Ross went to Wallington County Grammar School, and then read psychology at Queen's University Belfast.

Career

Nick Ross presented British radio programmes such as the BBC's World at One, PM and The World Tonight, and moved to TV in 1979 as a reporter for Man Alive on BBC2.

Crimewatch made him a household name in the UK and around the same time his celebrity status was enlarged when he presented Britain's first daily breakfast TV programme, Breakfast Time on BBC1, with Frank Bough and Selina Scott. He was poached to start a new 6 p.m. news programme, which proved an unwieldy format but was the BBC's first attempt to unite its news division with current affairs programmers.

In 1989 he was asked to start a phone-in for BBC Radio 4, Call Nick Ross, and he transformed the genre by attracting politicians and others at the centre of news events as well as ordinary listeners so that the programme put callers directly in touch with the people who mattered.

He was poached to Channel 4 for a time to present A Week in Politics, and then moved to cover the BBC's live broadcasts of parliament in Westminster with Nick Ross. (At one stage in the 1990s he was often doing three mainstream live programmes a day such as Call Nick Ross, Westminster with Nick Ross and Crimewatch.) As one of the star BBC presenters he was used widely in a variety of formats including quizzes, chat shows, travel programmes and debates, but he was most at home in live studios, often orchestrating large-scale debates.

His co-presenter, Jill Dando, was murdered in 1999 and Nick Ross started a campaign to commemorate her, culminating in the establishment of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at University College London.

Away from broadcasting

He has a large range of outside interests mostly centered on ethics (notably medical ethics), promoting science and evidence-led healthcare, crime prevention, road safety and fire safety, and he has had a role on several government committees and the UK's main bioethics think-tank (the Nuffield Council on Bioethics).