Jackie Bird

Jackie Bird (née Macpherson, born 31 July 1962 in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire)[1] is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster, best known as a former anchor of the BBC Scotland national news programme Reporting Scotland.

Jackie Bird
Born
Jackie Macpherson

(1962-07-31) 31 July 1962
Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland
OccupationJournalist and broadcaster
Years active1980 - present

Career

Bird was 17 when she started work for DC Thomson in Dundee working on teenage magazines and eventually became the pop editor at Jackie magazine.[2][3][4] Subsequently she worked as a broadcast journalist on Radio Clyde's news team and then as a food critic for the Glasgow Evening Times.[5] After working as a reporter for The Sun newspaper, Bird joined Television South in Maidstone as a reporter and presenter for the South East edition of regional news programme Coast to Coast.[6]

Bird left TVS to join BBC Scotland, making her debut as a main presenter of Reporting Scotland on Monday 16 October 1989. She has also been a main presenter of key event programming for BBC Scotland, including Hogmanay Live and the Scottish Children in Need opt-outs.

Bird is also a newspaper columnist and has written and produced comedy series The Lewis Lectures and Having it All for BBC Radio Scotland.

On 13 June 2012, she was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D Litt) in a graduation ceremony at the University of Glasgow.[7]

In October 2014, Bird celebrated 25 years of working on Reporting Scotland, as the programme's longest serving presenter.[8]

On 11 April 2019, BBC Scotland announced Bird had left Reporting Scotland after nearly 30 years as a main presenter to concentrate on other projects. Bird presented her final programme the previous evening, without announcing her departure.[9]

Other work

Bird has also toured with Echo & the Bunnymen and worked with Paul Weller.[10]

In November 2016, she appeared as herself in the episode, "Down and Out" in series 7 of Scottish sitcom Still Game.[11] In 2018, Bird made a brief cameo appearance in the zombie Christmas musical film Anna and the Apocalypse.

Personal life

Bird attended Earnock High School in Hamilton, which has since closed following a merger with Blantyre High School.

In 2012 Bird had sections of her small and large intestine removed after suffering a rare bowel condition.[12]

Bird married Robin Weir in 2007. She was previously married to tabloid newspaper editor Bob Bird, with whom she has two children, Claudia and Jacob.[13]

References
  1. . p. 88. ISBN 1841830941. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. Young, Andrew (11 October 1989). "BBC claims victory over Scottish TV". The Glasgow Herald. p. 2. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  3. "Jackie magazine - How a 'teenage bible' defined the 1970s". BBC News. 19 September 2013.
  4. "Jackie Bird interview". The Herald. 17 November 2012.
  5. "Jackie Bird profile". BBC Reporting Scotland. 6 January 2014.
  6. Coast to Coast: 1982 - 1992, Froglets Publications, 1992
  7. "Outstanding leaders in their field to receive honorary degrees" (Press release). University of Glasgow. 12 June 2012.
  8. Sayers, Louise (12 October 2014). "Jackie Bird: Celebrating 25 Years at Reporting Scotland". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  9. Jackie Bird departs Reporting Scotland after 30 years at the helm, bbc.co.uk, 11 April 2019
  10. "After 25 years, the question is..." 15 October 2014 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  11. "Series 7, Episode 6 - Down And Out". comedy.co.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  12. Whitaker, Andrew (12 November 2012). "BBC Scotland presenter Jackie Bird on mend after life-saving surgery". The Scotsman.
  13. "Bird delighted to be making the headlines". The Herald. 24 November 2007.


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