Chris Eakin (born c.1961) is a newsreader on the BBC's 24 hour rolling news channel, BBC News. He was one of the channel's launch presenters in 1997, and is a published author.
Contents |
Early life [edit]
He was born in Northern Ireland and lived at Helen's Bay in County Down, then briefly moved to Spain. His father was a civil engineer.
He moved to Heswall when he was 12. He learnt to sail with the Fourth Heswall Sea Scouts,[1] sailing at the West Kirby Marine Lake. He left Calday Grange Grammar School in 1979, which he attended with his two brothers, Michael and Clive.
Career [edit]
Newspapers [edit]
From 1979-83 he was at Wirral Newspapers. From 1983-5 he was a freelance journalist in Cheshire. From 1985-89 he was at the Liverpool Daily Post where he won North West Reporter of the Year.
ITV [edit]
From 1989-90 he worked at Central TV as a journalist.
Look North [edit]
From 1990-97 he was a reporter for Look North at Newcastle upon Tyne. He twice won regional journalist of the year.
BBC News [edit]
Chris presented between 10:30pm to 0:30am on BBC News Channel Monday and Thursday. The first half hour of his shift followed the BBC News at Ten, and contained a review of the following day's front pages and a sport and business update. He has anchored outside news broadcasts from locations including Belgrade, Belfast, Beirut, Buckingham Palace, Tavistock Square in London and numerous UK floods including in Cockermouth, Tewkesbury and Boscastle, Cornwall. Before moving to this shift he anchored from 7pm to 10pm on Monday-Thursday evenings alongside Jane Hill. On 18th March 2013, Chris's late evening shift was taken over by Clive Myrie following the move of BBC News to New Broadcasting House, but has since taken on other shifts.
Publishing [edit]
He wrote the book "A Race Too Far" which describes the 1968 sailing race to be the first person to sail non-stop round the world single-handed.[2]
Personal life [edit]
He is a qualified RYA Yachtmaster Offshore. He lives in London, with his wife, Deborah, who is a GP. His older brother Michael is Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic,[3] and his younger brother Clive works in BBC local radio in Warwickshire,[4] having the Drivetime programme until 2009 and now has a Sunday programme.[5]
He is a sailor and skier and a fan of Creedence Clearwater Revival. He has a 34 foot Hallberg-Rassy yacht.
References [edit]
- ^ Sea Scouts
- ^ "Sail-World.com : A Race Too Far - new story of the 1968 solo race". Retrieved 2010-02-03.
- ^ Michael Eakin
- ^ Clive Eakin
- ^ Clive Eakin
External links [edit]
A portion of the proceeds from advertising on Digplanet goes to supporting Wikipedia.
