Carol Barnes - Career

Career

Carol Barnes started her working life as a supply teacher, but decided to switch to a career in media, and held various posts including public relations officer for the Royal Court Theatre in London and sub-editor on the magazine Time Out, before moving into broadcasting, working for Independent Radio News. She was one of the original news team members at the launch of radio station LBC in 1973, and then worked as a reporter for BBC Radio 4 for a year, before joining ITN in 1975. During her time as an ITN reporter, she covered the troubles in Northern Ireland, the return of the Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, and the Brixton riots in 1981. She made her name as a reporter with ITN on Robert Kee's First Report programme in the late 1970s, but her first stint as a newscaster came in March 1980 when she began alternating with Michael Nicholson as presenter on the News at 5:45. She was a regular presenter on the ITN Lunchtime News and ITN's weekend news bulletins from July 1985 until March 1989, and again between January 1991 and 1998. During the intervening period, she was the launch presenter of the 'Channel 4 Daily' breakfast programme. She regularly fronted the ITN flagship News At Ten programme, as well as other current affairs programmes, and in 1994 was voted Newscaster of the Year at the TV and Radio Industries Club Awards. Barnes left ITN in 1999, and then returned in 2003 to work on their short-lived 24-hour ITV News Channel, until she left in 2004.