John Suchet - Career

Career

Suchet began his career in journalism in 1967, when he was taken on as a graduate trainee by Reuters news agency. During that year he learned the rudiments of straightforward, unbiased news editing and reporting, under the tutelage of John Fawcus and Anton Wills-Eve.

He was on the Middle East desk at the time of the six days war in June that year, an event that taught him how to edit his copy that was fast, accurate and acceptable to newspapers in both Israel and the Arab world. This objective attitude towards journalism never left him.

Suchet is most famous for being a newsreader for ITV News from 1972 until 2004. During this time, he presented News at 12.30 / News at One and News at Ten, but became best known for presenting the Early Evening News between late 1991 (when it was introduced to replace the News At 5:40) and 1999 when the bulletin was dropped. Initially, he alternated with Carol Barnes as the regular presenter of the Early Evening News, but by 1994 he had become the sole main host and thereafter replaced predecessors Michael Nicholson and Alastair Stewart as "the face of the evening news".

He also anchored or contributed to countless special event programmes, including royal occasions (he was one of the main commentators on ITN's coverage of Princess Diana's funeral), the Budget and ITN's election coverage. He was voted fifth scariest TV and radio celebrity in the Radio Times poll.

He retired from ITN in March 2004 to work on his autobiography then made a return to TV news, presenting Five News, initially for a six-month period from March 2006, then extended to Christmas 2007.

Suchet has also been a guest presenter for ITV's This Morning, as well as being a guest panellist on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff. He hosted the revival of the quiz show Going for Gold on Channel 5 and later Wordplay also on Channel 5.

On 20 February 2008, Suchet along with Alan Johnson were recognised by the Royal Television Society Television Journalism for the achievements thoroughout their careers. Suchet was recoginsed for his live coverage of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales and the undercover reporting in Afghanistan.

In July 2009, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the NASA moon landings, ITN produced five special 10-minute programmes for ITV titled Mission to the Moon – News from 1969. Suchet, a former ITN newscaster, was the presenter of these specials. The first aired at 22:35 on ITV on Wednesday 15 July and ran across the following Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday evenings.

In July 2010, Suchet joined Classic FM as the regular host of the Sunday lunchtime music show (12:00-15:00). He first appeared on the station in 2004 as guest presenter of the Composer's Notes series in which he examined the finances and wealth of famous composers. In September 2010 it was announced that he would be presenting the Classic FM weekday morning show from January 2011, taking over from the show's previous host Simon Bates.

John Suchet is a fan of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven and has become one of the UK's leading experts on the composer and his works, publishing five books about the composer.