53 Facts About Andrew Marr

Andrew William Stevenson Marr was born on 31 July 1959 and is a British journalist and broadcaster.

In 2002, Marr took over as host of BBC Radio 4's long-running Start the Week Monday morning discussion programme.

Andrew Marr returned to presenting The Andrew Marr Show in September 2013.

Andrew Marr was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 31 July 1959 to Donald Andrew Marr, an investment trust manager, and his wife Valerie.

Andrew Marr was educated in Scotland at Craigflower Preparatory School, the independent High School of Dundee; and at Loretto School, a private school in Musselburgh, East Lothian, where he was a member of Pinkie House and a prefect.

Andrew Marr went to read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating with a first class honours degree.

Andrew Marr's affinity for Maoism continued into his time at Cambridge, where Marr says he was a "raving leftie" who acquired the nickname "Red Andy".

Andrew Marr joined The Scotsman as a trainee and junior business reporter in 1981.

Andrew Marr met the political journalist Anthony Bevins, who became his mentor and close friend.

Andrew Marr left shortly afterwards, and joined The Economist, where he contributed to the weekly "Bagehot" political column and ultimately became the magazine's political editor in 1988.

Andrew Marr has remarked that his time at The Economist "changed me quite a lot" and "made me question a lot of my assumptions".

Andrew Marr returned to The Independent as the newspaper's political editor in 1992, and became its editor in 1996 during a particularly turbulent time at the paper.

Andrew Marr made use of bold 'poster-style' front pages, and then in 1996 radically re-designed the paper along a mainland European model, with Gill Sans headline fonts, and stories being grouped together by subject matter, rather than according to strict news value.

At the beginning of 1998, Andrew Marr was sacked, according to one version of events, for having refused to reduce the newspaper's production staff to just five subeditors.

O'Reilly, who had a high regard for Andrew Marr, asked him to collaborate as co-editor with Rosie Boycott, in an arrangement whereby Andrew Marr would edit the comment pages, and Boycott would have overall control of the news pages.

Simon Kelner, who had worked on the paper when it was first launched, accepted the editorship and asked Andrew Marr to stay on as a political columnist.

Andrew Marr was then a columnist for the Daily Express and The Observer.

Andrew Marr presented a three-part television series shown on BBC Two from 31 January to 2 February 2000 after Newsnight.

Andrew Marr was appointed as the BBC's political editor in May 2000.

Andrew Marr made cameo appearances in the Doctor Who episodes "Aliens of London" and "World War Three".

Andrew Marr announced in 2005 that following the 2005 general election, he would step down as political editor to spend more time with his family.

Andrew Marr was succeeded as political editor by Nick Robinson.

In September 2005, he moved to a new role presenting the BBC's Sunday morning flagship news programme Sunday AM, known as The Andrew Marr Show since September 2007; the slot was previously filled by Breakfast with Frost and hosted by Sir David Frost.

Andrew Marr presented the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week until his illness in 2013, and he returned as the programme's regular host until he left the BBC.

Andrew Marr presented the series of five one-hour documentaries chronicling the history of Britain from 1945 to 2007.

Damages were paid to Pizzey and Andrew Marr's book was republished with the error removed.

In late 2009, BBC Two broadcast his six-part television series on British politics in the first half of the 20th century Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain.

In September 2009 on the Sunday before the Labour Party conference in Brighton, Andrew Marr interviewed Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Towards the end of the interview, Andrew Marr told Brown he wanted to ask about:.

In 2010, Marr presented a series, Andrew Marr's Megacities, examining the life, development and challenges of some of the largest cities in the world.

In early 2012, Andrew Marr presented The Diamond Queen, a three-part TV series on BBC One looking at the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II in the run-up to the main celebrations of her Diamond Jubilee.

BBC management ruled that Andrew Marr breached editorial guidelines, that the statement lacked any evidence and "risked misleading audiences on a material point".

Andrew Marr portrayed himself in the 2018 BBC series Bodyguard, interviewing Keeley Hawes' character Julie Montague, and wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian about his decision to do so.

On 1 December 2019, Andrew Marr interviewed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and discussed Islamic terrorist Usman Khan, perpetrator of the 2019 London Bridge stabbing.

Andrew Marr claimed the government had done nothing since 2010 to tighten the rules on sentencing for terrorist offences, implying that Johnson could have stopped Khan's early release.

The BBC Editorial Complaints Unit therefore found that Andrew Marr had misled viewers on two counts.

Andrew Marr said, "Coming to Global gives me a new freedom to do fast-paced very regular political journalism on LBC with no filter in entirely my own voice".

Andrew Marr has written about the need to remain impartial and "studiously neutral" whilst delivering news reports and "convey fact, and nothing more".

At an October 2006, BBC seminar discussing impartiality, Andrew Marr highlighted alleged bias within the BBC.

In March 2014, Andrew Marr was criticised for allegedly expressing his own opinion on an independent Scotland's membership of the EU while interviewing Scottish politician Alex Salmond on BBC Television.

Andrew Marr has helped support Sense, the National Deafblind and Rubella Association, and was the face of a Sense direct marketing appeal.

Andrew Marr was President of the Galapagos Conservation Trust until 2013.

In 2007 and 2014, Andrew Marr supported the charity iDE UK in the BBC Radio 4 Appeal and subsequently became a patron.

Andrew Marr's novels include Head of State and Children of the Master.

Andrew Marr is a daughter of the Labour life peer, Lord Ashley of Stoke.

On 8 January 2013, Andrew Marr was taken to hospital after suffering a stroke at home.

Andrew Marr appeared as a guest on The Andrew Marr Show on 14 April and returned twice to interview David Miliband and the prime minister, David Cameron, before it was announced that he would return to presenting the show on 1 September 2013.

In May 2018, Andrew Marr went into hospital for an operation to deal with a malignant tumour on his kidney.

On 28 June 2008, Richard Ingrams reported in The Independent that Andrew Marr had been granted a High Court "super-injunction" preventing disclosure in the media of "private" information, or the existence of the injunction.

On 26 April 2011, following legal action by Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, an interview with Andrew Marr was published in the Daily Mail, in which he revealed that the super-injunction had covered the reporting of an extra-marital affair with a female journalist.

Andrew Marr was considered for honorary membership of The Coterie for 2007.

Andrew Marr has received two British Academy Television Awards: the Richard Dimbleby Award at the 2004 ceremony and the award for Best Specialist Factual Programme at the 2008 ceremony.

Andrew Marr was awarded an honorary doctorate from Staffordshire University in 2009.