12 Facts About Gordon Burns

Gordon Henry Burns was born on 10 June 1942 and is a retired Northern Irish journalist and broadcaster.

Gordon Burns was the host of The Krypton Factor for its original 18-year run and was the chief anchorman for the BBC regional news programme North West Tonight from January 1997 to October 2011.

The family then returned to live at Belfast's Belmont Road, where Gordon Burns attended Campbell College.

Gordon Burns began his journalism career working on the Belfast Telegraph and worked on BBC radio's long-running Sports Report before joining Ulster Television as a sports editor and programme producer in 1967.

Two years later, Gordon Burns began presenting the nightly news programme UTV Reports, first as a stand-in for regular frontman David Mahlowe and later as a chief anchor, during the early stages of The Troubles.

In 1973, Gordon Burns joined Granada Television to anchor their nightly news programme Granada Reports and to work on the station's current affairs output, including World in Action.

Gordon Burns was the presenter of Password for Ulster Television, one of that company's few programmes to be shown throughout the ITV network, and hosted a Searchline segment in several series of LWT's Surprise Surprise.

Gordon Burns has appeared as a guest on Noel's House Party, and on Shooting Stars as a member of Ulrika Jonsson's team.

From 1997 to 2011, Gordon Burns presented North West Tonight, alongside its shorter lunchtime version, North West Today.

Gordon Burns announced in April 2011 that he would be retiring from the role but would move on to present a Sunday morning show on BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio Lancashire in September 2011, with his last TV bulletin broadcast on 30 September.

Gordon Burns appears as a guest on the show when The Chain reaches a significant milestone, for example, for the 5,000th item on 3 March 2015 which was the single "Dancing Queen" by ABBA.

In 2013, Gordon Burns retired properly after stepping down from his radio show.