1. Sir Martyn John Dudley Lewis was born on 7 April 1945 and is a Welsh television news presenter and broadcast journalist who anchored ITN news bulletins between 1978 and 1986 and BBC News television shows from 1986 to 1999.
48 Facts About Martyn Lewis
1. 2.
Martyn Lewis joined ITN in 1970 and headed its Northern Bureau from 1971 to 1978.
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Martyn Lewis joined the BBC in October 1986, presenting the newly formed One O'Clock News before reading the news on the Nine O'Clock News from 1987 to 1994.
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In 1993, Martyn Lewis launched a campaign to have more positive stories included in news bulletins.
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Martyn Lewis is heavily engaged in the charitable and business sectors, serving as a leader and patron of several charities.
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Martyn Lewis was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1997 New Year Honours and was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for his charitable work.
7.
Martyn Lewis was born on 7 April 1945 in Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales.
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Martyn Lewis is the son of the quantity surveyor Thomas John Dudley Lewis, who came from Coleraine in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and his wife Doris, who worked as a nurse.
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Martyn Lewis has a younger sister who was a lecturer in feminist studies.
10.
Martyn Lewis's parents met in Northern Ireland during the Second World War and were married in Belfast.
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Martyn Lewis was educated at the co-educational Dalriada School in Ballymoney in the north of County Antrim, where he was bullied for a term because he was overweight and developed a severe stammer.
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Martyn Lewis overcame his stammer by performing Shakespeare plays and losing weight through circuit exercise and weight lighting.
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Martyn Lewis achieved nine O-levels and four A-levels while excelling in rugby, editing the school magazine and serving as deputy head boy.
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Martyn Lewis joined the Army Cadet Force in Dalriada and became Bisley 22.
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Martyn Lewis was secretary of the university's rugby club but ceased playing the game because of the possibility of sustaining a dental injury.
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Martyn Lewis chaired a sixth formers' interview programme in Northern Ireland.
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Martyn Lewis covered the news from the North of England in an area from the Midlands to the North of Scotland.
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Martyn Lewis visited more than 30 countries on assignment for ITN.
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Martyn Lewis covered the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Independence of the Seychelles, the deposition of the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during the Iranian Revolution, the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, the plight of the Vietnamese boat people, and the Wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
20.
Martyn Lewis was a co-presenter of ITN's United Kingdom general election coverage in 1979 and 1983 and its budget coverage from 1981 to 1984.
21.
Martyn Lewis wrote and produced the Battle for the Falklands video, and he wrote and presented The Secret Hunters documentary for TVS in 1986 about a secret SAS group that killed the Nazis who murdered their soldiers after hunting them for three years after World War II.
22.
Martyn Lewis edited the 1986 two-hour programmes In Private, In Public, which focused on the Prince and Princess of Wales' year.
23.
In October 1986, Martyn Lewis was signed by Michael Grade, to join the BBC as a presenter of BBC News bulletins.
24.
Martyn Lewis was moved by the BBC to be the lead newsreader of the Nine O'Clock News weekday nightly bulletin from October 1987, and began sharing presenting duties of the programme with fellow newsreader Michael Buerk when it switched to a one-presenter format in October 1988.
25.
Martyn Lewis created a modicum of controversy in 1993 when he claimed that television should feature more "good news".
26.
Martyn Lewis subsequently stated that he had been "misunderstood" on the matter.
27.
Martyn Lewis rejected an offer to present BBC Breakfast News but reportedly threatened his resignation from the corporation because he wanted to remain on prime time television.
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Martyn Lewis made multiple documentaries on various topics for the BBC, and was an occasional host of Songs of Praise.
29.
Martyn Lewis broke the news of the outbreak of the Gulf War to the British public in 1991.
30.
Martyn Lewis played a prominent role in the announcement of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on 31 August 1997.
31.
Martyn Lewis was called into the BBC in the early hours of that morning to present short national bulletins during a late night viewing of Borsalino about the car accident in Paris.
32.
Martyn Lewis was almost brought to tears following Prime Minister Tony Blair's "People's Princess" statement.
33.
Martyn Lewis returned to television news in September 2005 to broadcast a special edition of the ITV Evening News with Mary Nightingale as part of the ITN's 50th anniversary celebrations.
34.
Martyn Lewis had a cameo role as a newscaster in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, and was featured in archive footage in the 2006 film The Queen.
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Martyn Lewis was chairman and co-founder of Teliris, one of the first telepresence systems developed.
36.
Martyn Lewis was actively involved in the marketing of this solution through personal contacts, speaking engagements and "Telepresence Times", his vlog launched in 2009.
37.
Martyn Lewis was made a director of the Independent Press Standards Organisation in 2014 and chaired an inquiry into the voluntary sector with regards to executive pay within it.
38.
Martyn Lewis is a vice-president of such charities as Hospice UK, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Macmillan Cancer Support, East Anglia Children's Hospices and Demelza Children's Hospice.
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Martyn Lewis is the president of United Response, a charity that offers support to people with learning disabilities or mental health needs as well as opportunities for those with learning disabilities to find work.
40.
Martyn Lewis founded the youth charity YouthNet in 1995, and stayed as chairman until stepping down in July 2014, though he remains an advisor.
41.
Martyn Lewis is chairman of the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.
42.
In September 2015, it was announced that Martyn Lewis had become the first ambassador of Pennies, a fintech charity that enables charitable micro-donations.
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Martyn Lewis has been a member of the Tidy Britain Committee, and worked with The Prince's Trust youth organisation.
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Martyn Lewis was married to HTV continuity announcer Elizabeth Anne Carse from 20 May 1970 until her death from an advanced type of dementia in 2012.
45.
Martyn Lewis has since remarried to public relations worker Patsy Baker and is stepfather to her three children.
46.
Martyn Lewis holds an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Ulster University.
47.
Martyn Lewis is a Freeman of the City of London and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
48.
Martyn Lewis is a member of the Garrick Club and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.