30 Facts About Moira Stuart

Moira Stuart was the first female newsreader of Caribbean heritage to appear on British national television, having worked on BBC News since 1981.

Moira Stuart hosted on the station her own music show every Sunday from 23:00 till midnight, featuring "timeless classics" from the past 60 years.

Moira Stuart has received several awards during her career, including being appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2001 for services to broadcasting, and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for services to media.

Moira Stuart was born at the Royal Free Hospital in London, on 2 September 1949, to Caribbean parents.

Moira Stuart has two sisters, Sandra Simmons and Sharon Davis-Murdoch.

Moira Stuart was educated in London until she was 13, attending Our Lady's Catholic High School, Stamford Hill.

Moira Stuart then moved with her family to Bermuda for a time, returning at the age of 15 to London, where she attended college.

Moira Stuart began working with the BBC in the 1970s and was a production assistant in the Radio Talks and Documentaries department.

Moira Stuart was a continuity announcer and newsreader for both BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 2, reading her first Radio 4 news bulletin in 1978, and in 1980 she played Darong in series one of game show The Adventure Game.

Moira Stuart moved to television news in 1981, when she co-presented News After Noon.

Moira Stuart is acknowledged as having been the UK's first female African-Caribbean television newsreader.

Moira Stuart has appeared on The News Quiz and presented the news on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme each Sunday and its successor programme Sunday AM with Andrew Marr.

Moira Stuart retained her slot on BBC's Sunday AM show and continued to present some weekend television bulletins on BBC One.

Moira Stuart worked on other long-form programmes for other BBC channels, including BBC Four.

Moira Stuart has always been a model professionalas well as being much loved and admired by both the public and her BBC colleagues.

The BBC initially declined to comment on why she was no longer being used, but rumours circulated within the BBC and commercial newsrooms that Moira Stuart had been removed because she was considered "too old" at 57, although Anna Ford had continued anchoring the BBC One O'Clock News until her retirement at 62.

Many people came to believe that Moira Stuart left for reasons of ageism, or other -isms.

On 21 November 2009, it was reported in The Guardian that Chris Evans was "lining up" Moira Stuart to read the news bulletins on his new BBC Radio 2 show from January 2010, when he was due to inherit the slot from Terry Wogan.

Moira Stuart presented her last bulletins for the show on 14 December 2018.

Moira Stuart, who described the move as "a wonderful opportunity to take a whole new journey, with people I really like and admire", made her debut on Classic FM on 11 February 2019.

Moira Stuart has served on various boards and judging panels including Amnesty International, the Royal Television Society, BAFTA, United Nations Association, the Orange Prize, the London Fair Play Consortium, the Human Genetics Commission, the Queen's Anniversary Prize, and the Grierson Trust.

Moira Stuart was a judge for the Orange Prize in 2005, when the winner was Lionel Shriver with We Need to Talk About Kevin.

In 2006, Moira Stuart played a comic version of herself in the Ricky Gervais television comedy Extras, supposedly involved in supplying drugs to Ronnie Corbett.

In March 2014, Moira Stuart began hosting the Sunday late-night BBC Radio 2 programme Music Until Midnight, a slot that previously broadcast David Jacobs' long-running Easy listening programme until 2013.

Moira Stuart has presented music documentary series for Radio 2, including Strong and Sassy - Inspiring Women of Jazz and Jazz Guitar Greats.

In November 2022, Moira Stuart appeared as a guest presenter on Countdown, as part of the show's 40th birthday celebrations.

Moira Stuart's mother Marjorie Gordon, who was born in Dominica, and her father Harold Stuart, a Barbadian lawyer, divorced when Stuart was ten months old.

Moira Stuart's uncle was the singer Ken Gordon, who was a member, with George Browne, of the vocal trio Three Just Men.

Moira Stuart's cousin is the Ghana-born publisher and editor Margaret Busby.

Moira Stuart was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2001 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to media.