1. Susan Lawley was born on 14 July 1946 and is a retired English television and radio broadcaster.
22 Facts About Sue Lawley
1. 2.
Sue Lawley's main broadcasting background involved television news and current affairs.
3.
From 1988 to 2006, Sue Lawley was the presenter of Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.
4.
Sue Lawley was born at Sedgley, near Dudley, in July 1946, and was a pupil at Dudley Girls High School.
5.
Sue Lawley studied modern languages at the University of Bristol, where she dropped her Dudley accent in favour of received pronunciation.
6.
Sue Lawley began her professional career as a trainee reporter on the Western Mail and South Wales Echo between 1967 and 1970, during which time she shared a house in Cardiff with Michael Buerk.
7.
Sue Lawley then moved to BBC Plymouth as a subeditor and freelance reporter from 1970 until 1972.
8.
Sue Lawley appeared on the show until 1975, when she was offered the main anchor role on the nightly news show Tonight.
9.
In 1974, Sue Lawley was part of the BBC's Election Team for the October general election and in 1979 she anchored the morning election results show the day after the general election night broadcast.
10.
Sue Lawley left Tonight on maternity leave in 1978, being replaced by Valerie Singleton, and after her maternity leave, rejoined Nationwide as one of the two main anchors, alongside Frank Bough.
11.
Sue Lawley remained with the show until it came to an end in 1983.
12.
When Robin Day suffered a heart attack, Sue Lawley sat in for him as the chair of the topical discussion programme Question Time for several editions, many years before Fiona Bruce became the first female full-time presenter of the show.
13.
In September 1984 Sue Lawley become the lead anchor of the newly-launched Six O'Clock News.
14.
Sue Lawley was praised after a broadcast on 23 May 1988, when the studio was invaded by protesters opposed to Section 28: she continued to read the news whilst co-presenter Nicholas Witchell restrained one of them.
15.
In 1989, the BBC launched Lawley in her own Saturday night talk show titled Saturday Matters with Sue Lawley, which was received badly by critics and was cancelled after one series.
16.
Sue Lawley later left the BBC to work for ITV, but did little work for them, other than an occasional series of high-profile interviews, which included the Prime Minister, John Major.
17.
Sue Lawley returned to BBC1 in 1993 to host the show Biteback.
18.
Sue Lawley was later part of ITN's presenting team in its ITV Election 97 coverage.
19.
Sue Lawley later introduced the BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures and was a board member of the English Tourism Council and English National Opera.
20.
In 1981, Sue Lawley made a guest appearance in the Yes Minister episode "The Quality of Life", playing herself.
21.
From 27 March 1988 to 27 August 2006 Sue Lawley was the presenter of Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.
22.
Sue Lawley was first married in 1975 to David Ashby, a solicitor.