Martha Kearney

Martha Catherine Kearney (born October 8 1957) is a British broadcaster and journalist. Kearney was raised in an academic environment in Sussex and Edinburgh; her father, the historian Hugh Kearney, taught at the universities there. She was educated at Brighton and Hove High School, a girls' independent school in Brighton, and at George Watson's College, a co-educational independent school in Edinburgh. She later read Classics at St Anne's College, Oxford (1976-80). After graduating, Kearney began her career with a variety of jobs at the London commercial radio station, LBC.

She was Political Editor for the BBC's Newsnight (as well as a presenter of semi-independent cultural affairs programme Newsnight Review) from 2000 and was also a presenter on BBC Radio 4's long-running Woman's Hour from 1998, before leaving both of these roles to present The World at One in March 2007. Kearney has also been an occasional presenter of the Today Programme on Radio 4. She was a candidate to succeed Andrew Marr as BBC Political Editor in 2005 but lost out to Nick Robinson.

On 22nd February 2007, it was announced that Martha was to become the new lead presenter on Radio 4's lunchtime news and current affairs programme The World at One. Kearney presented her final Woman's Hour on 19 March 2007 and her final Newsnight on 23 March 2007.

On the BBC comedy series Time Trumpet she featured in a segment called 'Honey, I Shrunk Martha Kearney' (a fictional revamped Newsnight), in which Jeremy Paxman interviews her, a third of her normal height. In August and September 2006, she presented a series on Radio 4, called The Idea of a University, looking at the history of universities in the United Kingdom. This programme was broadcast on Thursdays on Radio 4.

Martha Kearney is married to Chris Shaw, journalist and senior programme controller on Five television.

External links

• BBC profile
• "Media: CV" interview, The Independent, April 6, 1998