Andrew Marr
Andrew Marr (born 31 July 1959) works as a British journalist and political commentator. He edited The Independent for two years, until May 1998, and was the political editor for the BBC from 2000 until 2005. He began hosting a new political programme on Sunday mornings on BBC One from September 2005 onwards.
Andrew Marr was born in Glasgow, educated at the High School of Dundee, Craigflower School and Loretto School in Musselburgh. He went on to read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He is married to the journalist Jackie Ashley, a daughter of the former MP, Jack Ashley.
Marr joined The Scotsman as a junior business reporter in 1981, going on to become a parliamentary correspondent in 1984 and then a political correspondent in 1986.
He wrote as a columnist for The Daily Express, The Observer, and The Economist before gaining appointment as BBC political editor in May 2000, making him one of the best-known faces on British television. Like his predecessor-but-one John Cole and his famous herringbone overcoat, he soon developed a trademark style, characterised by much gesticulation and hand-waving. But in spite of frequent claims that he was a closet Labour supporter, his journalism was never less than objective, even during the David Kelly affair when his BBC employers and the Government were at daggers drawn.
During his time as political editor, Marr's career started to veer more and more in the direction of presenting rather than straight reporting, and it came as no great surprise when, after the 2005 General Election, he moved on to a new role presenting the BBC's Sunday morning news programme, Sunday AM (previously called Breakfast with Frost and hosted by Sir David Frost). He also hosts the BBC Radio 4 programme, Start the Week.
He was named Columnist of the Year 1995 and Columnist of the Year in British Press Awards and received the Journalist Award in the Channel 4 Political Awards of 2001.
Andrew Marr has written several books on politics and journalism, notably The Day Britain Died (2000) — a state-of-the-nation reflection — and My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism (2004). The former was, in addition, a three-part television series; following Newsnight in the BBC2 schedules, 31 January 2000 – 2 February 2000.
Marr lives in west London and has three children.
Trivia
- He appeared as himself in the 2005 series of Doctor Who, in the episodes Aliens of London and World War Three.
- Andrew Marr is often mistaken for President Putin of Russia. Marr recounts that he was once lost on his way to a briefing at the Kremlin and was spotted by two soldiers, but instead of being arrested for trespass they looked alarmed and saluted him.
- He once jokingly wrote in a newspaper that he had no idea what to get his wife, so was intending to buy her a burqa. She wrote in to the paper to say that he would probably get her the wrong size anyway.
- When writing certain columns of the Daily Telegraph, he uses the pseudonym Mr. Snuffles, Andrew Marr's pet guinea pig. When writing in this form, he uses frequent misspellings and writes solely in lower-case.
- He claims to have read Tolstoy's War and Peace at least fifteen times.
- In one of his books (My Trade: a short history of British journalism, Macmillan 2004, p257) Marr recounted an incident where he was approached by a man in a shop who said, "Here, you look just like that Andrew Marr...you poor bugger."
External links
- Press Office — Andrew Marr — BBC biography
- 'Marr quits as BBC political chief' — BBC News
- Off The Telly: The Day That Britain Died — A review of BBC2's The Day That Britain Died
- TV is less up itself than newspapers — The Guardian
- Biogs.com information