Martyn Lewis

Sir Martyn John Dudley Lewis (born 7 April 1945) 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. Lewis attended Dalriada School and Trinity College, Dublin, before working as a freelance correspondent for BBC Northern Ireland and Harlech Television (HTV). He joined ITN in 1970 and headed its Northern Bureau from 1971 to 1978. Between 1978 and 1986, Lewis was an anchor for ITN's News at 5.45 and half-hour News at Ten bulletins, writing stories for the "And finally..." segment that features positive stories at the end of each News at Ten programme.

He 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. In 1993, Lewis launched a campaign to have more positive stories included in news bulletins. Between 1994 and 1999, he was a main presenter of the Six O'Clock News. Lewis is heavily engaged in the charitable and business sectors, serving as a leader and patron of several charities. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours and was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for his charitable work.

Early life and education Lewis was born on 7 April 1945 in Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales. He 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. Lewis has a younger sister who was a lecturer in feminist studies. His parents met in Northern Ireland during the Second World War and were married in Belfast.

He 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. Lewis overcame his stammer by performing Shakespeare plays and losing weight through circuit exercise and weight lighting.

Media career After turning down two job offers in the advertising and public relations industries in England, he started working as a freelance reporter for BBC Northern Ireland in Belfast for ten months in 1967. He also chaired a sixth formers' interview programme in Northern Ireland. Lewis established ITN's Northern Bureau in Manchester, leading it until 1978.

Lewis visited more than 30 countries on assignment for ITN. 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. 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. He created a modicum of controversy in 1993 when he claimed that television should feature more "good news". Lewis subsequently stated that he had been "misunderstood" on the matter.

From late January 1994 he switched roles with Peter Sissons thus becoming a lead presenter of the Six O'Clock News for three days a week. 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.

Lewis also made multiple documentaries on various topics for the BBC, From 1996 to 1998, Lewis presented the prime-time BBC1 real-life crime programme Crimebeat . He broke the news of the outbreak of the Gulf War to the British public in 1991. On 26 April 1999, he presented the Six O'Clock News bulletin with Jennie Bond on the day his co-presenter Jill Dando was murdered outside her home in West London.

Lewis resigned from the BBC in May of that year after it attempted to move him from the job he had lost at the Six O'Clock News to another position within the corporation; he turned down an offer to work at BBC World News, saying that he did not want to leave "the best job in broadcasting." In 2000, Lewis presented Dateline Jerusalem, From 2000 to 2002, he presented the ITV debate programme , which discussed current moral issues.

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. He 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.

Other business Lewis was chairman and co-founder of Teliris, one of the first telepresence systems developed. He was actively involved in the marketing of this solution through personal contacts, speaking engagements and "Telepresence Times", his vlog launched in 2009. He retired as chairman in 2012. In July 2020, he joined the board of renewable energy start-up Alpha 311.

Charity work

Lewis is a vice-president of such charities as Hospice UK, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Macmillan Cancer Support, East Anglia Children's Hospices (EACH) and Demelza Children's Hospice.

He founded the youth charity YouthNet in 1995 (now known as The Mix), and stayed as chairman until stepping down in July 2014, though he remains an advisor. The charity provides advice, information and support through websites aimed at young people.

From 2010 to 2016 he was chair of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, an umbrella body for charities in England and Wales with more than 13,000 members. He is also chairman of the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. He was chairman of Families of the Fallen 2010–15; trustee of the Windsor Leadership Trust 2001–10, and is currently deputy chair of the Lord Mayor of London's Dragon Awards. He has been a member of the Tidy Britain Committee, He was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours "for voluntary and charitable work, especially for the hospice movement."

Lewis also holds an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Ulster University. He is a Freeman of the City of London and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.