Dorothy Byrne, journalist

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2020

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dorothy Byrne is the head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, and has worked in journalism for more than four decades. In 2018 she received the Outstanding Contribution Award at Royal Television Society Journalism Awards, and her recent commissions include the Channel 4 News investigation into Cambridge Analytica, the Michael Jackson expose Leaving Neverland and the BAFTA-winning documentary For Sama, about one family’s life under siege in Aleppo, which also won an Oscar nomination. She began her career in journalism in her mid 20s on the Waltham Forest Guardian, after writing a cheeky letter to 50 local newspaper editors - just one responded. She later moved into television, joining the acclaimed World in Action team at Granada, where she argued that the programme's agenda was male-dominated and needed to change. Dorothy gave the MacTaggart Lecture at the 2019 Edinburgh International Television Festival, in which she argued that the scrutiny of politicians through broadcast interviews is important for the health of democracy. She also described herself as 'just about the oldest female TV executive working for a broadcaster'. DISC ONE: Greatest Living Creature by John Grant DISC TWO: Non-Alignment Pact by Per Ubu DISC THREE: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth, composed by George Frideric Handel, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult and performed by Dame Joan Sutherland and London Symphony Orchestra DISC FOUR: Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense by Fela Kuti DISC FIVE: Dido's Lament: When I'm Laid In Earth, composed by Hendry Purcell, conducted by Raymond Leppard and performed by Jessye Norman and English Chamber Orchestra DISC SIX: World in Action by Matt Berry DISC EIGHT: The People United Will Never Be Defeated by Igor Levit BOOK CHOICE: Physics text books LUXURY ITEM: The back catalogue of In Our Time / the voice of Melvyn Bragg CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth, composed by George Frideric Handel, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult and performed by Dame Joan Sutherland and London Symphony Orchestra Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.8	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.4	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take
0:13.2	with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.4	For right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:20.6	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.0	My cast away this week is Dorothy Bern.
0:45.2	The head of news and current affairs at Channel 4 for almost 20 years, she is the trailblazing,
0:50.2	award-winning grand-dum of television journalism.
0:53.4	She spent a lifetime breaking stories, many of which would otherwise have gone untold.
0:58.6	Her recent commissions include the Channel 4 news investigation into the Cambridge
1:02.5	Analytica scandal, the Michael Jackson expose a leaving Neverland and Fassamma, the BAFTA-winning
1:08.3	documentary about one family's life under siege in Aleppo, which is also one of Oscar
1:13.0	nominations.
1:14.0	Last year, she made headlines herself at the Edinburgh Television Festival when she used
1:18.7	her platform as keynote speaker to issue a clarion call in support of broadcast journalism
1:24.3	as a pillar of our democracy.
1:26.5	She demanded that politicians should submit themselves to scrutiny and that journalists
1:30.7	and broadcasters should stand up and speak out when political leaders lie.
1:35.3	At a time of mistrust and disinformation, she is a firm believer in the importance and
1:39.8	power of mainstream news.
1:42.0	She says, we hold power to account and at our best, we investigate wickedness so it can
	...

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