How former Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson ‘persuaded’ Robert Peston back into journalism

Former Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson has told how he brought Robert Peston back into journalism after he had left the industry in 2002.

Writing in his Daily Mail column, Lawson also commented that it was "wonderful that such unlikely-looking types flourish on our screens".

After a decade at the BBC as business editor and then economics editor, Peston was named as the political editor of ITV News last week.

But Lawson has told how in 2002 Peston had left full-time journalism to work for Quest, a financial services company. "I had long admired his brilliant story-getting abilities and persuaded him to return to our trade [as business editor]."

Lawson, though, "never imagined he would move so successfully from the print media into broadcasting".

He wrote: "Even while he was at the Telegraph, colleagues would – affectionately – mimic his idiosyncratic style of speech (as well as his habit of saying ‘I knew that’ if anyone else came up with a story)."

But he said it was to the credit of the BBC that it favours "business coverage done knowledgably in an awkward manner rather than superficially and smoothly".

At ITV Peston will also be hosting a new Sunday morning political programme, which will reportedly be in competition with the Andrew Marr Show.

"This has been described as ‘bighead versus big ears’," Lawson wrote. "I think it’s wonderful that such unlikely-looking types flourish on our screens: so much better than American television, where all the male presenters are Adonises with perfect teeth — but no originality whatsoever."