John Suchet is returning to television journalism to present Five News.
Suchet
will present the 5.30pm and 7pm news bulletins on Five while Kirsty
Young is on maternity leave from early next year. He will begin
presenting on Thursday and Friday evenings while Kirsty Young continues
anchoring in the early part of the week – eventually he will take on
all of her programmes.
After 35 years of working in broadcasting,
Suchet retired from ITN last year. He was a senior presenter who worked
on every bulletin, from the ITV Lunchtime News to News at Ten and the
ITV News Channel.
Suchet said: “Since leaving ITV News I’ve been
very fortunate to work on the other big passion in my life, which is
music. But I can’t wait to return to the cut and thrust of the
newsroom. I didn’t realise quite how much I had missed it until I was
offered this opportunity.”
Young said: “I’ve worked with John
previously and he is a highly experienced presenter. I’m looking
forward to working with him again and I am confident I’m leaving Five
News in very capable hands.”
Suchet’s career began at Reuters
news agency and he was one of ITV’s foreign correspondents in the
Seventies and Eighties. He went on to present ITV’s lunchtime bulletin
for 10 years in the early Nineties before moving to News at Ten and the
ITV News Channel in 2003.
Since he retired Suchet has presented
ITV 1’s This Morning and also made a series for Classic FM, where he
continues to be a regular presenter.
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