Tweet
Peter Sissons, the journalist and broadcaster has died at the age of 77 - he was one of the few newscasters to present on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 - the latter two courtesy of ITN, and he was probably the first newscaster to present on all of those three channels. He was born in Liverpool in 1942.
In 1978 Sissons presented News at One for ITN, having joined the ITV news company back in 1964, and stayed there until Leonard Parkin became fulltime presenter. When Channel Four began, he moved over to present Channel Four News, preceding Jon Snow as main anchor. Outside the news studio, he became the second presenter of BBC 1's Question Time in 1989 succeeding Sir Robin Day, and was succeeded himself by the recently retired David Dimbleby. Here he shared a circular desk for four years with familiar politicians from the main political parties as audience members fired away various questions to his guests.
He moved to the new Ten O'clock News but announced in 2002 that he was to step down from the role, probably due to the situation he happened to find himself in earlier on in that year - Sissons caused controversy in March 2002 when he happened to be on duty in the BBC Newsroom and the news of the Queen Mother's death at the age of 101 had been released - the controversy was the fact that as he announced the Royal passing to the nation while interrupting a then recent repeat of Auntie's Bloomers on BBC 1 and a 1972 repeat of Steptoe and Son on BBC 2, and as a result, he was seen to be disrespectful by wearing a burgundy tie on air instead of the more suitable black tie used on occasions such as that - and the national newspapers as well as Private Eye made a lot of comments about it - I think that is what many will remember him for to be honest.
Although he retired from broadcasting in 2009, Sissons was another familiar name and face on television that we all knew well.
In 1978 Sissons presented News at One for ITN, having joined the ITV news company back in 1964, and stayed there until Leonard Parkin became fulltime presenter. When Channel Four began, he moved over to present Channel Four News, preceding Jon Snow as main anchor. Outside the news studio, he became the second presenter of BBC 1's Question Time in 1989 succeeding Sir Robin Day, and was succeeded himself by the recently retired David Dimbleby. Here he shared a circular desk for four years with familiar politicians from the main political parties as audience members fired away various questions to his guests.
He moved to the new Ten O'clock News but announced in 2002 that he was to step down from the role, probably due to the situation he happened to find himself in earlier on in that year - Sissons caused controversy in March 2002 when he happened to be on duty in the BBC Newsroom and the news of the Queen Mother's death at the age of 101 had been released - the controversy was the fact that as he announced the Royal passing to the nation while interrupting a then recent repeat of Auntie's Bloomers on BBC 1 and a 1972 repeat of Steptoe and Son on BBC 2, and as a result, he was seen to be disrespectful by wearing a burgundy tie on air instead of the more suitable black tie used on occasions such as that - and the national newspapers as well as Private Eye made a lot of comments about it - I think that is what many will remember him for to be honest.
Although he retired from broadcasting in 2009, Sissons was another familiar name and face on television that we all knew well.