Alice Arnold (born 1962) is a British broadcaster and journalist. She was a newsreader and

continuity announcer In broadcasting, continuity or presentation (or station break in the U.S. and Canada) is announcements, messages and graphics played by the broadcaster between specific programmes. It typically includes programme schedules, announcement of the ...

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

for more than twenty years until the end of December 2012.

Early life

She attended the independent

Claremont Fan Court School Claremont Fan Court School is a co-educational independent school, for pupils from 2½ to 18 years. Situated outside Esher, in Surrey, sixteen miles from London, it is located on the grounds of the Claremont Estate. It is a member of the Socie ...

Esher Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greater London Built-Up Ar ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, where

Michaela Strachan Michaela Evelyn Ann Strachan (born 7 April 1966) is an English television presenter and singer. Early life Born in Ewell, Surrey, Strachan grew up in Hinchley Wood and attended Chadsworth Stage School, then Claremont Fan Court School, both in ...

was three years below her. After gaining a degree in politics from the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

, she trained as an actress at the Drama Studio in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

and was in the musical ''

Evita Evita may refer to: Arts * Evita (1996 film), ''Evita'' (1996 film), a 1996 American musical drama film based on the 1976 concept album of the same name * Evita (2008 film), ''Evita'' (2008 film), a documentary about Eva Péron * Evita (album), ''E ...

'' for a year.Alison Robert
"Alice Arnold: You look at men of a certain age on TV and think: 'If you were a woman, you wouldn’t be there' "
''Evening Standard'', 8 January 2013 She was a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

for ten years from the age of thirty in

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

Career and public profile

Arnold joined the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Radio Drama Company in 1988. After meeting

Peter Donaldson Peter Ian Donaldson (23 August 1945 – 2 November 2015) was an English newsreader on BBC Radio 4. Early life Donaldson was born in Cairo, Egypt, and moved to Cyprus in 1952 at the time of the overthrow of King Farouk. He was a frequent ...

at a party in 1994, she joined Radio 4's presentation team in that year. In 2004 she became a newsreader, and regularly read the afternoon and evening news on Radio 4. For a brief period her early appearances as a newsreader were credited as "Eva Arnold", perhaps to keep her newsreading 'persona' separate from her identity as an actor. In 2005, she featured as a news presenter in

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

comedy ''

Broken News ''Broken News'' is a comedy programme shown on BBC Two in late 2005. The show poked fun at the world of 24-hour rolling news channels. The title of the show is a play on the phrase "breaking news". It had six thirty-minute episodes. Having previ ...

''. In June 2006, she was promoted to read the news on Radio 4's ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'' programme. From 2007 to 2011 she co-presented comedian Jon Holmes's show ''

Listen Against ''Listen Against'' is a BBC Radio 4 series. Its title is a play on the name of the BBC's Listen Again service. Presented by Jon Holmes and Alice Arnold, it takes a surreal look at the week's radio. Created by Jon Holmes, it is co-written by Bil ...

'', a parody of various programmes on Radio 4. Arnold gained media attention in May 2012. While returning home, stuck in traffic, she observed an empty plastic bottle being thrown from the car ahead of her and threw it back into the vehicle through an open window. On

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, colleague and friend

Corrie Corfield Coriona Kear Ware Corfield is a radio broadcaster and producer known especially for her newsreading and continuity announcements on BBC Radio 4. Early life and education She was born 1961 in Oxford. Raised near Stratford-upon-Avon, Corfield w ...

said Arnold deserved a

damehood ''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system and those of several oth ...

for her action. Towards the end of October 2012, the ending of Arnold's role on Radio 4 emerged. Her final shift ended in the early hours of Saturday 29 December 2012. During 2013, she worked for the BBC in a training capacity and was involved in the Expert Women's Days where she coached potential female interviewees for ''

''. Arnold has suggested adopting a smile or frown while talking as appropriate to the context. Since then she has written for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''.

Personal life

Arnold entered into a

civil partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

in 2006 with the

presenter

Clare Balding Clare Victoria Balding (born 29 January 1971) is an English broadcaster, journalist, and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4, BT Sport, is the current president of the Rugby Football League (RFL) and formerly presented the ...

. They live in

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...

, London. In April 2015, the couple officially married in a private ceremony. Balding and Arnold are keen amateur golfers. Arnold wrote about the Scottish

Muirfield Muirfield is a privately owned golf links which is the home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Located in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland, overlooking the Firth of Forth, Muirfield is one of the golf courses used in rotation for The ...

golf club in ''The Guardian'' after it rejected proposals to admit female members: "Another argument put forward by the 'no' campaign is that not many women would want to join. Spot on. I do not want to join your snotty club. Golf is my hobby. I love it and I would like to play it where I feel welcome, not like some second-class citizen".

References

External links

Mellow Weekend Breakfast with Alice Arnold on Mellow Magic
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Alice 1962 births Living people Alumni of the Drama Studio London Alumni of the University of Sussex BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC Radio 4 British lesbian actresses British radio presenters British women bloggers British women television journalists British women radio presenters British bloggers LGBT broadcasters from the United Kingdom LGBT entertainers from the United Kingdom LGBT journalists from the United Kingdom People educated at Claremont Fan Court School People from Esher Radio and television announcers 21st-century British women writers 21st-century LGBT people