Gordon Henry Burns (born 10 June 1942) is a Northern Irish journalist and broadcaster. He was the host of ''

The Krypton Factor ''The Krypton Factor'' is a British game show produced by Granada Television for broadcast on ITV. The show originally ran from 7 September 1977 to 20 November 1995, and was hosted by Gordon Burns and usually broadcast on the ITV network on ...

'' for its original 18-year run (1977–1995) and was the chief

anchorman A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

for the BBC regional news programme ''

North West Tonight ''BBC North West Tonight'' is the BBC's regional television news programme covering North West England and the Isle of Man. Produced by BBC North West, the programme airs at 1.30pm (as ''North West Today''), 6.30pm and 10.30pm, with shorter bu ...

'' from January 1997 to October 2011. In November 2011, Burns moved back to Belfast where he was born. Due to his work commitments with

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

on programmes such as ''

World in Action ''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television for ITV from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its producti ...

'' and ''

Granada Reports ITV News ''Granada Reports'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Granada. Overview ''Granada Reports'' is produced and broadcast from studios in the Orange Tower at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. Before this, the ...

'' and later

BBC Manchester BBC Manchester (often known as BBC Salford) is the British Broadcasting Corporation regional headquarters for the North West, the largest BBC region in the UK. BBC Manchester is a department of the BBC North Group division. The BBC considers ...

for ''

'', he resided in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

for over thirty years. Burns most recently hosted a Sunday morning radio show for

BBC Radio Manchester BBC Radio Manchester is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Greater Manchester. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford ...

and

BBC Radio Lancashire BBC Radio Lancashire is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Lancashire. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Darwen Street in Blackburn. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly aud ...

Early life

Burns was born in Wellington Park, in Belfast. When he was a child his family moved to

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

where he attended the local primary school and then went to

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

in London. The family then returned to live at Belfast's Belmont Road, where Gordon attended

Campbell College Campbell College located in Belfast, Northern Ireland and founded in 1894 comprises a preparatory school department (junior age) and a senior Northern Ireland 'Voluntary Grammar' school, the latter meaning, in terms of provision of education, a ...

Career

He began his journalism career working on the ''

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media. Its editor is Eoin Brannigan. Reflecting its unionist tradition, the paper has historically been "favoured by the Protestant po ...

'' and worked on BBC radio's long-running '' Sports Report'' before joining

Ulster Television UTV (formerly Ulster Television, branded on air as ITV1) is the ITV region covering Northern Ireland, ITV subsidiary and the former on-air name of the free-to-air public broadcast television channel serving the area. It is run by ITV plc an ...

as a sports editor and programme producer in 1967. Two years later, Burns began presenting the nightly news programme ''UTV Reports'', first as a stand-in for regular frontman David Mahlowe and later as a chief anchor, during the early stages of

The Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

. In 1973, Burns joined

to anchor their nightly news programme ''

'' and to work on the station's current affairs output, including ''

''. In September 1976 he presented a edition of the North West Friday night

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

preview programme Kick Off covering for the regular presenter

Gerald Sinstadt Gerald Morris Sinstadt (19 February 1930 – 10 November 2021) was an English sports commentator, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, usually on football. Early life Born in Folkestone, Kent, Sinstadt attended The Harvey Grammar School.https:// ...

who that weekend was covering for

Dickie Davies Richard John Davies (born 30 April 1933) is a retired British television sports presenter, who anchored '' World of Sport'' from 1968 until 1985. Early life Davies attended Oldershaw Grammar School after passing his eleven-plus; he then did ...

on World of Sport and was also covering the presenter and commentator roles for the Sunday Afternoon match highlights based version The Kick Off Match where he presented the programme and commentated on Sunderland v Manchester City at Roker Park which was being covered by Tyne Tees cameras for Granada viewers which was the main match that weekend at the time he was the producer of both Kick Off and The Kick Off Match but this stint as presenter and commentator was a one-off Burns' national profile began with his association of

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

's game show ''

'' which he presented for eighteen years from 1977 to 1995. He was the presenter of ''

Password A password, sometimes called a passcode (for example in Apple devices), is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of ...

'' for

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

, one of their few programmes shown throughout the ITV network, and also hosted a segment in several series of

LWT London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

's '' Surprise Surprise''. During the 1980s, Burns also continued reporting from the political party conferences for the ITV network and presenting the Channel 4 current affairs series ''Irish Angle''. In the early 90s, he also presented two parlour game shows for the BBC – ''A Word in Your Ear'' and ''Relatively Speaking''. He has also appeared as a guest on ''

Noel's House Party ''Noel's House Party'' is a BBC light entertainment series that was hosted by Noel Edmonds. Set in a large house in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom, leading to much innuendo, it ran from 23 November 1991 to 26 March 2000 on BBC One, an ...

'', and on '' Shooting Stars'' as a member of

Ulrika Jonsson Eva Ulrika Jonsson (born 16 August 1967) is a Swedish-British television presenter and model. She became known as a TV-am weather presenter, moved on to present the ITV show ''Gladiators'', and as a team captain of the BBC Two show '' Shooting S ...

's team. From 1997 to 2011, Burns presented ''

'', alongside its shorter lunchtime version, ''North West Today''. In 2007,

Ranvir Singh Ranvir Singh (born 11 August 1977) is a British journalist and television presenter. She is the political editor and newsreader/deputy presenter for '' Good Morning Britain''. Early life Singh was born in 1977 in Preston, Lancashire, into a Si ...

joined as co-anchor of the previously single-headed main evening programme. Burns announced in April 2011 that he would be retiring from the role but would move on to present a Sunday morning show on

and

in September 2011 with his last TV bulletin broadcast on 30 September. He was the voice of "The Chain" feature and other features on the ''

Radcliffe & Maconie ''Radcliffe & Maconie'' is a weekend radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music in the United Kingdom and via the internet. It runs from 8-10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and is presented by Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie. The show origin ...

'' show on

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...

. He appears as a guest on the show when The Chain reaches a significant milestone, for example, for the 5,000th (musically based) item on 3 March 2015 which was the single "

Dancing Queen "Dancing Queen" is a Europop and disco song by the Swedish group ABBA, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''Arrival'' (1976). It was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson. Andersson and Ulvaeus al ...

" by

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...

. In 2013, Burns retired properly after stepping down from his radio show.

Personal life

Burns is the second cousin of English singer/songwriter

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

. Burns is married and has two adult children.

References

External links

*
Gordon at Wallace High school
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Gordon 1942 births Living people BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC North West newsreaders and journalists Game show hosts from Northern Ireland Journalists from Belfast Television presenters from Northern Ireland People educated at Dulwich College People educated at Campbell College Television personalities from Belfast UTV (TV channel) people People educated at Wallace High School, Lisburn Belfast Telegraph people