Jacqueline Bird (née Macpherson, born 31 July 1962) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster, best known as a former anchor of the

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. I ...

national news programme ''

Reporting Scotland ''BBC Reporting Scotland'' is the BBC's national television news programme for Scotland, broadcast on BBC One Scotland from the headquarters of BBC Scotland at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. History Although BBC Television was established in Scotl ...

''.

Early life

Jacqueline Macpherson was born on 31 July 1962 in

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...

, the daughter of Linda and Ronnie Macpherson. Bird attended Earnock High School in Hamilton.

Career

Bird was 17 when she started work for DC Thomson in Dundee working on teenage magazines and eventually became the pop editor at Jackie magazine. Subsequently, she worked as a broadcast journalist on

Radio Clyde Radio Clyde is a group of two Independent Local Radio stations serving Glasgow and West Central Scotland. Radio Clyde is owned and operated by Bauer, based at studios in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire and forms part of Bauer's Hits Radio and Gr ...

's news team and then as a food critic for the ''Glasgow Evening Times''. After working as a reporter for '' The Sun'' newspaper, Bird joined

Television South Television South (TVS) was the ITV (TV network), ITV franchise holder in the South East England, South and South East of England between 1 January 1982 at 9.25 am and 31 December 1992 at 11.59 pm. The company operated under various names, ini ...

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

as a reporter and presenter for the South East edition of regional news programme '' Coast to Coast''. Bird left TVS to join BBC Scotland, making her debut as a main presenter of ''

'' on Monday 16 October 1989. She has also been a main presenter of key event programming for BBC Scotland, including ''

Hogmanay Live ''BBC Scotland's Hogmanay'' is BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English R ...

'' and the Scottish '' Children in Need'' opt-outs. Bird is also a

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

columnist and has written and produced comedy series ''The Lewis Lectures'' and ''

Having it All ''Having it all'' was a five-episode 2007 radio drama series on BBC Radio Scotland written by Jackie Bird and produced by The Comedy Unit.BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 November 197 ...

. On 13 June 2012, she was awarded the honorary degree of

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

(D Litt) in a graduation ceremony at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. In October 2014, Bird celebrated 25 years of working on ''Reporting Scotland'', as the programme's longest serving presenter. On 11 April 2019, BBC Scotland announced Bird had left ''Reporting Scotland'' after nearly 30 years as a main presenter to concentrate on other projects. Bird presented her final programme the previous evening, without announcing her departure.

Other work

Bird has also toured with Echo & the Bunnymen and worked with Paul Weller. In November 2016, she appeared as herself in the episode, "Down and Out" in series 7 of Scottish sitcom '' Still Game''. In 2018, Bird made a brief

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

in the

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...

Christmas musical film '' Anna and the Apocalypse''.

Personal life

Bird met

Bob Bird Bob Bird is the former editor of the Scottish edition of the defunct ''News of the World'' tabloid. He is best known for the widespread media coverage over his role in two trials involving former Scottish MSP Tommy Sheridan: the 2006 Sheridan ...

, a

newspaper editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

, at ''The Sun'' in Glasgow. They married and moved to London, where they had their two children, Claudia and Jacob. In 2006, the couple divorced and the following year she married Robin Weir, an investment manager, at Crutherland House Hotel in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire. In 2012 Bird had sections of her small and large intestine removed after suffering a rare bowel condition.

References

External links

*/pressoffice * 1962 births BBC Scotland newsreaders and journalists Living people People from Bellshill British women television journalists British women radio presenters {{BBC-stub