Mary Nightingale (born 26 May 1963) is an English

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for ...

, best known for presenting the ''

ITV Evening News The ''ITV Evening News'' is the evening news programme produced by ITN on the British television network ITV. It airs Monday to Friday from 6:30pm, covering British national and international news stories and is presented by Mary Nightingale. ...

'' since 2001.

Education and early career

Nightingale was educated at St Margaret's School, an

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

for girls, near the

Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (commonly referred to as RD&E), and with a main site sometimes known as Wonford Hospital, is a large teaching hospital situated in Exeter, Devon, England, and is run by the Royal Devon University Healthcare N ...

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, and King Edward VI School in

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-so ...

, Devon. She obtained a BA in English from Bedford College,

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, now merged with

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

.Royal Holloway and Bedford alumni Magazine "Higher" - Issue 14 - Summer 2011, p.35 Nightingale began her career in journalism as a presenter and writer on World Business Satellite for

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

.Meet the Team
ITV News She then went on to work for

BBC World BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and S ...

's ''World Business Report'' as a presenter and writer, covering economic and corporate news. Nightingale also worked for

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

Financial Television in 1994 as a presenter on the early morning financial programme.Biography - Mary Nightingale
TV Newsroom

TV career

1990s

She co-presented ''Carlton Country'', a factual series about life in the countryside, as well as presenting the ''

Holiday A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...

'' programme on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

. In May 1994, she became the first presenter of ''After 5'' the

London News Network London News Network (or LNN) was a television news, production and facilities organisation in London. It was created in 1992 as a joint operation between London's two ITV contractors, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television, with each ...

early-evening show. In 1991, she worked as co-presenter on ITV's coverage of the Rugby World Cup in Britain, France and Ireland, and in 1995, presented from the following tournament in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

on the regular evening highlights programme.CV - Mary Nightingale
Noel Gay In 1996, Nightingale presented BBC Two's ''

Ski Sunday ''Ski Sunday'' is the BBC Sports weekly magazine-style television show covering winter sports, broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sundays in a late afternoon or an early evening time-slot. It began in 1978, and is currently presented by Ed Leigh ...

''. Until April 1999, Nightingale was co-presenter with

Alastair Stewart Alastair James Stewart Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 22 June 1952) is an English former journalist and newscaster. Formerly presenting for ITV News, he joined GB News as a presenter in 2021. He has won the Royal Television Society's New ...

's flagship news programme ''

London Tonight ''ITV News London'' is a British television news service broadcast on both ITV London and the ITV Hub. It is produced by ITN. History London News Network The programme launched on Monday 4 January 1993 as ''London Tonight'', after Carlton ...

'' and was the sole presenter of ''London Today'', Carlton's lunchtime news bulletin. She also presented the daily late news bulletins of ''London Tonight''.

2000s

Nightingale anchored ITV's flagship holiday programme '' Wish You Were Here...?'' from 1999–2001,Nightingale ends her travels
MediaGuardian, 28 June 2001ITV unveils election team
BBC News, 24 April 2001 and also presented ''The Really Good Food Show''. In 2001, Nightingale was promoted to the ''

'' and she left her position on ''London Tonight''. She was also part of the ITN team covering the 2001 general election. In 2002, she broke the news of the death of

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...

. Nightingale has also fronted various

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 ...

programmes including: ''Holidays Undercover'' in 2006, ''The Girl Who Would Be Queen'', and ''Diana - A Service of Thanksgiving'' in 2007.

2010s

Nightingale was an occasional presenter of the ''

ITV Lunchtime News The ''ITV Lunchtime News'' is the afternoon news programme produced by ITN on the British television network ITV. It airs Monday to Friday from 1:30pm, covering British national and international news stories and is presented by Nina Hossain. ...

'' and '' ITV News'' weekend bulletins, and previously acted as a relief presenter on ''

ITV News at Ten ''ITV News at Ten'' (or more commonly ''News at Ten'') is the flagship evening news programme on British television network ITV, produced by ITN and founded by news editor Geoffrey Cox in July 1967. The bulletin was the first permanent 30-mi ...

'' before the programme's restructure in October 2015. In April 2011, she took over from

Mark Nicholas Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas (born 29 September 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer and broadcaster. He played for Hampshire from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement. Nicholas was born in Westmi ...

as the host of the

daytime cookery programme ''

Britain's Best Dish ''Britain's Best Dish'' is a British daytime cookery show part of the ITV Food category on ITV and hosted by Mary Nightingale. Amateur cooks from around the UK compete to cook "Britain's Best Dish" and a prize of £10,000. The judges were Ed B ...

''. On 23 September 2012, she presented ''William & Kate: The South Seas Tour'' on

. On 13 December 2016, it was announced Nightingale would become the sole presenter of the ''ITV Evening News'' from January 2017 onwards.

2020s

On 8 September 2022, Nightingale announced on ITV News that Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

had died.

Awards

In 2002 and 2004, she won

TRIC Awards The Television and Radio Industries Club (widely known as TRIC) is a British institution chartered in 1931 to "promote goodwill in the television and radio industries". The Club holds an annual awards ceremony each March honouring achievement in te ...

in the category "Newscaster of the Year".

Personal life

Nightingale has been married since April 2000 to television producer Paul Fenwick, the former Human Resource director of

Trailfinders Trailfinders is a British travel company in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is the largest independently-owned travel company in the United Kingdom, and has 39 travel centres in the UK and Ireland. The company "specialises in tailormade tr ...

. The couple have two children.Confessions of a chalet girl
''The Daily Telegraph'' (London), 4 February 2011

Filmography

References

External links

Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nightingale, Mary 1963 births British television journalists British television presenters ITN newsreaders and journalists ITV regional newsreaders and journalists Living people People from Scarborough, North Yorkshire