Andrea Catherine Catherwood (born 27 November 1967) is a Northern Irish television presenter and journalist.

Early life

Andrea Catherwood was born and raised in Belfast where her mother, Adrienne McGuill, was an announcer and newsreader at Ulster Television, from 1959 to 1969 and also presented ''The Romper Room'' from 1964 to 1969 as Miss Adrienne. Adrienne Catherwood was appointed an MBE in 2004 for her work with the charity Action Medical Research. Andrea was educated at

Strathearn School Strathearn School is an 11–18 girls voluntary grammar school in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. History In 1864, of land were bought by William Mullan and Robert Mullan, on which Strathearn House was built. In 1904, Mullan sold ...

in Belfast. Her broadcasting career began aged 16 when she joined the BBC in Belfast as a co-presenter of a youth current affairs programme, for which she won

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland ( ga, BBC Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ''BBC Norlin Airlan'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of I ...

's Young Presenter of the Year award. The following year she co-presented the youth current affairs programme ''Up Front''. Aged 18, Catherwood made a documentary for

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's ...

about the 18 years of troubles in Northern Ireland.

Journalism career

Following an honours degree in law from the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

, in 1990 Catherwood joined Ulster Television, where she spent three years as a news and features reporter. In 1993 she joined NBC Asia in Hong Kong as a news reporter, covering the handover of Hong Kong to China and the 1997 stock-market turmoil. She travelled extensively throughout Asia, and in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

interviewed opposition leader

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...

. She joined ITN in April 1998 starting as newscaster and senior reporter for ITV News, presenting the '' ITV Morning News'' and providing special reports for '' News at Ten''. She then became medical correspondent for

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since con ...

. Having joined

Five News ''5 News at 5'', also known as ''Channel 5 News'', is the news programme of British broadcaster Channel 5, produced by ITN from its main newsroom on Gray's Inn Road, London. History ''5 News'' was one of the new station's flagship programme ...

in 2000 as a main news presenter, she moved back to ITV in 2001. In November 2001 she was the first British journalist into

Mazari Sharif , official_name = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif , pushpin ...

after the Northern Alliance captured the city from

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

forces. She produced a number of reports, which received wide coverage in the British press. Catherwood was reporting from inside the prison at the beginning of the Taliban prisoners uprising when one exploded a concealed grenade that killed five people. Catherwood was injured in the knee by shrapnel. In 2003, she was promoted and made the main anchor of the ''

ITV Weekend News ''ITV Weekend News'' is the national news bulletins on the British television network ITV at a weekend. However it is often referred to on guides as ''ITV News'' (morning), '' ITV Lunchtime News'' (lunchtime), '' ITV Evening News'' (evening) a ...

'', plus a relief presenter on 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 Evening News''. Catherwood left ITV News in September 2006, to front ''

The Sunday Edition ''The Sunday Edition'' is a television programme broadcast on the ITV Network in the United Kingdom focusing on political interview and discussion, produced by ITV Productions. The show was hosted by Andrew Rawnsley and Andrea Catherwood. Th ...

'', ITV's new political show with

Andrew Rawnsley Andrew Nicholas James Rawnsley (born 5 January 1962) is a British political journalist and broadcaster. A columnist and chief political commentator for ''The Observer'', he has written two books on New Labour. Early life Rawnsley was born in Le ...

. However, this was quietly dropped in November 2007. In 2006, she was scheduled to appear on the celebrity special of '' The X Factor: Battle of the Stars'' and to sing with

James Hewitt James Lifford Hewitt (born 30 April 1958) is a British former cavalry officer in the British Army. He came to public attention in the mid-1990s after he disclosed an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales, while she was still married to then-Pri ...

but ITV management refused to give her permission to appear on the show. In 2007, she was a contestant on the ITV series ''

Vernon Kay's Gameshow Marathon ''Gameshow Marathon'' is a British game show, broadcast on ITV from 17 September 2005 to 26 May 2007. After a quick retrospective look at the history of the particular show, the show itself is recreated. This involves recreating the original s ...

''. In July 2009, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

moon landings, ITN produced five special 10-minute programmes for ITV titled ''Mission to the Moon – News from 1969''. Catherwood, a former ITN newscaster and correspondent, reported for these specials. The first aired at 22:35 on ITV on Wednesday 15 July and ran the following Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday. In October 2009 Catherwood joined

Bloomberg Television Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is hea ...

as part of the news station's relaunch, where she anchored ''Briefing'', ''The Pulse'', and ''Last Word''. She left in March 2012. Catherwood is now a weekly contributor to '' This Morning'' on ITV, as well as writing for

The Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...

. Over the past three years she has been a presenter on various Radio 4 programmes. She presented

's ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History Created by Norman Collins and originally presented ...

'', as well as You and Yours, and is a regular stand-in presenter of ''

the Media Show ''The Media Show'' is a weekly British current affairs radio programme and podcast on BBC Radio 4 which examines the current state of the media. The first episode was broadcast at 13:30 on 1 October 2008 and since May 2017 has been presented by ...

'' on Radio 4. In September 2017, she appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme ''Great Lives'', nominating

Constance Markievicz Constance Georgine Markievicz ( pl, Markiewicz ; ' Gore-Booth; 4 February 1868 – 15 July 1927), also known as Countess Markievicz and Madame Markievicz, was an Irish politician, revolutionary, nationalist, suffragist, socialist, and the fir ...

for a great life. As of December 2020 she still presented ''Woman's Hour'' occasionally; however her future participation was uncertain. In October 2022, Catherwood began presenting ''

Feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

'' on

; the programme holds the BBC to account by allowing the radio listeners to express their opinions.

Personal life

Catherwood married lawyer Graham Smith on 3 July 2002 at a private family ceremony in

Kenmare Kenmare () is a small town in the south of County Kerry, Ireland. The name Kenmare is the anglicised form of ''Ceann Mara'', meaning "head of the sea", referring to the head of Kenmare Bay. Location Kenmare is located at the head of Kenmare Ba ...

, in the west of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. The couple have three children.

References

External links

*
Andrea Catherwood's TwitterOfficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Catherwood, Andrea 1967 births Living people Journalists from Northern Ireland ITN newsreaders and journalists 5 News presenters and reporters Television personalities from Belfast People educated at Strathearn School