Carol Lesley Barnes (13 September 1944 – 8 March 2008) was a British television newsreader and broadcaster. She worked for ITN from 1975 to 2004.

Early life

Barnes was born in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, and attended St Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls,

Tulse Hill Tulse Hill is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in South London that sits on Brockwell Park. It is approximately five miles from Charing Cross and is bordered by Brixton, Dulwich, Herne Hill, Streatham and West Norwood. History The ar ...

, London. She did not like school, and left at the age of 16, taking a number of jobs for a year, before leaving to study for A levels at a local college of further education. She graduated from

Sheffield University , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

with a degree in English, French and Spanish, followed by a postgraduate teaching diploma ( PGCE) at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

Career

Barnes started her working life as a supply teacher, but decided to switch to a career in media, and held various posts including public relations officer for the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

in London and sub-editor on the magazine '' Time Out'', before moving into broadcasting, working for

Independent Radio News Independent Radio News provides a service of news bulletins, audio and copy to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom and beyond. The managing director, Tim Molloy, succeeded long-term MD John Perkins in November 2009. Perkins had been ...

. She was one of the original news team members at the launch of radio station

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...

in 1973, and then worked as a reporter 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' ...

for a year, before joining ITN in 1975. During her time as an ITN reporter, she covered

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 Northern Ireland, the return of the Iranian spiritual leader

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

in 1979, and the Brixton riots in 1981. She made her name as a reporter with ITN on the lunchtime news in the late 1970s, but her first stint as a newscaster came in March 1980 when she began alternating with Michael Nicholson as presenter on the '' News at 5:45''. Barnes was a regular

presenter A presenter is a person or organization responsible for the running of a public event, or someone who conveys information on media via a broadcasting outlet. Presenter may refer to: People * News presenter, person who presents news during a new ...

on the '' ITN Lunchtime News'' and ITN's weekend news bulletins from July 1985 until March 1989, and again between January 1991 and 1998. During the intervening period, she was the launch presenter of the ''

Channel 4 Daily Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

'' breakfast programme. She regularly fronted the ITN flagship '' News at Ten'' programme, as well as other current affairs programmes, and in 1994 was voted Newscaster of the Year at the TV and Radio Industries Club Awards. She left ITN in 1999, and then returned in 2003 to work on their short-lived 24-hour

ITV News Channel The ITV News Channel was a 24-hour television news channel in the United Kingdom which broadcast from 1 August 2000 to 23 December 2005. It was available on Sky, NTL:Telewest, ITV Digital (until 2002), Freeview (latterly only between 6:00 am a ...

, until leaving again in 2004.Barnes splits from her husband after 17 years"
''Sunday Mirror'', 10 January 1999, as reproduced on the ''Find Articles'' website. Retrieved on 21 July 2007. Following her retirement from ITN in 1999, Barnes was a Dictionary Corner guest on the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

quiz show ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' for the next couple of years, making 23 appearances on the programme until 2001. Between 1999 and 2001, she occasionally appeared as a relief newsreader on Channel 4's breakfast show ''

The Big Breakfast ''The Big Breakfast'' is a British breakfast light entertainment television programme that was broadcast on Channel 4. Originally presented by Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin, the show was latterly presented by Mo Gilligan and AJ Odudu. The pro ...

'' (the programme replaced ''The Channel Four Daily'', on which Barnes had appeared).

Personal life

Barnes had two children. The elder, Clare, was from her six-year relationship with

Denis MacShane Denis MacShane (born Josef Denis Matyjaszek; 21 May 1948) is a British former politician, author and commentator who served as Minister of State for Europe from 2002 to 2005. He joined the Labour Party in 1970 and has held most party offices. ...

, later a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

minister. Clare Barnes was born in 1979 and died in March 2004, aged 24, in a skydiving accident over

Barwon Heads Barwon Heads (previously known as Point Flinders) is a coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, near Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the west bank of the mouth of the Barwon River below Lake Connewarre, while it is bounded t ...

, south-west of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. Her son James was born a year after she married ITN cameraman Nigel Thomson in 1981. A keen golfer and one-time qualified private pilot, Barnes resided in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, and became a local magistrate in 1999, until forced to stand down after being convicted of a drink-driving offence in 2004, shortly after her daughter's death.Ex-newsreader Barnes dies at 63
''BBC'', 8 March 2008. Retrieved on 8 March 2008.

Later life and death

On 18 January 2008, Barnes presented ''Saving Ed Mitchell'' on ITV1, a programme about her former colleague Ed Mitchell's descent into alcoholism. On 4 March 2008, the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'' newspaper reported that she had suffered a life-threatening stroke that had left her in a coma. Her doctors did not expect her to recover, and several of her closest friends also voiced these fears. Her son James gave doctors permission to switch off her life support system after they had warned him that there was no reasonable hope that she would recover. While Barnes was dying in hospital, her London flat was burgled. After Barnes died, ''The Argus'' newspaper in

, where she had lived for some years, decided to name their Courageous Child of the Year Award after her. The Carol Barnes Courageous Child of the Year Award is one of around 20 awards given to unsung yet deserving heroes of Sussex at an annual ceremony, hosted by the newspaper.

References

Bibliography

Obituary, ''The Daily Telegraph'', 8 March 2008Obituary, ''The Times'', 9 March 2008Obituary, ''The Guardian'', 10 March 2008

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Carol 1944 births 2008 deaths Alumni of the University of Birmingham Alumni of the University of Sheffield British radio people British reporters and correspondents English television presenters ITN newsreaders and journalists People from Brighton Media personalities from Norwich