Mark Richard Erskine Easton (born 12 March 1959) is the Home Editor for

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

broadcasting on national television and radio news. His writing and presenting credits include ''The Happiness Formula'' on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

in 2006 and ''The Crime of Our Lives'' 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 ...

in 2007. His first book, ''Britain etc.'', was published in 2012. His second book ''Islands: Searching for truth on the shoreline'' was published in October 2022. He was previously social affairs editor at '' Channel 4 News'' and political editor at ''

5 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 ...

''.

Early life

Mark Richard Erskine Easton was born on 12 March 1959 in

Bearsden Bearsden () is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the northwestern fringe of Greater Glasgow. Approximately from Glasgow City Centre, the town is effectively a suburb, and its housing development coincided with the 1863 introducti ...

, near

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

. He moved with his parents from

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

at the age of ten. He attended Peter Symonds Grammar School in Winchester. He is the son of Stephen and Fiona Easton.

Career

Easton joined his local newspaper, the '' Southern Evening Echo'', in 1979 having decided upon a career in journalism after winning a game of Waddington's "Scoop" aged 13. He worked at

Radio Victory Radio Victory was the independent local radio (ILR) station for Portsmouth in southern England. It was launched on 14 October 1975 and served south Hampshire, West Sussex and the Isle of Wight initially until 1986, with various later reincarna ...

from 1980–1, at

Radio Aire Radio Aire was an Independent Local Radio station, serving Leeds and West Yorkshire. The station was merged and relaunched as Greatest Hits Radio Yorkshire, as part of a rebrand, on 1 September 2020. History Radio Aire was launched at 6am ...

from 1981-2 and at

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 broadcast ...

from 1982–6. In 1986, Easton joined the BBC as a reporter on ''London Plus'', ''

BBC Breakfast News ''Breakfast News'' was a breakfast news programme which first aired on BBC1 on 2 October 1989. The programme was previously known as '' Breakfast Time''. It was planned to launch on 18 September 1989 but was held back by two weeks due to tech ...

'', '' Newsnight'' and ''Here and Now''. In 1996, Easton joined the newly launched Channel Five as Political Editor for ''

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 ...

''. Easton then moved in 1998 to ''Channel 4 News'' as Home and Social Affairs Editor. Since 2004 Easton has been the Home Editor of ''BBC News'' reporting across the Corporation's range of platforms. As an editor, Easton appears mainly on the evening bulletins, '' BBC News at Six'' and ''

BBC News at Ten '' BBC News at Ten'' formerly known as the ''BBC Ten O'Clock News'' or the ''Ten O'Clock News'' is the flagship evening news programme for the BBC News channel and British television channel BBC One on weekdays and Sundays at 10:00pm. Huw Ed ...

'', as well as BBC Radio 4 programmes including '' Today''. Easton also maintains a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

on the BBC News website.

Personal life

Easton lives in Islington with his wife Antonia and four children.

References

External links

BBC Biography

Video clips

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Easton, Mark 1959 births BBC newsreaders and journalists British investigative journalists Living people Mass media people from Winchester People educated at Peter Symonds College Channel 4 people