William Crawley, MRIA, is a Belfast-born

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and broadcaster. He is the presenter of ''Talkback'', a daily radio programme on

BBC Radio Ulster BBC Radio Ulster is a Northern Ireland, Northern Irish national radio station owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland, a division of the BBC. It was established on New Year's Day 1975, replacing what had been an opt-out of BBC Radio 4. Acc ...

, and he is a presenter of ''

Sunday Sunday (Latin: ''dies solis'' meaning "day of the sun") is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. Sunday is a Christian sabbath, day of rest in most Western countries and a part of the Workweek and weekend, weekend. In some Middle Ea ...

'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. He has also made several television series for

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. BBC Northern Ireland is one of the four BB ...

Early life

William Hugh Galloway Crawley was born and raised in North

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. He was educated at Grove Primary School, Dunlambert Secondary School,

Belfast Royal Academy The Belfast Royal Academy (also known as ) is the oldest school in the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a co-educational, non-denominational voluntary grammar school in north Belfast. The Academy is one of 8 schools in Northern Ireland ...

and Queen's University, where he studied

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

(B.A., M.Phil.). He read

Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

(M.Div.) at

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a Private university, private seminary, school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Establish ...

. In 1999 Crawley was awarded a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

by Queen's for a thesis on the epistemology of the American philosopher

Alvin Plantinga Alvin Carl Plantinga (born November 15, 1932) is an American analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher who works primarily in the fields of philosophy of religion, epistemology (particularly on issues involving theory of justification, epistemic ...

. Prior to his career in the media, Crawley worked as a university lecturer in Philosophy and Theology. Having been licensed, then subsequently ordained into the ministry of the

Presbyterian Church in Ireland The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI; ; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Prisbytairin Kirk in Airlann'') is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the Republic of Ireland, and the largest Protestant denomination in Northern Ireland. ...

in the mid-1990s, he worked as assistant minister in First Presbyterian Church, New York City, and Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, Belfast, before serving as

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

chaplain at the

University of Ulster Ulster University (; Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It i ...

. He later resigned from the ordained ministry and from membership of the church before beginning his career as a journalist. He has described himself as "a lapsed Protestant."

Television programmes

* ''Blueprint NI'', a three-part series examining Ireland's natural history, first broadcast in 2008. * The late-night television interview show, ''William Crawley Meets...'', a series of 30 minutes in duration with leading thinkers and social reformers from across the world, including the philosopher

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secu ...

, the scientist

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator and author. He is an Oxford fellow, emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was Simonyi Professor for the Publ ...

, the writer and broadcaster

Melvyn Bragg Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg (born 6 October 1939) is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is the editor and presenter of ''The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010, 2012–2023), and the presenter of the BBC Radio 4 documentary series ...

, and the gay bishop

Gene Robinson Vicky Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected Coadjutor bishop, bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he se ...

. * ''Frozen North'' (

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

, 2008), a documentary examining the possible future impact of

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

. * ''Festival Nights'' (

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

), television coverage of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Belfast Festival at Queens. * ''Hearts and Minds'''','' a Northern Ireland politics programme. * ''What's Wrong With ...?'' (

), a six-part round-table current affairs discussion programme. * ''More Than Meets The Eye'' (

, 2008), a series investigating folklore in contemporary Ireland. * He anchored the BBC's live coverage of the Queen's official visit to Northern Ireland in 2008. * In 2010, he presented an episode of ''Spotlight'' ( BBC One NI) concerning the Vatican. * In 2012, he wrote and presented a 60-minute documentary exploring the history of the Ulster Covenant. * In 2013, his series ''An Independent People'' examined the history of Ireland's Presbyterians. * His 2013 one-hour documentary ''It's a Blas'' followed his year-long effort to learn Irish sufficiently well to present a live radio programme in the language. * The 2013 programme ''The Man Who Shrank The World'' told the story of the engineering feat carried out by the scientist Lord Kelvin in the creation of a transatlantic communications cable was made as part of the ''Groundbreakers'' series for BBC Four. * His 2014 four-part series for

BBC Two Northern Ireland BBC Two Northern Ireland is a Northern Irish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Northern Ireland as a variation of the BBC Two network. It is broadcast via digital terrestrial transmitters and from the SES Astra 2E satell ...

, ''It's a Brave New World -- New Zealand'', examined the links between Northern Ireland and New Zealand. * 2015 Brave New World: USA (4 part series). * 2016 Brave New World: Australia (4 part series). * 2017 Brave New World: Canada (4 part series). * 2018 Brave New World: Bringing It Home (1 episode). * 2019 Spend It Like Stormont.

Radio programmes

* He presented '' Sunday Sequence'' on

from 2002 to 2014. * Since 2008, he has presented ''

'' on BBC Radio 4. * He has presented the daily radio phone-in show ''Talkback'' on

since 2015. * He has presented Radio 4's Beyond Belief and The Moral Maze.

Awards and memberships

* Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

). * Fellow of the

British-American Project The British-American Project (BAP) is an organisation intended to strengthen links between the United Kingdom and the United States. BAP operates on a not-for-profit basis, funded through its membership and support from corporate partners. It was ...

. * Recipient of Eisenhower Fellowship (2012). * Honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Lit.),

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, 2012, for services to broadcasting. * Andrew Cross Award for Speech Broadcaster of the Year 2006, and other programme content awards. * Thinker and Explainer of the Year, Slugger O'Toole/Channel 4 Political Awards 2011. * Aisling Award, 2013, for contribution to Irish language broadcasting. * Patron,

Belfast Film Festival The Belfast Film Festival (BFF) is an annual film festival in Northern Ireland with an attendance over 25,000. In 2022, it launched its International Competition program. BFF includes the Docs Ireland international documentary festival, as well ...

. * Member of advisory board of ''Irish Pages: A Journal of Contemporary Writing''. * 2015 Royal Television Society Documentary Award for Brave New World: New Zealand. * Member of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

. *2022 IMRO Speech Broadcaster of the Year (Gold Award).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawley, William Alumni of Queen's University Belfast BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC Radio Ulster presenters Television personalities from Northern Ireland People educated at the Belfast Royal Academy Radio personalities from Northern Ireland Television presenters from Northern Ireland Living people Members of the Royal Irish Academy Year of birth missing (living people)