Journalist and TV presenter Gordon Burns, who has a very famous pop star cousin, enjoyed a 50 year career in the media before retiring but he still likes to keep involved in current affairs and make the occasional appearance
His name and face were synonymous with ITV’s Krypton Factor for what seemed like forever. Gordon Burns presented the iconic game show for 18 years right from the first show in 1977 until the last of the original series in 1995.
But before he reluctantly agreed to host the show as a favour to a friend, Burns was a serious journalist. He landed his “dream job” as a sports news assistant at BBC Radio and went on to have a long and hugely successful career on both telly and radio.
He presented news and sport for Ulster TV, the BBC and ITV, with a lengthy term as anchor for the award winning regional news programme North West Tonight. These days 83-year-old Gordon is taking it a little more easy but he hasn’t shunned the limelight completely.
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Gordon is now enjoying a quiet life at home in Manchester with his wife of nearly 54 years. The couple have two grown up children and four grandchildren. He may have retired but the talented journalist has had a colourful career having interviewed eight prime ministers and celebrities such as George Best, Sir Paul McCartney and Ed Sheeran – who also happens to be his second cousin.
The global superstar appeared on Gordon’s radio show and the pair also enjoyed a pint of Guinness together at the funeral of Gordon’s grandfather. “He’s a lovely guy, a very, very nice fellow and a very talented musician and singer,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.
It was at that paper that Gordon, who was born in Northern Ireland, started his career as a reporter, straight from school. After a stint on BBC Radio’s Sport Report he joined Ulster Television as sports editor and as anchor on nightly news programme UTV. He covered the early days of The Troubles as the region descended into violence and also hosted his own weekend chat show, The Gordon Burns Hour. Terrifyingly, he received threats from both sides of the conflict and discovered his name was on an assassination list. Although he was twice followed by a car as he walked down a street, thankfully he escaped harm.
In 1973 he moved to Manchester where he took up a post with Granada Television. He presented and reported for various shows in his 22 years with the company, including Granada Reports and World in Action. It was during this time that he agreed to host the Krypton Factor as a favour to a friend in the industry.
After such an illustrious start to his career in politics and current affairs, fronting a game show didn’t really appeal but he said he’d do it for 12 months. He ended up staying for the entire 18 year run, which saw contestants from the UK and Ireland compete in rounds to test their physical and mental strength. The prime time programme was a huge hit and drew in 18 million viewers at its peak.
Branching out into a different area had an unexpected effect on the direction of his career. “It was good in many ways for me, but you get pigeonholed on TV – and the politics and current affairs faded away,” Gordon said in 2019. “Suddenly I ended up doing things like Surprise Surprise with Cilla Black – I appeared in one show and ended up doing five series. I set up my own production company and began to devise quiz-type shows.”
A couple of years after he left the Krypton Factor, Gordon returned to his roots and took up a role as chief anchor at BBC’s North West Tonight between 1997 to 2011. Journalist and TV presenter Ranvir Singh, who now presents on Good Morning Britain, joined him as co-host on the sofa a decade after his solo reign. In 2011 he left the show and moved onto BBC Radio before eventually retiring in 2013.
Since then Gordon has returned to North West Tonight a couple of times. He led tributes in 2019 to his friend and former colleague Dianne Oxberry. The mum of two tragically died from cancer and Gordon choked back tears on air as he shared memories of working with the weather presenter and reporter. In July this year he went back to the sofa once more for the only reason he said he would ever come out of retirement – to interview Gee Walker, the mother of murdered teenager Anthony Walker, on the 20th anniversary of her son’s death.
After leaving our TV screens and airwaves he put his extensive experience to good use by setting up a media training company, The Gordon Burns Partnership. It offered advice to companies in local and national media on communications, PR and leadership to raise their profile. The company was dissolved in 2020 but was operational for nine years.
Source: Mirror
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