Bill Turnbull

William Robert Jolyon Turnbull (25 January 1956 – 31 August 2022) was a television and radio presenter and journalist whose broadcasting career spanned over 4 decades.

He began his career working for some radio stations including Radio Clyde and BBC Radio 4's Today.

Turnbull was born in Guildford, Surrey, on 25 January 1956, the youngest of four siblings to William, a barrister of Scottish ancestry who worked in the City of London and Honor (née Wicks), a teacher.

He was educated at Eton College and the University of Edinburgh, where he edited the student newspaper.

He graduated from Cardiff University in 1978.

Turnbull's career began at Scottish local station Radio Clyde in 1978; he later freelanced for a number of years in the US.

Turnbull joined the BBC as a reporter for the Today programme in 1986 and Breakfast Time as a reporter in 1988, before becoming a correspondent for BBC News in 1990.

He covered a wide range of domestic and international stories, reporting from more than 30 countries, including a four-year stint as Washington Correspondent, based in the US.

His producer for a while was Sian Williams.

In this role, he reported on a number of major American stories, including the O. J. Simpson murder trial and the Monica Lewinsky scandal that rocked Bill Clinton's presidency.

In 1997, Turnbull moved back to the UK and became one of the main presenters on BBC News 24, appearing alongside Valerie Sanderson.

He also presented regular programmes on Radio 5 Live, including a stint as a presenter on Weekend Breakfast.

He presented BBC News 24 and BBC Radio 5 Live before taking on his most notable role as one of the main presenters of BBC Breakfast, a position he held for 15 years between 2001 and 2016.

Later in his career, he presented the religious series Songs of Praise and game show Think Tank, as well as being a presenter on the radio station Classic FM.

Turnbull joined the BBC Breakfast team in 2001 as a weekend presenter, presenting with Sian Williams initially and then later with Sarah Montague, Mishal Husain and Susanna Reid.

He also regularly appeared as a relief presenter on the weekday programme, with Sophie Raworth, Natasha Kaplinsky, Kate Silverton and Louise Minchin.

In the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings, Turnbull anchored Breakfast's coverage live from King's Cross railway station.

In 2005, he was a contestant in the third series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with Karen Hardy.

In spite of a serious ankle injury in the second week (which then flared up at various points in the series), he stayed in the competition for seven weeks, finishing sixth out of twelve contestants.

In August 2006, Turnbull agreed to take part in a polyphasic sleep experiment presented on BBC One's The One Show.

In this experiment, he slept for a total of three hours per day, in six 30-minute bursts, for ten consecutive days.

The effect of this sleep pattern on his health was visible, as he presented Breakfast almost every weekday during the duration of the exercise and became increasingly sleep-deprived.

In November 2006, he appeared alongside fellow BBC News presenters in a performance for Children in Need that Jan Moir, writing for The Telegraph, described as "charisma-free", adding that although Turnbull dressed up like James Bond, he looked like a "dodgy sommelier".

He became the main weekday presenter of Breakfast in 2008, rejoining Williams and replacing Dermot Murnaghan.

Turnbull was also an occasional relief presenter of News at Six and News at One.

As well as anchoring programmes in the studio, Turnbull regularly presented on location.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he was sent to New Orleans to report for BBC News, presenting both Breakfast and the News at Six live from Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi.

He fronted the programme's coverage of the 2008 US presidential election live from Washington, D.C. and New York, and was in Washington once again for the 2012 US presidential election.

In April and May 2010, Turnbull travelled around the UK presenting and reporting for Breakfast on the general election campaign trail.

In June 2010 he presented Breakfast live from Whitehaven in the aftermath of the Cumbria shootings.

He joined the presenting team of the BBC's Songs of Praise in 2013.

In 2015, he began narrating the CBBC sketch comedy series Class Dismissed, also appearing in a cameo as himself in episode 12.

It was announced on 2 September 2015 that Turnbull would be leaving Breakfast early the following year, after fifteen years.

He presented his last episode, with Louise Minchin, on 26 February 2016.

In March 2016, he began presenting the daytime BBC One quiz show Think Tank.

Beginning in April 2016, he presented his own radio show on Classic FM.

The show aired from 10:00am until 1:00pm on Saturday and Sunday.

In July 2016, Turnbull narrated another CBBC mockumentary comedy series based on Paignton Zoo called The Zoo, broadcast on CBBC in 2017.

Turnbull was guest presenter of three episodes of The One Show during 2016, alongside Alex Jones.

In March 2018, just as his cancer diagnosis was made public, BBC One aired 10 episodes of Holding Back the Years, featuring Turnbull with Fiona Phillips offering information on living well in later life.