Richard Lindley (journalist) explained

Richard Lindley
Honorific Suffix:MBE
Birth Name:Richard Howard Charles Lindley
Birth Date:25 April 1936
Birth Place:Winchester, Hampshire, England
Death Place:London, England
Nationality:British
Occupation:Television journalist
Spouse:Clare Fehrsen (1976–1986)
Carole Stone (1999–2019)
Children:2

Richard Lindley MBE (25 April 1936 – 6 November 2019) was a British television journalist. As a foreign correspondent, he was noted for reporting from war zones for the BBC's Panorama and for ITV.

Biography

Lindley was born in Winchester, Hampshire, England, on 25 April 1936. He was educated at Bedford School and studied English Literature at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he was chair of the film society.[1]

Lindley's television career began in 1962. He joined ITN, working as a war reporter in Africa, Asia and in the Middle East. In 1973, he moved from news to current affairs, joining the BBC's flagship Panorama programme. He remained with Panorama for 15 years, before being appointed as a television regulator at the Independent Broadcasting Authority, forerunner of Ofcom, regulating the accuracy and impartiality of ITV news and current affairs.

Returning to programme-making, he became a reporter and presenter for ITV's This Week. He subsequently rejoined ITN to present its World News and make special reports for News at Ten.

He published two books about the history of British broadcasting: one on BBC Panorama[2] [3] and another on the News from ITN.[4] [5]

In 2008, he was elected to the council of the Royal Free Hospital,[6] for which he was latterly lead governor, and other charitable work included chairing the Voice of the Listener & Viewer and also the St Pancras Almshouses, a sheltered accommodatiion charity.[7]

He was appointed MBE in the 2017 Birthday Honours for voluntary and charitable services.[8] [9]

Lindley's first marriage in 1976 to Clare Fehrsen, with whom he had two children, ended in divorce after ten years. In 1999, he married the broadcaster Carole Stone.[10]

Lindley died at home in London on 6 November 2019 of heart disease, a month after having been run over by a lorry when crossing the road and suffering multiple injuries. He had lived with early-onset Alzheimer's disease in his final three years.[11]

Notes and References

  1. News: Richard Lindley obituary. Anthony . Hayward. Anthony Hayward. Robin Denselow. The Guardian. 21 November 2019.
  2. News: Decline and fall. William . Cran. The Observer. 22 September 2002.
  3. Lindley, Richard (2002), Panorama: Fifty Years of Pride and Paranoia, Politico's, .
  4. News: Matt. Wells. Unhappy returns for ITN. The Guardian. 24 January 2005.
  5. Lindley, Richard, And Finally ... ? The News From ITN, Politico's, 2005.
  6. News: Former TV reporter joins Free. Dan. Carrier. Camden New Journal. 27 March 2008.
  7. News: 2019-11-19. Richard Lindley, dashing television reporter and inquisitor at ITN and for BBC 'Panorama' in its heyday, who was the first western journalist to interview Saddam Hussein – obituary. The Daily Telegraph.
  8. Web site: Birthday Honours 2017: the Prime Minister's list (CSV). gov.uk. 16 June 2017.
  9. News: Richard Lindley obituary. The Times. 21 November 2019.
  10. Web site: Why I waited so long to get married. 15 January 2013. 2020-12-08. The Telegraph. en-GB.
  11. News: Richard Howard Charles Lindley MBE. Ham&High. 19 July 2022.