Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> Notices, obituaries and tributes >> Mark Turnbull http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1371213297 Message started by Administrator on Jun 14^th, 2013, 12:35pm

Title: Mark Turnbull
Post by Administrator on Jun 14^th, 2013, 12:35pm

BBC Tees staff have been paying tribute to Mark Turnbull, the former presenter who has died at the age of 50 after a short illness.

BBC News has a tribute here.

"Radio Today" has a tribute here.

Title: Re: Mark Turnbull
Post by Administrator on Jun 22^nd, 2013, 7:38pm

"The Independent" has an obituary to Mark here, by Peta Steel.

"Mark Turnbull, blind from birth, refused to allow his disability get in the way as he reported on darts and snooker, covered the law courts, ran his own radio programme, played the piano with Frank Sinatra, headed a union – and helped to change the way that the legal system excluded the blind from its ranks. He also scored a coup in landing the first broadcast interview with Tony Blair when he stepped down as Prime Minister.

He felt it was important that those who weren’t disabled should experience working with those who were, and he joined the National Union of Journalists, becoming a member of the National Executive, then president in 1998. During his year’s presidency he met Fidel Castro’s brother in Cuba, thrashed out details of the Freedom of Information Bill with David Blunkett and made sure that he reached out to members, responding to all calls to meet him."

The NUJ obituary is here.