Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> Notices, obituaries and tributes >> Jolyon Monson http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1519754961 Message started by chris west on Feb 27^th, 2018, 6:10pm

Title: Jolyon Monson
Post by chris west on Feb 27^th, 2018, 6:10pm

I've had this message from Alan Ashton:

I have just heard the sad news that Jolyon Monson has died. After working on newspapers, he joined the BBC in the BH newsroom. He went into current affairs where he became a stalwart on the Today programme for more than a decade, rising to deputy editor under the late Julian Holland.

He took early retirement in the 1990s and went to live in France with his wife Sherry. Unfortunately he suffered ill health for about the last ten years and went into hospital with a gall bladder problem last Wednesday. The doctors there wanted to operate. but Jolyon discharged himself and went home where he died a few days later. As well as Sherry, he leaves three sons..

Title: Re: Jolyon Monson
Post by Administrator on Feb 28^th, 2018, 10:30am

Bill Rogers (trading as wdr) writes this tribute to Jolyon.

"I'm sure others, who knew him more closely, will want to write tributes to Jolyon Monson, who has died at his home in Darcey, Burgundy.

He came to the BBC Radio Newsroom from papers, and soon moved to current affairs. I first met him as a trainee on attachment to The World Tonight, where Jolyon was a senior producer with a pipe, a cravat and plenty of very sensible advice. He spent nearly a decade at Today, including a spell as acting editor in the interregnum between Julian Holland and Jenny Abramsky. As Jenny's deputy, he helped shape our current Radio 4 worldview, as this piece from John Humphrys in a Mail feature from 2007 explains. Take yourself back, now, to 1987...

"The phone is ringing at my home in Henley-on-Thames as I unlock the front door. That surprises me a little because it’s almost midnight. I’m tired and a bit grumpy after another long day at Television Centre and I toy with letting it ring. But curiosity gets the better of me. Five minutes later my life has been changed. The caller is an old friend, Jolyon Monson, deputy editor of the Today programme. He comes straight to the point. John Timpson, the programme’s presenter, is retiring in a couple of months and the editor, Jenny Abramsky, wants to know if I’m interested in taking his job.

"I hesitate for all of ten seconds. Yes, I say. Yes of course I want the job. I want it so much I don’t even ask how much they’ll pay me to do it."

I think Jolyon and John bonded in New York, when Humphrys was correspondent there in the early 70s, and Jolyon was the radio producer on secondment. Jolyon moved on from Today in 1988, producing coverage of the Bush-Dukakis election, and editing a regular programme (another Abramsky idea), Europhile. Yes, you heard right.

Jolyon took early retirement in the 90s, briefly helping launch the London News Radio incarnation of LBC, which ran under Reuters ownership from 94 to 96."

http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.com.es/2018/02/jolyon-monson.html