BBC correspondent Brian Hanrahan has died at 61

Brian Hanrahan, the former diplomatic editor of BBC News and a well-known correspondent, has died at the age of 61 after a short battle against cancer.

His reporting spanned the reshaping of Nato and the EU, as well as conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Middle East.

As the BBC's Far East, and then Moscow correspondent, he watched dramatic changes unfolding in China and Russia.

He famously also covered the Falklands War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Regular voice
It was in the Falkands War in 1982, that he made his reputation, famously counting out the RAF Harriers - and "counted them all back" - to ensure he could report the story and get round MoD reporting restrictions.

In recent years, he had covered ceremonial and state events such as the anniversaries of D-Day and the funerals of Diana, Princess of Wales and the Queen Mother.

Earlier this year he returned to Poland - from where he had reported on the rise of Solidarity - to cover the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski.

He was a regular voice on BBC's Radio 4 as presenter of both The World at One and The World This Weekend programmes.

Brian Hanrahan, the long-serving BBC foreign correspondent best known for his coverage of the Falklands war, has died after a short illness.

Hanrahan, 61, the former BBC world diplomatic editor, also witnessed first hand the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

However, he will be best remembered for the line: "I counted them all out and I counted them all back," from one of his report's from the South Atlantic during the Falklands war in 1982.

Hanrahan was referring to Harrier jump jets returning to one of the Royal Navy's carriers after completing a combat mission without loss.

He used that form of words to get round military censorship of media reports – and it became the title of his book about the conflict, co-written with fellow correspondent Robert Fox.

Hanrahan died after a short battle with cancer. His BBC career spanned nearly 40 years, beginning in 1971 after graduating from Essex University.

He was on the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes during the Falklands war when the first air strikes started taking place on Port Stanley in May 1982. Naval officials placed severe restrictions on what he could report, particularly in respect of the numbers of sorties flown by the Harrier jets.

Fox told the BBC today that in order to get round the restrictions, Hanrahan colluded with the "raffish Old Etonian intelligence officer" Rupert Nichol, who told him that they had both seen the same number of planes going in and coming back, and "that was the way he should go". Hanrahan turned the idea into the line he used on his broadcast.

The BBC's world news editor, Jon Williams, said Hanrahan "would always be remembered for an extraordinary story and an extraordinary turn of phrase".

Williams added that it was his "longevity" and his "tone" that marked him out. "He could always be relied on to find the right word at the right moment."

As well as the Falklands, he covered many of the biggest foreign stories of the past 30 years as a correspondent on location and latterly, as diplomatic editor, interpreting international affairs from London and travelling widely to provide expert analysis.

From 1983 he covered Asia, based in Hong Kong, observing the reforms of Deng Xioping in China, the assassination of Mrs Ghandi and the succession of her son as Indian prime minister.

He moved to Moscow in 1986 and reported on Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts to reform the Soviet Union.

In 1989 he became diplomatic correspondent during a momentous year, covering Tiananmen Square and the collapse of communist regimes in eastern Europe.

He was present in Poland for the arrival of the first non-communist government in eastern Europe; at the fall of the Berlin Wall; and during the Romanian revolution.

As diplomatic editor from 1997 he provided live studio analysis of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US and went to New York shortly afterwards to report on the aftermath.

More recently he has filed for BBC Radio 4 current affairs programmes including The World At One and The World Tonight, as well as contributing to TV programmes on major international and historical events.

Hanrahan was also part of the BBC commentary team for major ceremonial and state occasions including the funerals of Princess Diana and the Queen Mother, the millennium celebrations, the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of his successor.



By:-  Jason Deans


Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/20/brian-hanrahan-bbc-foreign-correspon...

This is taken from the New York Times:

Brian Hanrahan, BBC Reporter, Dies at 61
By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: December 23, 2010

LONDON — Brian Hanrahan, a veteran BBC reporter who was responsible for one of British war reporting’s most celebrated moments, aboard an aircraft carrier off the Falklands in 1982, died here on Monday. He was 61.

The cause was bowel cancer, his family said.

Like many who have built distinguished careers, Mr. Hanrahan made his breakthrough by chance, stepping in when more senior colleagues were unavailable for an assignment aboard a Royal Navy aircraft carrier, the Hermes. The carrier would play a crucial part in Britain’s brief war to recover the Falkland Islands after Argentina had invaded them.

Mr. Hanrahan’s moment came with his choice of words in reporting on the Fleet Air Arm’s first attack on Argentine positions at Port Stanley, the Falklands capital. Censors had forbade him to mention the number of Harrier jumpjets involved in the mission.

“I’m not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid,” he said in a television report that showed the aircraft returning to the carrier, “but I counted them all out, and I counted them all back.”

He added, “Their pilots were unhurt, cheerful and jubilant, giving thumbs-up signs.”

The words struck a chord with Britons who had lived through World War II, when BBC reports of raids over Germany often included the phrase, not always true, “All of our aircraft returned safely.”

Mr. Hanrahan’s description offered reassurance to a home audience deeply anxious about a war 8,000 miles away, with weapons systems, including the Harriers, that were untested in combat.

The words also made Mr. Hanrahan a household name. From the Falklands he went to Hong Kong for an assignment that included the negotiations for Britain’s 1984 agreement to return the territory to China. He then moved to the Soviet Union, where he covered the rise of Mikhail S. Gorbachev and the reform period known as perestroika. He was one of the first reporters on the scene when the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in 1986.

After his Soviet assignment, a heart condition led to his being based in Britain, where he became the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent. He had another memorable moment abroad when he stood atop the Berlin wall in 1989, delivering a 10-minute running commentary as thousands of East Germans streamed through.

Born on March 22, 1949, Mr. Hanrahan attended the University of Essex, where he won a grant to travel to the United States. The son of a construction worker, he took a job working on a Manhattan building site and traveled across America on a Greyhound bus.

On his return to Britain, he asked to visit the BBC in 1970 and, mistaken by a producer for a candidate for a job, was chosen for a position in the photo library, beginning a journeyman’s rise through the news department.

In 1986, he married a fellow journalist, Honor Wilson, and they had a daughter. They both survive him.

A Celebration of the Life and Work of Brian Hanrahan, 1949 – 2010

will take place on Wednesday 6 April 2011 at 12 noon
in the BBC Radio Theatre, Broadcasting House, London W1A 1AA,
followed by drinks in the Media Café in New Broadcasting House.

All are welcome but, as space is limited, entry will be by ticket only.

If you would like to attend, please contact ddinahg@supanet.com or write to PO Box 31497, London W4 3QF saying how many tickets you would like.  

Do please pass this information on to other friends and colleagues you think would like attend. Thank you.