Forums Forums National News PM Pays Tribute To Carol Barnes

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has paid tribute to Carol Barnes, one of Britain's best-known newsreaders, who has died aged 63.

Carol Barnes on ITNHe said she was an "incisive interviewer" and would be sadly missed.

Ms Barnes, a former ITN newsreader, died after suffering a stroke.

She anchored all of ITN's main news programmes, including the flagship News at Ten bulletin for a number of years.

"The whole country will be saddened to hear the news of Carol Barnes' death, nd our thoughts are with her family, friends and colleagues," he said.

"She was a great broadcaster and an incisive interviewer, and she will be reatly missed."

Her son James paid tribute, saying: "My mum was a beautiful, kind and delicate person - a person loved by many and whom I am desperately proud to call my mother."

She began her working life as a teacher, before joining ITN as a reporter in 1976 and then went on to present the news.

Advertisement

She later left ITN before rejoining the news team for the war in Iraq as one of the main presenters on the now-defunct ITV News Channel.

Ms Barnes, who was known affectionately as Barnesy to her many friends and colleagues, died at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Newsreader Dermot Murnaghan, who now works at Sky News, said she was very "professional" and "could not have been more kind" to him when he started work at ITN at the end of the 1980s.

He called her "one of the foremost broadcasters of her generation" and her death was a "great loss to British broadcasting" and it had "left a hole in my life".

Murnaghan said Ms Barnes used to give him advice on how to cope with the hours and environment.

He added: "I was in awe of the mighty Carol Barnes and she was just so down to earth, so helpful but, above all, so professional."


Meeting the Queen in 1991Nick Pollard, former head of Sky News and a long-time colleague of Ms Barnes, said his friend was one of the best loved figures in the TV news industry.

"Everyone in the industry who knew Carol will be very sad today as I doubt there's a more loved person in our industry and a person held in overall greater esteem," he said.

"She was a super woman, a super journalist and will be very sadly missed."

Former ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis told Sky: "It is a very sad day for friends, colleagues and viewers."

An ITN statement said: "Carol was only recently commissioned by ITV to present a documentary about former ITN colleague Ed Mitchell - she also had a string of other projects under way."

Ms Barnes had a long relationship with former Government Minister Denis MacShane, who said: "Carol bred affection, warmth, political acuteness and humanity wherever she lived and worked."

Their 24-year-old daughter Clare was killed in a skydiving accident in Australia in 2004.

Thats a shame

god bless, she was global

wow didn't know who she was until i saw her pic. My gold fish "Dave" died today too had him 3 years.

Such a terrible loss, and at such a young age...

I still fondly remember the day you introduced the wiki to Dave... He was "ard"!

I knew she was ill, didn't know she had died, i knew she wouldn't pull through but, mad, shock. makes you realize your growing up.