Nicholas Owen

Beginning his journalistic career on the Surrey Mirror in 1964 aged 17 Nicholas moved to Fleet Street in 1968 to work for the Evening Standard.  Subsequently he joined The Daily Telegraph before spending seven years with the Financial Times. Furthermore, he joined the magazine Now in 1979 firstly as Deputy Business Editor then Business Editor.

Switching to television reporting Nicholas joined the BBC in the north of England. There he covered general and industrial stories for both regional and national news and current affairs programmes.

Moving to ITN/ITV

Owen moved to ITN in 1984, as Channel 4 News‘ Business and Economics Correspondent.^[5] During the First Gulf War he presented the highly acclaimed Midnight Special Programmes when they were launched on Channel 4. He also anchored The Parliament Programme, Channel 4’s first daytime political series. Between 1991-1994, he co-presented the ITN Lunchtime News.

From 1994 to April 2000 Owen was Royal Correspondent for ITV News. He played a major role in reporting on the death and Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. He compiled a book on her life entitled Diana – The People’s Princess. Throughout this period, he was a regular presenter of weekend news bulletins on ITN, as well as a relief presenter for both the Lunchtime and Early Evening bulletins.

From 2003 to 2006, Owen once again became the main presenter of the ITV Lunchtime News on ITV. He contributed heavily to ITN’s coverage of budgetary matters.

In 2006, Owen took part in BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing but was voted off in the first week of the show . Also in 2006, he appeared on ITV Play‘s nightly game show The Mint and gave away the jackpot of over £130,000 to the winner.

Moving to the BBC

Nicholas’s last broadcast on ITV was the ITV Evening News on 7 February 2007 and he took up his BBC News post on 3 March 2007.

Regularly hosting a Saturday afternoon show on Classic FM Nicholas also contributes to other radio and TV programmes.

In July 2002, Owen was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and he became an Honorary Patron of Kidney Cancer UK in 2003. Since the 1980s he has been a supporter of the charities Cancer Research UK and ActionAid, taking part in various fundraising events for these organisations.

His Charities

He is also an Ambassador of The Children’s Trust, a UK charity for children with brain injury. And he is a Patron of Dyscover Ltd a Surrey-based charity for people suffering from aphasia following stroke or brain injury.

A couple of little known facts are that Nicholas has a huge passion for railways and has written books on the Brighton Belle, and the history of the trolleybus.

• Nicholas also provides the voiceover on Tramlink in Croydon.
• Owen was a Vice-Patron of the Bluebell Railway‘s project to extend the line towards East Grinstead.
• In 2012 his autobiography Days Like This was published.
• Married to former newspaper reporter Brenda they have four children and eight grandchildren.
• Nicholas’s commercial bookings include
• Hosting the launch of the new one-pound coin for the Royal Mint with the Queen’s new portrait.
• Chairing the National Rail Conference for many years moderating panel discussions and working with figures from the industry, the Government, and the Secretary of State for Transport.
• Hosting and presenting Staff Awards for the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust.
• Directing question and answer sessions on the future of oncology medicine for Pfizer Ltd.
• Chairing an international environmental conference at the Natural History Museum.
• Facilitating question and answer sessions at successive Police Federation conferences.
• Presiding over BT workshop sessions involving other leading FTSE 100 firms.
• Hosting a major international television conference at the Palais de Congress in Paris, attended by TV executives worldwide, both in the audience and via video links.
• Overseeing and presenting international medical seminars including the European Society of Cardiologists and the European Hematology Association.