Bruce Parker

Who is Bruce Parker?

Bruce Parker is a British journalist and television presenter whose career spanned the mid-1960s to 2003, when he retired. Strongly committed to regional broadcasting, he was responsible in the mid-1960s for a pilot local radio station in the Channel Islands, which eventually led to the setting up of a string of BBC Local Radio stations across the UK. In 1967 he joined BBC South in Southampton, where he remained for most of his career, making a name as a regular presenter and reporter for South Today. He was also a respected political interviewer and later BBC South's political editor, hosting South of Westminster and South on Sunday.

In the 1970s he became a familiar face to viewers in the rest of Britain, first as a news reporter and later as the first host of The Antiques Roadshow and a regular contributor to Nationwide. In September 1977 he filed probably his most famous news reports, about the story of Victor, a giraffe at Marwell Zoological Park. He also presented the short-lived BBC1 arts magazine Mainstream in 1979. He was also the BBC commentator for the raising of the Mary Rose in October 1982, clips of which regularly appear on nostalgia and retrospective programmes.