Bob Friend

Who was Bob Friend?

Bob Friend, MBE was one of the original news anchors for the Sky News channel from its launch in 1989 until his retirement in late 2003.

Friend started his career in 1953 aged 15 as a cub reporter on the Tunbridge Wells Advertiser, reporting on the Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation. After he undertook National Service as a corporal clerk with the Brigade of Gurkhas in Hong Kong, Friend served a ten year freelance career in various British newspapers before starting his broadcast career with the BBC in 1969.

Starting out as the Northern Ireland correspondent of the Radio 4's Today programme, Friend served four years in Northern Ireland witnessing sectarian violence at the start of The Troubles. After a short stint in Vietnam he got his first official overseas TV posting as the BBC's first Australia correspondent in 1973, five years as the BBC's Tokyo correspondent, and finally New York city as BBC Breakfast correspondent where his producer was Mark Thompson, who went on to become Director General of the BBC

After 20 years with the BBC, Friend returned to the United Kingdom to work on the start-up Sky News. Friend's first appearance on Sky News was on 23 October 1989 alongside Vivien Creegor, but his best known on-screen partner was Anna Botting, and they became one of channel's most popular news duos.