Name Brian Walden TV shows Weekend World Children Ben Walden | Party Labour Party Role Journalist | |
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Education Nuffield College, Oxford, The Queen's College, Oxford Awards British Academy Television International Award, British Academy Television Richard Dimbleby Award | ||
Brian walden s final weekend world
Alastair Brian Walden (born 8 July 1932 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire) is a British journalist and broadcaster who spent over a decade as a Labour Member of Parliament. He is the father of actor Ben Walden.
Contents
- Brian walden s final weekend world
- General election october 1974 robin day interviews brian walden mp
- Early life
- Political career
- Journalistic career
- References
General election october 1974 robin day interviews brian walden mp
Early life
The son of a glass-worker, Walden attended West Bromwich Grammar School. He then won an open scholarship to study at Queen's College, Oxford, where he "narrowly missed a first" in history and in 1957 was elected president of the Oxford Union. He completed a postgraduate course at Nuffield College, Oxford before becoming a university lecturer.
Political career
Walden unsuccessfully contested the safe Conservative constituency of Oswestry in a 1961 by-election, coming third for Labour. At the 1964 general election Walden was elected MP for Birmingham All Saints in an election where race dominated the Birmingham campaign. He was re-elected in the general elections of 1966 and 1970. When All Saints was abolished Walden sought and gained the Labour nomination for Birmingham Ladywood, and was elected there in February 1974 and October 1974. He campaigned for the liberalisation of cannabis and gambling laws; he was nicknamed by some "the bookies' MP" when he was revealed to be receiving more from the National Association of Bookmakers than his parliamentary salary. On 16 June 1977 Walden resigned from the House of Commons by taking the Chiltern Hundreds in order to become a full-time journalist and broadcaster.
Journalistic career
He has presented television programmes, mostly for London Weekend Television, such as Weekend World, The Walden Interview and Walden, and was a member of the board of Central Television between 1981 and 1984.
Walden is considered one of the finest political interviewers in the history of British broadcasting, tenacious and ruthless. He was known for interviews of politicians, especially Margaret Thatcher. He was said to be her favourite interviewer, although he gave her a tough ride. In October 1989 Thatcher gave Walden an interview when her own (Conservative) party was turning against her.
Brian Walden: "You come over as being someone who one of your backbenchers said is slightly off her trolley, authoritarian, domineering, refusing to listen to anybody else – why? Why cannot you publicly project what you have just told me is your private character?" Margaret Thatcher: "Brian, if anyone’s coming over as domineering in this interview, it’s you."Upon leaving Weekend World as presenter in 1986, Walden was succeeded by Matthew Parris, formerly Conservative MP for West Derbyshire. In 2005 Walden presented 10-minute programmes, A Point of View, on BBC Radio 4, in a spot formerly occupied by Alistair Cooke's Letter From America.
He lives in Guernsey. He opposes the ban on fox-hunting.