John Suchet ( ; born 29 March 1944) is a British news reader and television presenter.
Suchet has two brothers, one of whom is David Suchet, a British actor. His father was Jack Suchet, who emigrated to England from South Africa in 1932, and trained to be a doctor at St Mary's Hospital, London.
Suchet's paternal grandfather was a Lithuanian Jew who shortened his name from Suchedowitz to Suchet, and Suchet's Jewish father emigrated from South Africa to England in 1932 and became a medical student at St Mary's Hospital, London in 1933, and later, as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, worked with Alexander Fleming on the role of penicillin in treating venereal disease. His mother, Joan, was Anglican.
Suchet was brought up with his two brothers Peter and David. He attended the private Uppingham School, Rutland, and then the University of Dundee, from which he now holds an honorary doctorate. Peter is an advertising executive, and his younger brother David Suchet is an actor, best known for his portrayal of Agatha Christie's Poirot.
Suchet began his career in journalism in 1967 when he was taken on as a graduate trainee by Reuter's News Agency. During that year he learned the rudiments of straightforward, unbiased news editing and reporting under the tutelage of John Fawcus and Anton Wills-Eve. He was on the Middle East desk at the time of the six days war in June that year, an event that taught him how to edit copy that was fast, accurate and acceptable to newspapers in both Israel and the Arab world. This objective attitude towards his journalism never left him. Suchet is most famous for being a newsreader for ITV News from 1972 until 2004. During this time, he presented News at 12.30/News at One and News at Ten, but became best-known for his presenting the Early Evening News between 1992 (when it was introduced to replace the News At 5:40) and 1999 when the bulletin was dropped. Initially, he alternated with Carol Barnes as the regular presenter of the Early Evening News but by 1994 he had become the sole main host and thereafter replaced predecessors Michael Nicholson and Alastair Stewart as "the face of the evening news". He also anchored or contributed to countless special event programmes, including royal occasions (he was one of the main commentators on ITN's coverage of Princess Diana's funeral), the Budget and ITN's election coverage. He was voted fifth scariest TV and radio celebrity in the Radio Times poll.
He retired from ITN in March 2004, then made a return to TV news, presenting Five News, initially for a six-month period from March 2006, then extended to Christmas 2007.
Recent work
Suchet has also been a guest presenter for ITV's This Morning, as well as being a guest panellist on Five's The Wright Stuff. He also presents Composer's Notes on Classic FM, a show in which he examines the wealth of famous composers. He also hosted the revival of the quiz show Going for Gold on Five and then later Wordplay on Five.
In July 2009, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the NASA moon landings, ITN is producing five special 10-minute programmes for ITV titled Mission to the Moon - News from 1969. Suchet, a former ITN newscaster, is the presenter of these specials. The first airs at 10:35 on ITV on Wednesday 15 July and runs the following Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday.
Suchet and his wife Bonnie have five grown up sons between them from previous marriages and live in London. In 2006, Bonnie was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in her early 60s. He appeared on the mainstream ITN/ITV and BBC news bulletins on 17 February 2009 to talk about this and to raise awareness of the disease and to campaign on behalf of Admiral Nurses. He explained that she would have no idea that he was on the news programmes.
Suchet is a huge fan of and writer on Ludwig van Beethoven and has toured with his material.
