BIG MOIRA to leave the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46593040

She had briefly left for a spell between 2007 and 2010 after being caught up in an ageism row with the BBC.

Radio2 controller only thanked her for the breakfast show with no mention of her Sunday night show.

BIG MOIRA klaxon!

God Bless Moira and - although no longer involved in television and, hence, *technically*, does not belong on this Forum, the great Lady remains an icon of our time and one of the best television newsreaders ever to exist.

As we have no other conduit to do so, I would like to wish her well.

All the best, Moira. You are a legend.

Not surprised she's left as I don't think they'd have wanted her on Zoe Balls new breakfast show, she was never that good on there IMO

I believe she was fairly highly paid too, so she'd not have been kept

I'm surprised that one of the other TV news companies haven't snapped her up since she left BBC Television.

Wasn’t she a newsreader and not a trained journalist? I think that’s seen as old fashioned now.

Correct. I understand she had to have DTL interviews written for her and avoided if at all possible. That's likely why appearances were fleeting right up to 2007, I remember she'd present the odd Saturday teatime shift only every couple of months by that point.

Having a separate newsreader (literally just a reader) is pretty old hat now really. I adore Moira’s voice and infectious giggle though.

Moria in this clip struggled with the interview part of this.

Moira when on TV only read the news and did not actually interview - think that was the point when left TV as she wasn't a trained journalist - but neither is Peter Levy on Look North for Lincs and East Yorks and he got away with it as an original DJ

Well, she only asked one question, which doesn't exactly require a degree in journalism to ask, (are you OK ?) and wound the interview up in a slightly rushed manner. Other than that ?

In fact it wasn't really an interview, just an on the spot report introduced by her.

There are lots of people in news like Peter Levy who don't have a background in journalism - Nicky Campbell and Simon Mayo are obvious examples, Andy Crane when he was doing Granada Reports a while back is another one. Regardless of Levy's background - and he was hired at a time when a newsreader was just that, someone who read the news so a good voice and pleasant manner was enough - he is clearly now well-versed in the art of news presenting and regularly carries out interviews and so on. In the early days of local radio everyone would do everything anyway.

The difference between him and Moira is, as mentioned, Moira didn't have that skillset and was hired as a newsreader and announcer and nothing else - which is a job that doesn't really exist anymore.