Brian Hanrahan

Brian Hanrahan
Born	(1949-03-22)22 March 1949 Middlesex, England
Died	20 December 2010(2010-12-20) (aged 61) England
Occupation(s)	Journalist, television presenter
Years active	1969–2010
Notable credit(s)	BBC News Falklands War

Brian Hanrahan (22 March 1949 – 20 December 2010) was a British television journalist, who was the Diplomatic News Editor for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Early life, education and early career

Hanrahan was born in the county of Middlesex on 22 March 1949. He received his formal education at St Ignatius, Stamford Hill, in Tottenham, and subsequently studied Politics at the University of Essex, where he was a member of an amateur dramatic society.

In 1970 he joined the British Broadcasting Corporation as a photographic stills clerk. He was one of the six news trainees appointed by the B.B.C. in 1971, and went on to become a news scriptwriter with the organization, and then a Duty Editor in the BBC Television Newsroom. He worked for a spell as the B.B.C.'s Northern Ireland correspondent reporting on the paramilitary war in Ulster.

Falklands War

As a B.B.C. war correspondent Hanrahan joined the press corps attached to the Task Force dispatched by the Government of the United Kingdom to liberate the Falkland Islands after an invasion of them by the Armed Forces of Argentina on 2 April 1982.

Whilst traveling with the Task Force Southwards through the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, in one of his broadcast reports from the ship he produced the most memorable journalistic moment of the war when reporting on an early air strike by harrier jump jets operating from Hermes, when, to work a way around restrictions in operation upon him regarding classified military information, he stated:

I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid, but I counted them all out, and I counted them all back.

He later went ashore on East Falkland during the land campaign, and reported from amidst British Armed Forces units in the frontline whilst under fire, and was present at the liberation of Port Stanley by them on 14 June 1982, which ended the war.

Later career

During the 1980s he was a B.B.C. correspondent in Hong Kong, and subsequently in Moscow, reporting on the end of the Soviet Union in 1989.

Death

Hanrahan died of cancer on 20 December 2010 in his 62nd year.

Martin Bell wrote of him in an obituary published in The Guardian: In the world of television news, where inflated egos are not unknown, Brian Hanrahan stood out for his modesty as well as his way with words'.

Personal life

Hanrahan was married, the marriage producing a daughter.

Publications

• I counted them all out and I counted them all back - The Battle for the Falkland Islands (1982). (Co-authored with Robert Fox).

External links

• BBC Profile of Brian Hanrahan
• Obituary of Brian Hanrahan, The Daily Telegraph, 20 December 2010
• Obituary of Brian Hanrahan, The Guardian, 20 December 2010
• Obituary of Brian Hanrahan, The Independent, 21 December 2010
• Obituary of Brian Hanrahan, The New York Times, 23 December 2010

Audio clips

• Counting returning Harriers
• Bombing in Bluff Cove
• Argentinian surrender

Video clips

• Chernobyl
• As the BBC's Diplomatic Editor