Throughout his 40-year career, George Alagiah was loved, admired and respected in equal measure by all who knew him. Sadly, the BBC News at Six presenter George died surrounded by his family at the age of 67. Here, his friend and colleague, BBC newsreader Clive Myrie, pays a touching tribute to the father of two, a “humble, kind, generous” man he looked up to, and tells how journalism has “lost a giant”...
Everything about George Alagiah’s career, shouted ‘superstar.’ He was a multi award winning journalist, a writer who'd penned two bestselling memoirs. He was well travelled, good looking and a hugely popular TV news presenter, trusted by millions of people. He’d even been awarded an OBE. But the George I knew, never ever behaved like a superstar. A man at the top of his game, he was always humble, kind and generous.
George Alagiah and Clive Myrie's friendship
Our paths didn’t really cross until 2009. Before then, I was a young reporter making my way in the BBC in the 1990s, and George was one of the Corporation’s star correspondents based overseas. His work covering the continent of Africa in particular, from the transition to black majority rule in South Africa, to the growing pains of states adjusting to a new normal of life following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, showed me the kind of empathy and care I hoped to emulate in my own reporting. In this regard, George was an unofficial mentor to me, someone I looked up to.
© GettyGeorge's 'superstar' BBC career
Then when he moved back to the UK to be a presenter, I was the one based overseas. I wondered if it was the right move for him. After all he’d been a distinguished correspondent, and he would surely have had his pick of any of the BBC’s plum foreign postings. Now he was trading in a life of adventure on the road, for a life primarily in a news studio. But it was an inspired move, as he went on to begin one of the longest periods presenting a major news programme, of anyone in the BBC’s history, at the helm of the flagship, Six o’clock News. The credibility he’d built up as a correspondent, he brought with him to the anchor chair. His was a voice of calm authority. ‘If George says it, it must be true,’ was the overwhelming sense viewers got from every word he uttered. Again he was leading the way, lighting the path that I would take when I became a presenter in 2009. His relaxed, easy and conversational style, l hoped to emulate.
© BBC/GETTYAs people of colour in an overwhelmingly 'white' newsroom we would gravitate towards each other. We'd share stories about our lives and work, and what it meant to both our families, who were immigrants to Britain long ago, that their sons worked for the mighty BBC. In 2017, when the pay figures of the Corporation’s highest stars were revealed, it was clear that neither George or myself, were anywhere near the top, despite all his success. I remember speaking to him about the controversy at the time, and he said throughout his career, he’d never been aggressive in pursuing pay rises. I said I’d been exactly the same. It was because we both felt gratitude deep down, that the BBC was willing to employ people like us. We were lucky to have wonderful careers, no matter the pay.
© GETTYNevertheless it was clear the BBC had a problem attracting and retaining ethnic minority staff, and in the years after the pay row, George, myself and fellow presenters Reeta Chakrabarti and Mishal Hussein, decided to join together to lobby the then Director General, Tony Hall, and his successor, Tim Davey, on how best to improve ethnic minority numbers in the newsroom. That work is on-going, but George won’t be leading us. A kind and gentle light has been dimmed in our newsroom. Journalism has lost a giant.
Words: Clive Myrie
BBC's Clive Myrie's beautiful tribute to his friend George Alagiah appears in HELLO!'s magazine, pick up a copy. Subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
