Martin Bashir
|  Martin Bashir is an award-winning journalist currently working for ITV, Britain's most popular television network.
He is best known for conducting a series of exclusive interviews, including:
- The late Diana Princess of Wales
- Former au pair Louise Woodward
- The five youths who were suspected of murdering the black teenager Stephen Lawrence
- A special documentary featuring the parents of conjoined twins Jodie and Mary, and a follow-up with Jodie herself as she recovered and returned to Malta
In March 2002, Martin went back to Australia with Joanne Lees, whose boyfriend Peter Falconio was attacked in the outback and is presumed dead. The resulting documentary was broadcast as an ITV special.
Since joining ITV in 1999, he has made a series of special documentary films about the serial killer Dr Harold Shipman; the first interview with disgraced Tory peer Lord Archer; recovering alcoholic George Best; a programme about the Soho bomber David Copeland; an interview with former Loyalist terrorist Johnny Adair; and a major investigation into Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who was found guilty of murdering a teenage burglar before his conviction was reduced to one of manslaughter.
At the end of 2001 he conducted exclusive interviews with the parents of the conjoined twins, Jodie and Mary, who were separated at a hospital in Manchester. The film also included interviews with the medical team which carried out the complex surgery.
In June 2001 he presented a special three-part ITV documentary series on the subject of xeno-Transplantation entitled 'The Organ Farm'.
In the wake of terrorist attacks in the US during September 2001, Martin Bashir reported and presented an ITV special entitled 'A Day in September' which comprised a detailed account of 11 September.
The film was given a special commendation by the Independent Television Commission, which regulates ITV.
His distinguished career has involved work on a wide range of television and radio programmes including Panorama, Public Eye, The Midnight Hour, the education series Just One Chance, Sunday and Pick of the Week.
He has written for a variety of publications, including The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The Standard, The Sunday Express, Tatler and a sports column in the Observer newspaper.
He has a won a number of awards for his work including a BAFTA (the UK equivalent of an Oscar), three Royal Television Society Awards and two Broadcasting Press Guild awards.
He was the Royal Television Society's Journalist of the Year in 1996. In 1998 he was voted Journalist of the Year by the BBC's International Awards.
In 1999 he was honoured twice at the Houston Film and Television Awards for current affairs documentaries.
In April 2001 his interviews with the five youths suspected of murdering Stephen Lawrence was given the Royal Television Society's most prestigious accolade - it won Programme of the Year. The same programme also received a nomination at the 2001 BAFTA awards.
His film about the September 11 terrorist attacks was also nominated at the 2002 Royal Television Society awards ceremony.
Outside of his work as a factual programmes reporter, he makes an appearance, as himself, in the feature film 'Mike Bassett - England Manager'. The film is a comedy about the trials and tribulations of a newly-appointed England manager, starring Ricky Tomlinson and Amanda Redman.
Born in 1963, he completed a first degree in English and post-graduate research at Kings College in London before starting work as a journalist in 1986. He is married with three children.
- Information is from the ITV website
Date: 2003/12/10
Section: Personalities
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