Denis Tuohy

Denis Tuohy (born 2 April 1937,[1][2] Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a television broadcaster, actor, newsreader and journalist.

Tuohy attended Queen's College, Belfast, where he learned to debate and acquired an interest in acting.[3] In 1960, he appeared in Over the Bridge, a play written by Sam Thompson and directed by Jimmy Ellis.[3][4][5] Later that year, Tuohy became the first Catholic broadcaster for BBC Northern Ireland.[6][7]

Tuohy moved to London in 1964 to work for the new BBC-2.[6] At the channel's launch that April, he was scheduled to be the first face on air.[6] However, there was a disastrous power failure on the opening night, and newsreader Gerald Priestland was seen briefly before transmission was aborted and the official launch postponed until the day after. Tuohy headed the successful second attempt, sarcastically referencing the power cut by beginning the show under candlelight, then blowing out a candle on his desk.[8]

Tuohy participated in several of the BBC's current affairs programmes of the 1970s, including the long-running Panorama, and also presented ITV's This Week (known for a period of the 1980s as TV Eye). He interviewed Margaret Thatcher in the leadup to the 1979 United Kingdom general election.[6][9] Communication specialist Geoffrey Beattie analysed the interview extensively in a work on patterns of interruption in conversation.[10][11] During the 1990s, he was mainly known for his work as a reporter for ITN.

After retiring from broadcasting, Tuohy took up acting again, playing roles in the television dramas Fair City, The Clinic, and Fallout.[3] He also wrote a memoir, Wide-eyed in Medialand: A broadcaster's journey.[6][12]