Tim Luckhurst

Luckhurst was born on 8 January 1963 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.[7] He was educated at Peebles High School, a comprehensive school in Peebles, Peeblesshire, Scotland.[2] He studied history at Robinson College, Cambridge, graduating in 1983 and accepting a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1986.[2][7] As a student at Cambridge, he played bass guitar in Tony Tiger and the Frosties alongside Andy White, the Northern Irish singer, songwriter and poet.[8]

Between 1985 and 1988 he worked as Parliamentary Press Officer for Donald Dewar MP, then Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, and for the Scottish Labour group of MPs at Westminster. He stood as the Labour candidate in the Roxburgh and Berwickshire constituency at the 1987 British general election.[9]

During the late 1980s and 1990s, Luckhurst worked for the BBC. On Radio 4's Today programme he produced, edited and reported from the UK and abroad. Luckhurst covered the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and the First Gulf War. He was the BBC's Washington Producer during the first year of the Clinton presidency and reported on the Waco Siege for BBC Radio. Returning to the UK he became a senior member of the team that designed and launched BBC Radio 5 Live. From 1995 to 1997 he was Editor of News Programmes at BBC Scotland in which role he introduced bi-media working in BBC Scotland newsrooms and thoroughly revised the design and presentation of programmes including Good Morning Scotland, Newsdrive and Reporting Scotland. During his time at the BBC, Luckhurst won two Sony Radio Academy Awards for news broadcasting (The Romanian Revolution 1989 for Radio 4's Today programme and the IRA ceasefire of 1995 for Radio Five Live). Later he reported on the liberation of Kosovo and the fall of Slobodan Milošević for The Scotsman.

He is the author of books and chapters including Assessing the Delivery of BBC Radio 5 Live's Public Service Commitments (Abramis Academic 2019),[10]War Correspondents in 1914-1918 Online - The International Encyclopedia of the First World War,[11]Responsibility without Power: Lord Justice Leveson's Constitutional Dilemma (Abramis Academic 2013) and This is Today – A Biography of the Today Programme, London, Aurum Press 2001, contributions to What a State – Is Devolution for Scotland the End of Britain.[12] and the essays, "Compromising the First draft?" in Afghanistan, War and the Media: Deadlines and Frontlines, edited by Richard Lance Keeble and John Mair, Bury St, Edmunds: Abramis, 2010; and Dr Hack I presume? Liberal Journalism in the Multimedia Age in Face the Future: Tools for the Modern Media Age, Edited by John Mair and Richard Lance Keeble, Bury St. Edmunds, Abramis, 2011.

He contributed a chapter, "Missing the Target and Spurning the Prize" to the book, The Phone Hacking Scandal: Journalism on Trial (Arima Publishing, 2012) This chapter formed the basis of his submission to the Leveson Inquiry.[13] In March 2014 he co-authored an essay, "Good Behaviour Can be Taught" to British Journalism Review[14] in which he argued that ethical training, not state-sanctioned regulation, is the most appropriate way to promote quality journalism in a democratic society. He is a historian of newspapers and has published academic essays in Contemporary British History, Journalism Studies, Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics and George Orwell Studies.

He has also written about motorcycling for The Independent's motoring section and about politics and media for the main newspaper, and for The Independent on Sunday. Among other publications he has written for are The Guardian[15] the New Statesman, The New Republic, The Spectator, the British Journalism Review, The Times and The Globe and Mail. Between 2000 and 2007 he was a political columnist for the Scottish Daily Mail. He is a frequent contributor to programmes on LBC Radio, Talksport and BBC Radio. He is a member of the Society of Editors and the National Union of Journalists.

In November 2019 he joined Durham University as the Head of the new South College, and Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Engagement)[16]

In 1989, Luckhurst married Dorothy Williamson. together they have four children: three daughters and one son.[7]

• Tim Luckhurst on Journalisted