Peter Day (broadcaster)

For other people called Peter Day, see Peter Day.

Peter John Day
Day in 2008
Born	(1947-02-17)17 February 1947 Thorpe St Andrew, Norfolk, England
Died	15 March 2023(2023-03-15) (aged 76)
Nationality	British
Education	University of Oxford
Occupation(s)	Business correspondent for BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service
Notable credits	BBC World Service BBC Radio 4
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/radio4/peter_day.shtml

Peter John Day (17 February 1947 – 15 March 2023) was a British broadcaster on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service.^[1][2][3][4]

Early life and education

His parents John Day and Lily Plummer married in 1939 in Norfolk.

Day was educated at Lincoln School, at the time a boys-only grammar school, from 1957 to 1964 as a boarder. His father was a manager with Midland Bank (which became HSBC in 1999) in Lincolnshire (Horncastle and Gainsborough). He has a younger brother, born in 1950 in Gainsborough.^[5][6]

Day studied English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford from October 1964, when only 17.^[7]

Day was trained on the International Publishing Corporation (Daily Mirror Group) newspaper training scheme in south Devon. He worked at the Daily Record from 1970 to 1974 in Glasgow.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Day joined BBC Radio News in 1974 in London, working on the business news in 1975.

In 1983, he left the BBC to join TV-am as their economics and industrial correspondent, appearing as a reporter on the first day of broadcast - 1 February 1983.

Day returned to the BBC to become a presenter and producer for the Financial World Tonight, which became part of The World Tonight.

Day presented In Business from 1988. On the World Service he presented its sister programme, Global Business, on weekends from 2000. He became Business Correspondent of the BBC in 1990, and in 1997 provided the business section for the Today programme.^{[8] [9][10][11]}

On 1 September 2016 Peter Day presented his last ever In Business programme after 28 years.^[12] He wrote his last article for the BBC website on 26 May 2016.^[13]

Personal life and death

Day died on 15 March 2023, at the age of 76.^[14][15]

Awards and honours

Day won the Harold Wincott Award for broadcast business journalism three times, in 1989, 2000 and 2002. He received the Work Foundation lifetime achievement award in 2006. In 2007, it was revealed that In Business had become a surprise podcast hit, beating The Best of The Chris Moyles Show, the Today programme and In Our Time as the BBC's most downloaded podcast.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. Radio 4 profile
2. Radio 4 blog
3. In Business (with programme audio archive)
4. In Business blog
5. Gainsborough Evening News Tuesday 28 May 1963, page 3
6. Lincolnshire Echo Thursday 10 August 1967, page 4
7. Lincolnshire Echo Friday 20 December 1963, page 7
8. Peter Day World Service page
9. Receiving Lifetime Achievement Award in January 2005
10. Peter Day's early life
11. Global Business archive
12. @BBCRadio4 (1 September 2016). "The legendary Peter Day presents his final In Business programme tonight after 28 years" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
13. "BBC Global Business articles by Peter Day". Archived from the original on 7 March 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
14. "London Playbook, 23 March 2023". Politico. 23 March 2023. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
15. "Peter Day, presenter of BBC Radio 4's In Business – obituary". The Telegraph. 3 April 2023. Retrieved 3 April 2023.