{{Short description|English television news presenter}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Use British English|date=August 2014}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = | caption = | birth_name = Philip John Hayton | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1947|11|2}} | birth_place = Keighley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | death_date = | death_place = | education = Fyling Hall School | occupation = News presenter, presenter | title = | spouse = {{marriage|Thelma Hayton|1972}} | children = 2 | relatives = | nationality = | credits = | website = | years_active = }} '''Philip John Hayton''' (born 2 November 1947) is an English television news presenter, reporter and former international correspondent for BBC News. He worked for the BBC from 1968 until 2005. Hayton was a reporter and presenter for BBC Radio Leeds before reading the ''BBC Look North'' bulletin. He joined BBC News as a reporter in 1974 and was the presenter of the corporation's national news bulletins from 1984 to 1993. Hayton became the main presenter of the relaunched version of the regional nightly news bulletin ''BBC North West Tonight'' and worked on the international satellite channel BBC World from 1995 to 1998 and later BBC News 24 between 1998 and 2005, the year he left the corporation.
==Early life== Hayton was born on 2 November 1947, in the town of Keighley in West Yorkshire, England,<ref name="Who" /> to the Reverend Austin Hayton and Jennie Margaret Violet Hayton ({{Nee|Errington}}).<ref name="Debretts2010">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/debrettspeopleof0000unse_p4k9 |title=Debrett's People of Today 2010 |publisher=Debrett's Limited |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-870520-42-3 |editor-last=Winter |editor-first=Laura |location=Richmond, Surrey |page=757 |chapter=Hayton, Philip John |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name="WhosWho2018">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswho20180000unse |title=Who's Who 2018 |publisher=A & C Black |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4729-3501-4 |edition=170th |location=London, England |page=1096 |chapter=Hayton, Philip John |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> At the age of three, he moved to London with his parents,<ref name="YonSundayJan1993">{{cite news |last=Towell |first=Nicholas |date=24 January 1993 |title=Newsman behind the headlines |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/yorkshire-on-sunday-newsman-behind-the-h/196327435/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=Yorkshire on Sunday |page=22 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and he also spent much of his youth in the United States,<ref name="SWENov1989">{{cite news |date=30 November 1989 |title=One-way street to new success! |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/south-wales-echo-one-way-street-to-new-s/196327166/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=South Wales Echo |page=19 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> deciding he wanted to become a journalist after watching American news broadcasts.<ref name="MENSep1993">{{cite news |last=Pugh |first=Rachel |date=13 September 1993 |title=Manchester buzz for action man Philip |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/manchester-evening-news-manchester-buzz/196327543/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=Manchester Evening News |page=17 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Hayton decided he wanted to go back to Britain to obtain O-levels instead of American grades,<ref name="YonSundayJan1993" /> and he was educated at Fyling Hall School, an independent school near Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire.<ref name="Debretts2010" />
==Career== Hayton worked various jobs such as a teacher for the British Council in Jordan in the Middle East until he returned to Britain after 12 months because of the Six-Day War,<ref name="YonSundayJan1993" /><ref name="SWENov1989" /> a foundry worker, a lavatory assembler, a valet, a doughnut salesman and advertising salesman.<ref name="Debretts2010" /> In early 1967,<ref name="YorkPress2005">{{cite news |date=29 September 2005 |title=Phil the pirats walks the plank |url=https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/7973845.phil-the-pirate-walks-the-plank/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=The Press}}</ref> he began his broadcasting career as a pirate radio DJ on Radio 270, presenting two three-hour programmes a day on a converted Dutch herring boat off Bridlington Harbour.<ref name="YonSundayJan1993" /><ref name="MENSep1993" /> When offshore pirate radio stations were made illegal by the government and the station closed down as a result in August 1967,<ref name="SWENov1989" /><ref name="YorkPress2005" /> he joined BBC Radio Leeds as a tape reclaimer and organised the records for a presenter.<ref name="YEPFeb1984">{{cite news |date=17 February 1984 |title=Ex-Leeds reporter in mine blast |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005104/19840217/002/0001 |url-access=subscription |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=Yorkshire Evening Post |page=1 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref> Hayton later became a reporter and presenter in 1968 and left the radio station in 1971.<ref name="Who" /> He moved to BBC North in Leeds and presented the ''BBC Look North'' news bulletin from 1971 to 1974,<ref name="Who" /><ref name="SWENov1989" /> after receiving an invitation to work in television for his coverage of the John Poulson fraud trial.<ref name="MENSep1993" /> Hayton made regular contributions to the ''Nationwide'' programme.<ref name="VisisterMay1988">{{cite news |date=20 May 1988 |title=All the news - |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-southport-visiter-all-the-news-the/196328378/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=Southport Visiter |page=20 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
In 1974, Hayton became a national news reporter for BBC News, reporting on the Cod Wars,<ref name="Who" /> the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, the fall of Idi Amin,<ref name="VisisterMay1988" /> the Iranian Revolution, the Rhodesian Bush War, the Ugandan Bush War,<ref name="Debretts2010" /> and the 1982 Kenyan coup attempt.<ref name="VisisterMay1988" /> He was dispatched to Belfast in Northern Ireland, covering The Troubles for two years and Beirut;<ref name="Who" /><ref name="Debretts2010" /><ref name="LiverpoolEchoApril1993">{{cite news |last=Halliwell |first=Rachel |date=20 April 1993 |title=Hayton's new news hot-seat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/liverpool-echo-haytons-new-news-hot-sea/196329069/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=Liverpool Echo |page=17 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> he and his camera crew were injured in a landmine explosion in the Shouf mountains close to the village of Kfarmatta southeast of Beirut in February 1984 but no one was seriously hurt.<ref name="SWENov1989" /><ref name="YEPFeb1984" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=18 February 1984 |title=TV crew injured |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/north-bay-nugget-tv-crew-injured-north/196328269/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=North Bay Nugget |page=11 |via=Newspapers.com |agency=Reuters}}</ref> He was appointed the BBC's Southern Africa correspondent in 1980,<ref name="Debretts2010" /> reporting on the 1981 Seychelles coup attempt as the first journalist who was permitted to enter the country,<ref name="GTNov1995">{{cite news |last=Spencer |first=Sarah |date=3 November 1995 |title=Philip's life as roving reporter |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/grimsby-evening-telegraph-philips-life/196327691/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=Grimsby Evening Telegraph |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and was in South Africa for three years.<ref name="MENSep1993" /> Hayton also reported on the Falklands War from Argentina,<ref name="Who" /><ref name="Debretts2010" /> and accompanied royal tours in Africa and the United States.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |date=28 April 1994 |title=Barrovians — outspoken, sharp and pithy |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-mail-millom-and-south-copeland-ed/196327881/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=North-West Evening Mail |page=20 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> From October 1988 onwards, Hayton presented the BBC's ''One O'Clock News'' nationally as the replacement for Michael Buerk,<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 October 1988 |title=Sharing the news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-northern-echo-yorkshire-ed-sharin/196328109/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=The Northern Echo |page=29 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> as well as becoming one of the main co-presenters of both the BBC's ''Six O'Clock News'' and the ''Nine O'Clock News'' programmes. In 1989, after the latter programme's change of presentation, he became one of its main solo presenters.<ref name="Who" />
When his superiors did not renew his annual contact,<ref name="LiverpoolEchoApril1993" /> he left national news for a short time to become the main presenter of the relaunched version of the regional nightly news bulletin ''BBC North West Tonight'', BBC North's flagship news bulletin, from September 1993 after joining its news team two months earlier.<ref name="LiverpoolEchoApril1993" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=7 April 1993 |title=Hayton heads north |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/liverpool-echo-hayton-heads-north-live/196327397/ |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=Liverpool Echo |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=6 October 1994 |title=Snaps |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19941006/038/0005 |url-access=subscription |access-date=26 April 2026 |work=The Stage |page=5 |via=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref> After this stint that came to an end in 1995, Hayton began to present on the international satellite news channel BBC World starting from 1995 and,<ref name="Who" /><ref name="GTNov1995" /> eventually, BBC News 24 between 1998 and 2005.<ref name="Debretts2010" /> In addition, he was the presenter of the BBC One daytime quiz programme entitled ''The Great British Quiz'' for two series from 1994 to 1995.<ref name="Who" /><ref name=":1" />
In 1989, Hayton narrated Video 125's "Chiltern Take Two" drivers eye view video.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.video125.com/collections/diesel-train-videos/products/chiltern-take-two|title = Chiltern Take Two|publisher=Video125|access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> In September 2005, Hayton resigned from BBC News 24 six months into a year's contract, citing differences with co-presenter Kate Silverton.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4283824.stm|title=BBC newsreader quits over 'clash'|publisher=BBC News|date=26 September 2005|access-date=26 April 2026}}</ref> ''The Daily Telegraph'', without substantiation and quoting an unnamed 'insider', reported that he turned to Silverton during a break and said "I don't like you".<ref name="telegraph.co.uk">{{cite news|last=Alleyne|first=Richard|title=Chemistry as Silverton clicks with new partner|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/28/nbbc28.xml&site=5|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=28 September 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314171233/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/28/nbbc28.xml&site=5|archive-date=14 March 2007|access-date=26 April 2026|url-status=live}}</ref> Hayton merely cited "incompatibility" with Silverton as his reason and when his managers refused to move Silverton to another time slot he left. Silverton was later in the peculiar position of having to go through the morning's paper review live on air the morning the story broke, avoiding any discussion of the story and chiding her new co-anchor when he looked to refer to it. Hayton said that he left the BBC "without bitterness or rancour".<ref name="telegraph.co.uk" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Plunkett |first=John |date=2005-09-26 |title=Hayton quits BBC over 'personality clash' |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/sep/26/tvnews.bbc |access-date=2023-12-24 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
In retirement, from 2007 onwards Hayton has been the regular host of ''Head2Head'', a BrightTalk internet broadcast for Skandia in which he holds court between two financial figures.<ref>{{cite web|title=HeadtoHead|url=http://www.informerlive.co.uk/headtohead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071221203626/http://www.informerlive.co.uk/headtohead |date=21 December 2007|archive-date=21 December 2007|access-date=26 April 2026|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Personal life== Hayton describes his interests as walking, sailing and the theatre.<ref name=Who>{{cite book|editor-last=Hayward|editor-first=Anthony|editor-link=Anthony Hayward|chapter=Hayton, Philip|title=Who's Who on Television|url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoontelevis0000unse_n6w5|publisher=Boxtree Ltd. and Independent Television Publications Ltd.|location=London, England|year=1990|edition=Fifth|isbn=1-85283-105-7|page=91|via=Internet Archive}}<br>{{cite book|editor-last=Hayward|editor-first=Anthony|editor-link=Anthony Hayward|chapter=Hayton, Philip|title=Who's Who on Television|url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoontelevis0000hayw/|year=1996|publisher=Boxtree Limited|location=London, England|page=119|isbn=0-7522-1067-X|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> He married his childhood sweetheart Thelma Susan on 22 December 1972.<ref name="Debretts2010" /><ref name=":0" /> There are two children of the marriage.<ref name="WhosWho2018" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|1092094}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayton, Philip}} Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists Category:BBC North West newsreaders and journalists Category:BBC World News Category:People educated at Fyling Hall School Category:People from Keighley Category:Television personalities from West Yorkshire