Andrew Marr (born 31 July 1959) works as a British journalist and political commentator. He edited The Independent for two years, until May 1998, and was the political editor for the BBC from 2000 until 2005. He began hosting a new political programme on Sunday mornings on BBC One from September 2005 onwards.

Andrew Marr was born in Glasgow, educated at the High School of Dundee, Craigflower School and Loretto School in Musselburgh. He went on to read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Marr joined The Scotsman as a junior business reporter in 1981, going on to become a parliamentary correspondent in 1984 and then a political correspondent in 1986. After a period as writer of the "Bagehot" uncredited weekly political column in The Economist, Marr returned to The Independent as Political Editor, eventually rising to the Editorship of the paper. His editorship coincided with a particularly turbulent time at the paper. Sales had been in long-term decline, and Marr made two key attempts to arrest the slide. He pioneered the use of bold 'poster-style' front pages, and then in 1996, radically re-designed the paper along a European model, with Gill Sans headline fonts and stories being themed and grouped together, rather than according to strict news value. The limited advertising budget meant that the paper's re-launch struggled to get noticed, and when it did, it was mocked for re-interpreting its original marketing slogan 'It Is - Are You' to read 'It's changed - have you?'. The trite response was that many existing readers had indeed changed - to The Guardian, and by the start of 1998, with Marr refusing to implement a further round of redundancies, he was fired.

Three months later, he returned. Tony O'Reilly had increased his stake in the paper and bought out the then owners, Mirror Group. O'Reilly, who had a high regard for Marr, asked him to collaborate as co-editor with Rosie Boycott, in an arrangement whereby he would edit the comment pages, and she would have overall control of the news pages. Many pundits predicted that the arrangement would not last, and so it proved when barely two months later, Boycott left to replace Richard Addis as editor of the Daily Express. Marr found himself editor in his own right once again, but only for a week. Simon Kelner, who had worked on the paper when it first started was offered the editorship, and asked Marr to stay on as a political columnist. Kelner was not Marr's kind of person, and so he left the paper for the final time in May 1998.

After his second stint as editor of The Independent, Marr wrote as a columnist for The Daily Express and The Observer, before gaining appointment as BBC political editor in May 2000, making him one of the best-known faces on British television. Like his predecessor-but-one John Cole and his famous herringbone overcoat, he soon developed a trademark style, characterised by much gesticulation and hand-waving. He also became known for, and was widely praised for, his ability to contextualise Westminster gossip and intrigue, and explain to viewers and listeners how it would affect their lives. A great believer in the view that 'politics matters', Marr championed the democratic process and saw it as part of his role as Political Editor of the BBC to help make politics meaningful and relevant for many people for whom politics was traditionally boring, dull and something that happened only in Westminster corridors with middle-aged men in suits.

Among his notable 'scoops' as Political Editor were the second resignation of Peter Mandelson, and the interview in the autumn of 2004 in which Tony Blair told him that he would not seek a fourth term as Prime Minister should he win the forthcoming general election.

In spite of frequent claims that he was a closet Labour supporter, his journalism was never less than objective, even during the David Kelly affair when relations between the BBC and the Labour government were at an all-time low, and Marr's ultimate boss Greg Dyke was forced to resign as Director General of the BBC.

During his time as political editor, Marr also assumed various presenting jobs, and announced in 2005 that following the 2005 General Election, he would step down as Political Editor to reclaim some time with his family. In September 2005, he moved on to a new role presenting the BBC's Sunday morning flagship news programme, Sunday AM (previously called Breakfast with Frost and hosted by Sir David Frost). He also hosts the BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week.

He was named Columnist of the Year 1995 and Columnist of the Year in British Press Awards and received the Journalist Award in the Channel 4 Political Awards of 2001.

Andrew Marr has written several books on politics and journalism, notably The Day Britain Died (2000) — a state-of-the-nation reflection — and My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism (2004). The former was, in addition, a three-part television series; following Newsnight in the BBC2 schedules, 31 January 2000 – 2 February 2000.

Marr lives in West London with his wife, the political journalist Jackie Ashley, a daughter of the former MP, Jack Ashley, and the couple's three children.

Trivia

• He appeared as himself in the 2005 series of Doctor Who in the episodes "Aliens of London" and "World War Three".

• Andrew Marr is often mistaken for President Putin of Russia. Marr recounts that he was once lost on his way to a briefing at the Kremlin and was spotted by two soldiers, but instead of being arrested for trespass they looked alarmed and saluted him.

• He once jokingly wrote in a newspaper that he had no idea what to get his wife, so was intending to buy her a burqa. She wrote in to the paper to say that he would probably get her the wrong size anyway.

• When writing certain columns of the Daily Telegraph, he uses the pseudonym Mr. Snuffles, Andrew Marr's pet guinea pig. When writing in this form, he uses frequent misspellings and writes solely in lower-case.

• He claims to have read Tolstoy's War and Peace at least fifteen times.

• In one of his books (My Trade: a short history of British journalism, Macmillan 2004, p. 257) Marr recounted an incident where he was approached by a man in a shop who said, "Here, you look just like that Andrew Marr...you poor bugger."

• Marr is one of many public figures alleged by conspiracy theorist David Icke to be a shape-shifting reptilian.

External links

• Press Office — Andrew Marr — BBC biography
• 'Marr quits as BBC political chief' — BBC News
• Off The Telly: The Day That Britain Died — A review of BBC2's The Day That Britain Died
• TV is less up itself than newspapers — The Guardian
• Biogs.com information

1959 births | Living people | High School of Dundee alumni | Old Lorettonians | Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge | BBC newsreaders and journalists | British journalists | Doctor Who actors