Alastair Stewart

Alastair James Stewart OBE (born 22 June 1952) is an English former journalist and newscaster.

He then read Economics and Politics at the University of Bristol, and worked for the National Union of Students from 1974 to 1976.

Stewart joined Southern Television in 1976, then joined ITN in 1980, where he served three years with Channel 4 News and went on to become a main newsreader with ITV News.

He remained in this role for more than 35 years, making him the longest-serving male newsreader on British television, having worked in both local and national news for 44 years.

Stewart's career in television started in 1976 with ITV's south of England company Southern Television in Southampton.

He was a reporter, industrial correspondent, presenter and documentary maker.

He recorded one of the last interviews with Lord Mountbatten before Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA in 1979, and spent six weeks in Ford Open Prison to make a half-hour documentary.

He joined ITN in 1980 as industrial correspondent, soon joining its roster of additional newsreaders.

From 1983 to 1986, he was a presenter and reporter with ITN's Channel 4 News, and also presented ITN's News at 5.45.

Stewart provided live coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster as the details of the tragedy unfolded.

A two-minute newsflash became an unscripted, one-hour special programme.

He also anchored, with Sandy Gall, the award-winning coverage on ITN on the night of the bombing of the Pan Am jet over Lockerbie and presented the ITV network coverage of the memorial service for the victims.

He moved again in May 1989, to ITN's flagship News at Ten bulletin, which he anchored live from the fall of the Berlin Wall, before spending a year in the United States as ITN's Washington correspondent.

Four days after returning from his assignment in Washington he was sent to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, to anchor ITN's coverage of the Gulf War.

He presented News at Ten, live from Saudi Arabia for two months.

At the end of February, Stewart became the first British television reporter to broadcast live from the liberated Kuwait City.

He presented News at Ten from Kuwait for a week before returning to the UK.

It was his fifth year anchoring the programme having replaced Sir Alastair Burnet, who retired from ITN in 1991.

During his time with ITN, he also provided the commentary for many of its other special programmes on the ITV network including the State Openings of Parliament, numerous by-elections, state visits and for the Royal Weddings of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer and The Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson.

ITN's network coverage of the 1992 Budget saw the ninth year of Stewart's involvement in the presentation of the annual event for ITV.

From 1993 to September 2009, he was the co-presenter of ITV London's regional news programme London Tonight.

He has also presented Alastair Stewart's Sunday for BBC Radio 5 in 1994.

Stewart also presented Police Camera Action!, which originally started in 1994, on ITV, showing video footage of examples of road crime from police cars.

Then in 1995, he joined GMTV, where he anchored Alastair Stewart's Sunday Programme until 2001.

Episodes that had already been recorded for broadcast in 2002 were finally shown in January 2006.

In 2003 he was dropped from this role after his second conviction for drink driving.

He was more than three times the legal limit when his car crashed in Hampshire.

Stewart was a presenter on the now defunct ITV News Channel for the 2003 Iraq War presenting a weekday programme called Live with Alastair Stewart.

As a presenter for ITV News, he won the Royal Television Society's News Presenter of the Year award in 2004 and 2005.

He was also a regular presence in ITV's national election coverage, co-anchoring network coverage of the general elections of 2005 (with Jonathan Dimbleby), 1997 (with Dimbleby and Michael Brunson), 1992 (with Jon Snow) and 1987 (with Alastair Burnet).

In February 2007, he became co-presenter of the ITV Lunchtime News, replacing Nicholas Owen.

Also in 2007, he hosted a political programme for ITV, Moral of the Story, which aired at various late times on Sunday nights.

He was the main anchor of Election Night Live: America Decides, ITV's through-the-night programme covering the 2008 US Presidential election.

The bulletin was revamped in July 2009, from which point Stewart became one of two main alternate newscasters for the programme.

In August 2009, it was announced that he would become main co-presenter of the ITV Evening News, relinquishing his role as presenter of London Tonight.

In January 2020, he stepped down as an ITV News presenter and joined GB News on its introduction in 2021.

In March 2023, he announced his retirement as a regular broadcaster.

Stewart was born in Emsworth, Hampshire to a Scottish father from Invergarry and an English mother.

His father served as an officer in the Royal Air Force.

Stewart was educated in Scotland, at the state school Madras College in St Andrews, Fife, then in England at the independent school Salesian College in Farnborough, Hampshire and at St. Augustine's Abbey School in Ramsgate, Kent.