Bill Turnbull: Renowned host of BBC Breakfast

Bill Turnbull was a popular presenter and broadcaster who appeared regularly on BBC radio and television over the last four decades.

Turnbull, who has died aged 66, was a familiar and friendly face to viewers of BBC Breakfast, the morning news and current affairs programme he presented for 15 years with colleagues such as Sian Williams.

William Turnbull was born in Guildford, Surrey, in 1956, to William, a barrister, and Honor, a teacher. He was educated at Eton, and at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied politics. It was at university that he got his first taste of journalism, editing the student newspaper.

Although he took the decision to drop out of Edinburgh, Turnbull was by then determined to embark on a career in the media, so joined the Cardiff University Centre for Journalism Studies, from which he graduated in 1978. He found his first job that same year at the Radio Clyde studios in Glasgow.

Turnbull spent time at Capital Radio and LBC in the early Eighties, then a spell as a freelancer in the US, before first joining BBC Breakfast (then called BBC Breakfast Time) in 1988. A four-year posting to Washington during the mid-Nineties saw him covering breaking stories for the BBC, including the Oklahoma City bombing, the OJ Simpson trial, and the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal.

He first joined BBC Breakfast in 2001 as a weekend presenter, starting on the weekday programmes seven years later alongside Williams, when he replaced Dermot Murnaghan. Turnbull was equally at ease as a studio anchor as on outside broadcasts, providing coverage of events such as the 7/7 bombings, the 2008 and 2012 US presidential elections, and the 2010 general election.

Following 15 years on the BBC’s flagship morning programme, Turnbull announced in February 2016 that he would be leaving the programme, at the time co-hosted with Louise Minchin. However, he continued in television, with guest appearances hosting The One Show and Good Morning Britain, the latter with his former colleague Susanna Reid.

The following year he was diagnosed with prostate cancer that had already metastasised to other parts of his body, and underwent treatment at the Royal Marsden and Ipswich hospitals. The public announcement of his diagnosis in early 2018 coincided with the broadcast of Holding Back the Years, a 10-part lifestyle show he co-hosted with Fiona Phillips about how to stay well and live longer.

In a moving interview, Turnbull was asked about the impact that both he and Stephen Fry had had on encouraging the wider public to be tested for cancer. He replied: “The idea that I have been able to do some good with my illness keeps me going. And I think that Stephen probably feels the same way. I still have people getting in touch with me saying, ‘Thank you so much because I discovered that I had prostate cancer and got it treated early, and now I can live a life that I might not have been able to do otherwise.’”

Outside the world of television, Turnbull was a keen beekeeper, a subject he chose to be quizzed on for Celebrity Mastermind on New Year’s Day 2008. He subsequently wrote a book, The Bad Beekeepers Club: How I stumbled into the Curious World of Bees – and became (perhaps) a Better Person (2011), about his experiences as an apiarist.

A former BBC Breakfast colleague, presenter Naga Munchetty, said in tribute: “His energy was amazing. He came into this programme and threw everything at it. He was funny; he was a brilliant journalist. He loved this programme and he loved serving you, the audience.”

Following the news of his death, Wycombe Wanderers football team announced that it would dedicate the gantry at its Adams Park ground to Turnbull, who had been a fan of the team for more than 20 years.

He is survived by Sesi McCombie, whom he married in 1988, and their children Henry, Will and Flora.

Bill Turnbull, presenter and broadcaster, born 25 January 1956, died 31 August 2022