Dorothy Byrne, journalist - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

Dorothy Byrne is the head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, and has worked in journalism for more than four decades.

In 2018 she received the Outstanding Contribution Award at Royal Television Society Journalism Awards, and her recent commissions include the Channel 4 News investigation into Cambridge Analytica, the Michael Jackson expose Leaving Neverland and the BAFTA-winning documentary For Sama, about one family’s life under siege in Aleppo, which also won an Oscar nomination.

She began her career in journalism in her mid 20s on the Waltham Forest Guardian, after writing a cheeky letter to 50 local newspaper editors - just one responded. She later moved into television, joining the acclaimed World in Action team at Granada, where she argued that the programme's agenda was male-dominated and needed to change.

Dorothy gave the MacTaggart Lecture at the 2019 Edinburgh International Television Festival, in which she argued that the scrutiny of politicians through broadcast interviews is important for the health of democracy. She also described herself as 'just about the oldest female TV executive working for a broadcaster'.

DISC ONE: Greatest Living Creature by John Grant
DISC TWO: Non-Alignment Pact by Per Ubu
DISC THREE: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth, composed by George Frideric Handel, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult and performed by Dame Joan Sutherland and London Symphony Orchestra
DISC FOUR: Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense by Fela Kuti
DISC FIVE: Dido's Lament: When I'm Laid In Earth, composed by Hendry Purcell, conducted by Raymond Leppard and performed by Jessye Norman and English Chamber Orchestra
DISC SIX: World in Action by Matt Berry
DISC EIGHT: The People United Will Never Be Defeated by Igor Levit

BOOK CHOICE: Physics text books
LUXURY ITEM: The back catalogue of In Our Time / the voice of Melvyn Bragg
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth, composed by George Frideric Handel, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult and performed by Dame Joan Sutherland and London Symphony Orchestra

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor

Further episodes of Desert Island Discs

Further podcasts by BBC Radio 4

Website of BBC Radio 4