Joanna Marie Mussett Gosling is a television news presenter, broadcast
journalist and author. She presents mainly on the United Kingdom rolling
news channel BBC News, although she can be seen occasionally presenting the
first half of the 11 o'clock news hour on BBC2 and covering the Victoria
Derbyshire programme on Fridays. Having previously worked for Independent Local
Radio, Central Television in the Midlands and Sky News she has been with
the BBC since 1999. Gosling is a graduate of the University of Birmingham
from which she obtained a degree in French, and the University of Grenoble.
She is married to Craig Oliver, who is British Prime Minister David Cameron's
Head of Communications. Her first book, Simply Wonderwoman – a guide for busy
working women with children – was published in 2011.
Career The oldest of three siblings, Gosling
grew up in Buckinghamshire, where she was educated at Aylesbury High School in
Aylesbury. She was academic and had a flair for languages, and went on from
school to study at the University of Birmingham, from where she has a degree
in French. After graduating she decided on a career in broadcast journalism. She
attended the University of Grenoble in France, and had originally wanted to be
a war correspondent. She started her broadcasting career as a
trainee reporter, completing a series of work placements at Birmingham's BBC WM,
Fox FM in Oxfordshire and BBC Radio Scotland in Edinburgh, before securing
her first full-time position with Independent Radio News where she read
the news for Chris Moyles on Capital Radio. She worked as a freelance
reporter for Central Television and later Sky News, and has been with the
BBC since August 1999. As a presenter on BBC News 24 Gosling initially worked on
the overnight slot when the channel was simulcast with BBC One and BBC World,
before moving to the 9am - 1pm morning shift with Ben Geoghegan, and then
Phillip Hayton. Along with Hayton she was part of the team which anchored
coverage of the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks in 2002. In
December 2003, she moved to a weekend evening slot on Fridays, Saturdays and
Sundays with Chris Lowe. She had taken over from Anna Jones who moved to her
old weekday slot alongside Hayton. During summer 2006, she also appeared as
an occasional presenter on BBC Breakfast.
Between 2007 and 2013, Gosling presented the 7-10pm shift on the BBC News Channel
alongside Ben Brown from Monday to Thursday. Until February 2008, the slot
included the programme News 24 Tonight. From 2013, she has presented from 11am
and 2pm on the channel, also between Monday and Thursday. Gosling can also
occasionally be seen presenting the Saturday evening and late bulletins of
BBC Weekend News on BBC One, which she has done since 2008. She is also
occasionally seen on BBC One presenting news specials.
In April 2010 Gosling was at Heathrow Airport reporting on the events
surrounding the air travel disruption following the eruption of
Eyjafjallajökull which forced the closure of airspace throughout much of
northern Europe. In May 2010 she was seen reporting from Westminster in the
aftermath of the 2010 general election as Labour and the Conservatives tried to
negotiate a deal with the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition
government, and on 11 May broke the news that Gordon Brown would resign as Prime
Minister. She presented analysis of the televised
economic debate following that programme on 23 June 2010 alongside Nicholas Owen,
the programme being a response to the previous day's emergency budget, and in
August interviewed the jazz singer Jamie Cullum as he prepared to give a concert
as part of the 2010 Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall. In December 2010 she
spoke to Matt Cardle, the winner of the seventh series of The X Factor, which
had been announced the previous evening. On 29 April 2011 she was part of the BBC
team which presented coverage of the wedding of Prince William and Kate
Middleton. In 2008 a clip involving Gosling was
included in a list of five "corpsing" on air moments by Channel 4 News, corpsing
being a term used in broadcasting to describe someone breaking into
uncontrollable laughter live on air. While presenting on the BBC News
Channel, she has a giggling fit after forgetting the name of her co-presenter,
Julian Worricker. She is briefly seen in the 2005
television film Supervolcano presenting a fictional breaking news item about an
eruption of the volcanic caldera of Yellowstone National Park.
Her first book, Simply Wonderwoman: A survival guide for women with too much
to do, was published in October 2011 by Kyle Books. It is a how-to guide for
busy working women with children. The book was serialised in the Daily Mail.
Her second, Homemade Simple: Stylish, Practical Makes for Living and Giving
was published in September 2013. The book features a series of projects for
making things for the home. Personal life
In September 2009 she was one of several BBC newsreaders to take part in a
charity fundraiser in aid of Leonard Cheshire Disability and the Helen &
Douglas House hospices. Gosling, Fiona Bruce, Kate Silverton, Sophie Raworth,
and Emily Maitlis performed a medley of songs from The Sound of Music at the
Newsroom's Got Talent contest in London, which was presided over by Piers Morgan
and Arlene Philips. They lost out to a team from ITV News who performed songs
from Grease. For the 2010 contest in September 2010 she joined Jeremy Vine,
Ben Brown and Naga Munchetty to perform a rendition of The Human League's Don't
You Want Me?. Gosling is married to Craig Oliver, the
Director of Communications for 10 Downing Street. The couple have three
children. Gosling lives in west London with her
husband and children in a house they purchased in 2004 from the sports
presenter Mark Pougatch. In July 2010 she appeared at the Chiswick Summer Fair
where she swapped her role as a news presenter for that of a sports
commentator to oversee the Fair's tug of war contest. Her hobbies include yoga,
running, film and cooking. Business interests
She is director of Paya Ltd, a company she founded along with her husband in
2005. Oliver has served as company secretary, but declared his intention to
relinquish that role on taking up his position at Downing Street.
Television Bibliography
Simply Wonderwoman: A survival guide for women with too much to do: Kyle Books:
ISBN 0-85783-058-9 Homemade Simple: Stylish, Practical
Makes for Living and Giving: Kyle Books: ISBN 0-85783-100-3
References External links
Joanna Gosling at the Internet Movie Database
Joanna Gosling at bbc.co.uk Joanna Gosling on Twitter
Joanna Gosling biography at TV Newsroom Joanna Gosling at Curtis Brown
Official website