Joanna Gosling


Joanna Gosling is an English television news presenter, broadcast journalist and author. She presents on the United Kingdom rolling news channel BBC News, and occasionally the first half of the 11 o'clock news hour on BBC2 as well as presenting 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 was married to Sir Craig Oliver, who was British Prime Minister David Cameron's Head of Communications; the couple divorced in 2014. Her first book, Simply Wonderwoman – a guide for busy working women with children – was published in 2011.

Career

The oldest of three siblings, Gosling was born and raised in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where she was educated at Aylesbury High School. 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 began 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 9:00 am–1:00 pm 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 7:00–10:00 pm 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 11:00 am and 2:00 pm on the channel, also between Monday and Thursday. Gosling can also occasionally be seen presenting Bank Holiday evening and late bulletins of BBC Weekend News on BBC One. 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 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. She was a contestant on the 2015 series of Christmas University Challenge, where she represented the University of Birmingham alongside weather presenter John Hammond.
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 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 the musical film 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 was married to Craig Oliver, a former Director of Communications for 10 Downing Street. The couple have three children. Gosling and Oliver separated in March 2014.
Gosling lives in west London in a house 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

YearTitleRoleNotes
UnknownCentral NewsReporter/presenter
UnknownSky NewsReporter
1999–presentBBC News ChannelPresenter
2003BBC News Special: Oscar NominationsPresenter
2005SupervolcanoHerselfBriefly seen reading a fictional news item about a volcanic eruption at Yellowstone National Park
2006BBC BreakfastPresenter
2007Diana: 10 Years OnPresenterNews archive programme marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales
2007–2008News 24 TonightPresenter
2008–2011BBC Weekend NewsPresenterPresents Saturday's early evening and late bulletins on BBC One on rota with other newsreaders
2010PresenterPresented post-debate analysis with Nicholas Owen
2015–presentVictoria Derbyshire with Joanna GoslingPresenterDeputy Presenter and Newsreader
2015Christmas University ChallengeContestant