Mike Donkin: loss of a great reporter, colleague and friend

17 Dec 2007

Mike Donkin, who died last week at the far too young age of 56, will be greatly missed by all of us who enjoyed his courageous, lively, and colourful reporting on the BBC, from the Today programme to BBC World.

Others have commented more eloquently than I on his career but I wanted to add a personal note.

 I had known Mike, initially through my very good friend his sister Suzy, since the mid-1970s. I think he was the first journalist I ever knew. Then he was on the East Anglian Daily Times. Later he joined the BBC and I recall visiting BBC studios with him for the first time when he was working at BBC Humberside.

 Mike, with his restless energy and insatiable curiosity, was a great journalistic role model for me. He was very self-effacing but was tigerish and self-starting on any story that caught his interest. He was a brilliant compiler of radio features, packing his stories with natural sounds and voices. 

 Mike is a huge loss to everyone who knew him, especially his family of course, but also to those who listened to, or watched, his reports and - through them - were touched by the lives of others. 

See this obituary in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2226392,00.html

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