Keith Wilkinson (reporter)

Keith Wilkinson is a British television reporter.

Born in Lancashire, England, he began his career in newspaper journalism as a trainee reporter at The Westmorland Gazette in Kendal, Cumbria, in 1974. He joined Central Television in the former Associated TeleVision Broad Street studios in Birmingham in 1984 as a production journalist and bulletin newsreader.

Keith Wilkinson is now a senior reporter appearing on Central News and Central Tonight. He has won numerous awards for broadcasting, including the national BT Television News Broadcaster of the Year, the ITV Piece to Camera Gold Award 2004, the Birmingham Press Club's Scoop of the Year 2004, and Television Journalist of the Year 2008 in the Midlands Media Awards.

In 1993 he produced an ITV documentary called "Stephanie's Story" about the kidnapping of estate agent Stephanie Slater by the murderer Michael Sams.

In 2006 he was photographed in the Daily Star having a bucket of water poured over his head, as a joke, by Chris Tarrant, star of ITV's Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Keith Wilkinson was featured as The Human Guinea Pig in a six-month experiment starting in March 2008 on Central Tonight and itvlocal.com. It was launched in conjunction with researchers at the University of Birmingham in England as part of a project about physical fitness in the over-50s. By July, Ironman triathlete Asker Jeukendrup, Professor of Exercise Metabolism and head of the university's Human Performance Laboratory, told ITV that Wilkinson's rate of progress had been "unusual and spectacular". At the end of the project in September, Jeukendrup gave Wilkinson a VO₂ max fitness assessment as a high 52.3.

The son of an RAF Wellington Bomber tail gunner, Keith spends his spare time researching World War II. He is the flight correspondent for an Australian wartime squadron.

External links and Sources

* [http://www.itvlocal.com/central/news/?player=CEN_Home_26&void=53338 ITV Local: Keith Wilkinson reports compilation]

* [http://www.itvlocal.com/ Central News/Central Tonight]
* [http://www.tvnewsroom.co.uk/qanda/answers.php?page=keithwilkinson TV Newsroom]
* [http://tvpresenters.thetvroomplus.com/channel-25.html The TV Room]
* [http://www.aston.ac.uk/downloads/marketing/aspects/archives/2006/August_2006.pdf Keith Wilkinson and Chris Tarrant at Aston University]
* [http://www.tiswasonline.com/clips.php Tiswas]
* [http://info.itvlocal.com/humanguinea.shtml Keith Wilkinson's ITV Human Guinea Pig page]
* [http://www.yournews.itvlocal.com/Clip.aspx?key=CD7EB8A3B81D83FC Human Guinea Pig experiment on ITV Local]
* [http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/AWARDS/040423best.shtml Birmingham Press Club awards]
* [http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:v1gBjEuvkvcJ:www.itvregions.com/Central/About/Keith%2BWilkinson.htm+ITV+Central+Keith+wilkinson&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk ITV Central biography cached March 2007 ]
* [http://209.85.165.104/custom?cache:wJIgEPoMFHgJ:www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/bt/news/2000/12dec/001214kw.htm+wilkinson&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=28.htm BT Awards article]
* [http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/awards/080609midlands.shtml Midlands Media Awards 2008]

* [http://www.bratclub.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92&Itemid=26 Birmingham Running and Triathlon Club TV interviews with Wilkinson]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/dec/08/mondaymediasection10 Keith Wilkinson in Media Guardian]
* [http://www.askerjeukendrup.com/media.html Prof Asker Jeukendrup website re Wilkinson]
* [http://www.itvlocal.com/central/news/?player=CEN_News_15&void=233653 Prof Jeukendrup's final fitness assessment on ITV Local]
* [http://www.crossbayrun.org.uk/ CancerCare site on Wilkinson's Guinea Pig project]