Mike Bushell

Mike Bushell is a sports presenter for the BBC. He presents the sport on BBC Breakfast on Fridays and at the weekends, and also presents sports bulletins throughout the week on BBC News and BBC World News. On Saturdays, during his Breakfast shift, Bushell also has a regular report on an unusual sport, which he has tried out during the week. He has tried out over 250 sports ranging from the bizarre, shin kicking and swamp soccer to learning from the stars, like Serena Williams, Colin Montgomerie and Ben Ainslie. He now has his own web page: Bushell's Best, on the pages of the BBC News website.^[1] He also sometimes presents the sports section of Breakfast during the week if Chris Hollins is away. He has been with the BBC News channel since its launch in 1997.

Early life

Bushell is half northener half southerner, spending his teenage years in Yorkshire after growing up in Hertfordshire, attending Ashwell School where his father John was headmaster. When he was 8 he started his own newspaper, called the Daily Owl and sold it and delivered it to friends in the village for 1p. He once got into trouble for giving away his new Christmas present as a prize for a competition. He played chess for Hertfordshire and ran in the county cross country team. Bushell wrote an opera at the age of 11 and kept alive his musical ambitions later in two bands. In 1977 his family moved to Harrogate and he went to secondary school at Granby High School. He sometimes took a tape recorder to school to record the days events. It was here during a production of Hobson's Choice that he first got the drama bug and played the part of Willie Mossop. He went onto join the National Youth Theatre. Once won Spectacle Wearer of the Year award, 2009

Education

Bushell got a 2/1 in a drama and television degree at King Alfred's College in Winchester. Once he left he appeared as a Roman Centurion and King Arthur on the streets of Winchester, for the tourist board, and in the National Youth Theatre production of Good Lads at Heart, working alongside Lisa Tarbuck. In order to pay his college debts he got a job on the Hampshire Chronicle newspaper in Winchester and was posted to the Eastleigh office, and he was hooked by the journalism bug. However while training on the reporter's job, he formed a band with other journalists and sang in many gigs in the East End of London, around Stratford. He later toured Europe as vocalist for "Don't Push the River" forming a musical partnership with Nigel Smith, writer of hit comedy Teenage Kicks. He then sang for the band Arthur the Stoat, alongside Tim Rafferty and Peter Haynes, aka Pete Babes Wilson, his friend from when he was 5. Arthur the Stoat was initially formed in rural Suffolk in 1992, and the music is atypically English psychedelic folk pop.

In 1990, after stints on the Derby Evening Telegraph and the Windsor and Slough Observer, he got his first broadcasting job at BBC Radio Solent as a trainee reporter. He then moved to television, as a news, sport and entertainment reporter–presenter for BBC South Today before joining the BBC News channel, and later Breakfast.

Personal life

Bushell has three daughters, Lucy, Isabel and Sophie, from his marriage to Kim, whom he met at college.

Sport

He is a keen runner, having run six marathons in as many days when aged 15, in 1981. It was a 175 mile trip along with friend Simon Wild and they raised thousands of pounds for the International Year of Disabled People.^{[citation needed]} He still plays football and is a runner with the Hash House Harriers, and weekly tries out different sports for his Saturday role. He has now experienced over 250 different sports. He is a fan of Leeds United.

References

1. ^ Mike Bushell Profile BBC Breakfast Website

External links

Mike Bushell on Twitter

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