Peter Barron has returned to the BBC to edit a current affairs strand launching next year.
A former deputy editor of Channel Four News and more recently deputy editor of ITV’s Tonight with Trevor McDonald for just nine months, Barron was previously senior producer and programme editor on Newsnight.
He will edit the series of hour-long, primetime monthly “big issue” programmes for BBC Two – details of which were revealed by Press Gazette in June. The weekday series, with the working title Insight, will seek to analyse themes such as pensions, immigration and demographics while using specialist news correspondents and harnessing the corporation’s vast newsgathering and outside broadcast capabilities.
BBC current affairs head Peter Horrocks said: “I am delighted Peter is rejoining the BBC to lead this important new project. The new hour-long programme will be dedicated to illuminating the biggest issues concerning the future of Britain and the world and is a significant new initiative.
“It will be well funded, prominently scheduled and will combine high production values and original research into major subjects.”
By Wale Azeez
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