Clive Myrie may have spent almost four decades on our TV screens – and yet, he doesn’t own one of his own.
The BBC News presenter, 61, has revealed that you won’t find any TV sets in his north London home, which he shares with his furniture restorer wife Catherine, as they “suck the energy out of a room”.
Instead, he’ll tune into something on his laptop from bed at the end of the day. Speaking to The Times for its “A Life In the Day” column, Myrie said: “If I’m presenting the News at Ten, I finish at 10.35pm, get home by 11pm and I’m in bed by 11.15pm. If Catherine’s up, we’ll have a quick glass of wine and then watch something like Two Weeks in August in bed.
“We don’t have TVs around the house, they suck the energy out of a room, so we’ll watch it on a laptop and be asleep by 12.30am.”
He added that he also doesn’t watch the news, choosing to watch news documentaries and listen to Radio 4’s Today programme and other current affairs shows instead.
Having started his career as a trainee local radio reporter at the BBC in 1987, Myrie became a TV reporter for the corporation’s regional show BBC Points West and has spent the last 37 years on our screens. He is best known as a presenter on BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten, as well as quiz show Mastermind and its celebrity spin-off.
He isn’t the only BBC star who’s admitted to not owning a TV. Claudia Winkleman revealed in 2015 that she has no tellies in the house, telling The Sun on Sunday at the time: “We need to learn when to switch off. I’m probably the only person who doesn’t have an iPhone, and I’ve got no tellies – which is ridiculous seeing as I work in telly.”
While Paloma Faith told The Independent in 2012 that she also doesn’t own one. “I don’t have a television and I don’t buy newspapers or read magazines because I try not to be influenced by those things, but I’ve cut out a lot information as a result,” she said. More recently, ex EastEnders star Bobby Brazier said in 2023 that he doesn’t watch TV, choosing to meditate instead.
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Earlier this year, Myrie’s appearance on Saturday Kitchen went viral, with the BBC presenter spilling behind-the-scenes gossip from Mastermind after a glass of wine. “The winner last season, and one of the finalists, they… got it on!” he revealed in a moment lauded by viewers.
“I can imagine a night out, or at least a couple of drinks, with Myrie would be a right laugh,” one viewer remarked on X.