Inspired conversations with Ruth Owen Episode 8 with Mark Mardell.

In this podcast,Ruth Owen is joined by Mark Mardell.

Mark Mardell has been at the forefront of reporting and analysing major word events for radio and TV for twenty-five years.  

He now presents the ‘world at one’ and ‘world this weekend’ on BBC Radio Four, and is currently engaged in making a documentary series on the 45-year relationship of the UK in the EU, called “Brexit – a love story ?”

 He joined the BBC’s political unit in 1989  just before Chancellor Nigel Lawson’s resignation. That’s when the roller coaster began.  As  Newsnight’s political editor and then the chief political correspondent for the BBC’s main TV and radio programmes, he reported on the huge changes in British politics including the fall of Lady Thatcher, the rise of Euroscepticism, the formation of New Labour and the road to the Iraq war.

His weekly diary for “A week in politics” became a main feature of that show highlighting his acerbic humour, and occasionally odd fancy dress. He wrote a political short story broadcast on Radio 4 and a book for children on “how to succeed in TV”. 

After the 2005 election, he became the BBC’s first European editor covering the birth of the Lisbon treaty and EU politics in all its guises.  In 2009 he became the BBC North America editor, reporting on the 2012 Presidential election, the rise and perhaps fall of the Tea Party, and the twists and turns of Barack Obama’s foreign policy. He has made radio documentaries on the relationship between China and the USA, “Harmony and Hostility” and the future of the Republican party broadcast on Radio Four. He’s fascinated by the intersection of domestic and international politics and has now returned to the UK to present “The world this weekend” and “world at one”.