Roger Johnson is an English television journalist, newsreader and presenter, currently working as the main presenter for the regional news programme BBC North West Tonight, as well as a regular weekend presenter of BBC Breakfast and other national BBC News platforms.[1]
Johnson joined the BBC after university – working as a reporter at BBC Radio Solent and BBC Radio Manchester. His first television role dating back to 1997 was as a sports journalist on BBC South's news programme South Today. During this time he was also the relief presenter for Sally Taylor and worked for several other BBC Television outlets. He was named Royal Television Society Regional Sports Presenter of the Year in 2002[4] and has been nominated on three other occasions.
He left BBC South in September 2011 after 14 years[5] to replace Gordon Burns as the main anchor on North West Tonight, originally alongside Ranvir Singh[6] and then Annabel Tiffin. Since 2020, the programme has had a single presenter as part of savings made across BBC regional news, with Johnson covering Mon-Thurs.[citation needed][7] In April 2014, Johnson anchored coverage of the 25th Anniversary Service for the Hillsborough Disaster. The programme was named Best Regional News Programme at the Royal Television Society North West Awards.[8] Johnson and the BBC team won the award again in 2015 for a compilation entry.[9] The programme also won the award in 2017 for a compilation of coverage on the Manchester Arena Bombing, in which Johnson played a leading role.[10] It won the same award in 2024[11] and 2025. [12]BBC North West Tonight, presented by Johnson, was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for News Coverage in 2014 and again in 2017.[13] He was nominated as Nations & Regions Presenter of the Year at the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards in 2018 and 2019[14] and was winner of the Broadcast Presenter Award at the O2 Media Awards NW in 2018.[15] Johnson was named Best Presenter at the Royal Television Society NW Awards in 2023.[16] He won the same award - re-titled as Best Presenter of a North West Show - at the Royal Television Society Awards in 2025 [17]
From 2009 to 2011, he was a regular relief presenter on the BBC News Channel, presenting a variety of shifts during the week and at weekends. He broke the news of the death of singer Amy Winehouse. He also presented BBC World simulcasts on the Norwegian shootings by Anders Behring Breivik and the start of western bombing operations in Libya in 2011.
Since 2012, he has been a regular presenter of BBC Breakfast on Sundays. He has also presented Saturday, weekday and Bank Holiday editions of the programme.[20]
Johnson is a patron of The Dianne Oxberry Trust, an ovarian cancer charity established in memory of his late colleague. [21] He has been a patron of Willowbrook Hospice in Prescot on Merseyside, England.[22] He was also a patron of Southampton charity the Rose Road Association's 'Change My Life' appeal[23] and was a supporter of Naomi House Children's Hospice, for whom he hosted a range of fund-raising events. He has also anchored the BBC's regional Children in Need coverage (south or north west) since 1998.
