Harry Gration – BBC Yorkshire Broadcaster, Conference Presenter and Facilitator
Harry Gration is one of the main presenters on BBC Yorkshire’s regional magazine programme ‘Look North’.
Harry returned to ‘Look North’ in 1999 after a five year break from the programme. During Harry’s break from this region, he tried out a professional job with a sport he’d followed for years: rugby league. In 1994, he became their Public Affairs Executive and returned to broadcasting soon after.
Down South, BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme, Match of the Day and Grandstand grabbed Harry and this was followed with four years at ‘South Today’.
Originally a history teacher in Yorkshire, Harry used school holidays to do match reports for BBC Radio Leeds and BBC Radio Humberside. His natural talent was soon spotted and he took a gamble, giving up the teaching for a three month contract as sports editor of Radio Leeds.
Harry became a regular reporter and commentator for the BBC’s Olympic and Commonwealth Games coverage, travelling the world for his profession.
Harry Gration has won two Royal Television Society Awards for his sports documentaries: White Rose in Africa (1992), and Dickie Bird – A Rare Species (1997).
Harry has been to numerous Olympic Games in his career – both Summer and Winter, and has covered sports such as Judo, Wrestling and Taekwondo. In the Winters his most daunting challenge was to do one and half hours of commentary on Cross Country skiing In Nagano (Japan) when all the other events had been cancelled!
He has covered virtually every sport in his career which also includes the Soccer World Cup, Wimbledon and Open Golf. In the mid 1980’s he presented Grandstand, Sportsnight and even a Grand Prix special as well as occasional Match of the Day’s.
Off screen, Harry Gration is a regular conference host, chairman and awards presenter.