By Harry McMullen
A Vietnam war correspondent in his 20s, a prominent Conservative MP in his 30s and with a year in prison in his 40s, Jonathan Aitken has had a diverse career. Now in his 70s and an ordained prison chaplain, Aitken will be hosting a talk about his life in the public eye on Tuesday 6 October for the Leeds Trinity University Journalism and Media Week.
For Aitken it is a return to a former stomping ground, having spent a significant amount of his career in Leeds working on Calendar and at Yorkshire Television.
Giving an insight into what the audience can expect from the talk, he said: “I shall be doing a tour d’ horizon of my own life. I was first ever television presenter of Calendar and the principle international presenter of a Yorkshire Television series ‘The Reporters’.
“So I will have many good stories on all these episodes not least with Calendar.”
Mr Aitken will also reflect on the darker parts of his career – the scandals he was caught up in and his time in prison for perjury. He told the Yorkshire Voice: “Later on in life I became a target for investigative journalists from The Guardian and thereby hangs a tale or two.”
Aitken stresses the talk will not be an hour of excuses, concluding with: “I shall hope to amuse and entertain rather than to justify or pontificate.”
- The talk is in the Mary Hallaway Lecture Theatre, Leeds Trinity University, Tuesday 6th November at 9.45 am.