Michael Barratt (television presenter) to the UK, he worked as a production journalist on several English regional newspapers including a period at the "Wolverhampton Express & Star". At the same time, he contributed regularly to the BBC World Service and began a freelance television reporting career, initially on the Midlands regional current affairs magazine "Scan". He became a reporter on the BBC current affairs programmes "Midlands Today", going on to present "Panorama", then "24 Hours". He was a "Nationwide" presenter from 1969 to 1977. He was also chairman of BBC Radio 4's "Gardeners' Question Time" from 1973 to 1977. He was also a presenter
The World at One news and comment] on air". In his history of radio news and current affairs, "Public Issue Radio", Hugh Chignell pointed out that "The World at One" was a highly successful but also a profoundly controversial innovation. It provided a successful approach to news and current affairs which would be cloned elsewhere but at the same time it horrified the more Reithian wing of the BBC who reacted in the 1970s by creating single subject current affairs programmes ("Analysis" and "File on Four") in reaction to "The World at One's" vulgar journalism. That vulgarity was personified by its first presenter, William