Cecil Taylor, who was BBC News NI’s first television reporter, has passed away at the age of 96. He began working for the BBC in 1955, at the same time that BBC television news bulletins started. Taylor is being remembered fondly by his former colleagues, who call him a solid and valued news pioneer.
Don Anderson, one of Taylor’s co-workers at the BBC, said that Taylor was a brave journalist who started the BBC’s journey towards proper impartial journalism in Belfast. He helped cover the Irish Republican Army’s border campaign of the 1950s and early 1960s. By the mid-1960s, Taylor had become the BBC NI news editor and witnessed the beginning of the Troubles. Anderson said that Taylor was consistent and you knew what was expected- fair and accurate reporting.
Taylor eventually became the head of BBC NI programmes and commissioned many dramas, including Graham Reid’s Billy Plays starring Kenneth Branagh. Anderson credits Taylor with planting the seeds that have grown into Northern Ireland’s thriving film industry. Taylor was described by former colleagues as seriously honest and having a fine-tuned editorial mind.
Taylor’s funeral took place at Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church in Bangor on Wednesday afternoon. His contributions to journalism and the growth of the film industry in Northern Ireland won’t soon be forgotten
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