Yahoo News Clive Myrie says BBC was 'too posh and too poncey' for his family
The broadcaster now fronts BBC News at Ten and hosts Mastermind.
Clive Myrie is one of the BBC's favourite stars as the face of BBC News at Ten and the host of long-running quiz Mastermind.
But the broadcaster has admitted that he did not grow up watching the BBC because it was "too posh and poncey" for his family, who preferred ITV.
Myrie, 59, has told how his family could not identify with the BBC which did not feature any Black presenters on the news, tuning in to ITV instead to watch Trevor McDonald.
He told the Radio Times: "The BBC was too posh, too poncey and they didn’t have any Black people on it.
"ITV had Big Trev. It was more human the way ITV did the news.
"I hope the BBC has now got to that level, but in those days it was like handing down tablets of stone. This is public service broadcasting, these are your greens. Whereas ITV was like, 'Let’s stick a bit of chocolate cake in there.'"
Myrie joined the BBC in 1987 and BBC News in 2009, drawing particular praise recently for his coverage of the war in Ukraine with colleague Lyse Doucet.
They famously reported from a Kyiv rooftop, changing into flak jackets as the sounds of conflict could be heard around them, with Myrie appearing to shed a tear in one broadcast.
In July, Myrie had the tough task of reporting on his News at Ten colleague Huw Edwards, who was named as the BBC presenter alleged to have paid thousands to a young person in exchange for sexual pictures.
Viewers praised how sensitively he had handled the story, commenting that it must have been "upsetting" for him to have to talk about Edwards on air.
He has also spoken about being unable to present an episode of News at Ten over the summer as it was due to air too close to an episode of Have I Got News For You? in which he cracked jokes about Boris Johnson.
Myrie published his book Everything is Everything: A Memoir of Love, Hate and Hope in September which details his family's experiences as Windrush generation immigrants and the prejudice some of his siblings had still suffered.
He wrote: "We’re all agreed that what has happened is a complete and utter disgrace – the question is: what do you do about it?
"I’m still hoping society understands what happened and tries to rectify it. You know, these people need restitution and that hasn’t happened yet – even though we all agree that something needs to be done."
