Clive Myrie reveals shocking scale of racial abuse he faced as BBC newsreader

Clive Myrie has revealed details of death threats he received, including messages “talking about what type of bullet he would use in the gun to kill me”.

Speaking to Lauren Laverne in a new edition of Radio 4’s Desert Island DiscsMyrie, 59, opened up about an unexpected pitfall of becoming more “visible” to the public: racial abuse and death threats.

Myrie said he received feces and “cards in the mail with gorillas on them,” as well as emails that said, “You should not be in front of our television; you dress like a pimp.

Although Myrie has worked at the BBC since the 1980s, the journalist and presenter has gradually become a familiar face on the channel with high-profile presenting roles such as frontman Brain since 2021.

He continued: “But a guy made death threats, and he was found and prosecuted, and his death threats involved talking about what type of bullet he would use in the gun to kill me and that kind of things.

“I was shaken for a while after I was told. I thought, “He’s just someone who showsboat.” It’s just bravado.

“And then they tracked down this character, and it turned out he had previous convictions for gun offenses. So (I) thought, “Oh my God, what could this person have planned, if anything?” »

Myrie, born to Jamaican parents in Farnworth, near Bolton, also spoke at the Hay Festival last month about the harrowing experience. He noted that the 2017 incident was a reminder of how far some people can go when it comes to racial hatred.

Next month, he and political journalist Laura Kuenssberg will lead the BBC’s election night coverage for the first time. They succeed Huw Edwards, who resigned from the channel in April on “medical advice” after being accused of paying thousands of pounds to a teenager for sexually explicit images.

Elsewhere on the long-running radio show, Myrie told host Laverne of her hopes for overnight election coverage after Britain goes to the polls on Thursday July 4. While admitting there is “a lot of pressure” on the show, Myrie also enjoys the adrenaline and “nervous energy” involved in such essential coverage.

“I have never presented an election platform in the UK before. I think about a lot of statistics,” he said.

“But you know, we also want to try to make it fun; it won’t just be a night for geeks. I hope this isn’t just a night for political geeks.

“I want people to be able to tune in and get a sense of where this country is going and the excitement of being on the front lines.

“It’s the front line of what it means to be British when it comes to elections.”

You can follow The independentgeneral election coverage here.