A Broadcaster Without a Broadcast Box
Clive Myrie, 61, has spent 37 years building a career in front of the camera, first as a trainee local radio reporter at the BBC in 1987, then as a regional TV reporter on BBC Points West, and eventually as one of the corporation’s most recognisable faces on BBC News at Six, News at Ten, and quiz favourite Mastermind. Yet inside the home he shares with his wife, furniture restorer Catherine, there isn’t a single television in sight.
Myrie opened up about the surprising household rule in an interview with The Times’ “A Life In the Day” column, explaining that TV sets simply don’t belong in a well-lived-in room because, in his words, they drain a space of its energy.
Instead of a big-screen wind-down, Myrie’s nights follow a tighter, screen-optional rhythm. After wrapping the News at Ten at 10:35 pm, he’s typically home by 11 pm and in bed roughly fifteen minutes later. If Catherine is still awake, the couple will share a glass of wine before catching an episode of something, recently, Two Weeks in August, streamed on a laptop rather than a television, before lights-out around 12:30 am. 
Even off-duty, Myrie steers clear of the news itself. He prefers current-affairs documentaries and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme over traditional news broadcasts, a notably different diet from the bulletins he delivers for a living.
He’s Not the Only TV-Free Star
Myrie joins a small but notable club of British broadcasters and celebrities who’ve admitted to living without a television at home. Claudia Winkleman revealed back in 2015 that her house has no tellies at all, telling The Sun on Sunday that she believes people need to know when to switch off. Singer Paloma Faith made a similar admission in 2012, telling The Independent that going without a TV and without newspapers or magazines was a deliberate choice to avoid outside influence, even if it meant missing out on information. More recently, former EastEnders actor Bobby Brazier said in 2023 that he skips television altogether in favour of meditation.
TV-free or not, Myrie has had his own viral broadcast moment this year. During a guest appearance on Saturday Kitchen, a couple of glasses of wine loosened him up enough to spill some off-camera Mastermind gossip, revealing that the previous season’s winner and one of the finalists had struck up a romance during filming.
The confession delighted viewers online, with one social media user joking that a night out with Myrie sounded like guaranteed entertainment, as reported by the Independent.
Isn’t that a fitting footnote for a broadcaster who spends his days informing the world from behind a news desk, and his nights, apparently, ignoring screens altogether?
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