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Rory Cellan-Jones
OBE
Cellan-Jones in 2006
Born
Nicholas Rory Cellan-Jones

(1958-01-17) 17 January 1958 (age 66)
NationalityBritish
EducationDulwich College
Alma materJesus College, Cambridge
OccupationJournalist
TitleTechnology correspondent of BBC News (2007–2021)
SpouseDiane Coyle
Children2
FatherJames Cellan Jones
RelativesSimon Cellan Jones (half-brother)

Nicholas Rory Cellan-Jones[1] OBE[2] (born 17 January 1958; "Cellan" pronounced [ˈkɛɬən]) is a British journalist and a former BBC News technology correspondent. After working for the BBC for 40 years, he announced in August 2021 he would leave the corporation in late October.[3][4]

Early life and education

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Rory Cellan-Jones was born in London in 1958. His father James Cellan Jones was a BBC TV director and film director,[5] and his mother was Sylvia Rich, a BBC secretary.[6][7] His half-brother Simon Cellan Jones is a film director.[5] Rory was born out of wedlock[8][5] and was unacquainted with his father and Cellan Jones half-siblings until adulthood.[citation needed] Rory uses a hyphen in his surname as his paternal grandparents did; his father had dropped the hyphen.[5]

Rory also had a half-brother from his mother's marriage, Stephen Rich, who was 16 years his senior and who died in 1994.[citation needed] Rory's mother Sylvia had separated from her husband in 1947,[9] and thereafter raised Stephen, and then also Rory, as a single mother.[10] Shortly before Rory's birth, his mother obtained a divorce from her estranged husband[11] and changed her surname by deed poll to Cellan-Jones,[12][10] although she personally still went by Sylvia Rich except when dealing with Rory's school.[13]

Cellan-Jones was educated at Dulwich College, an independent school for boys in Dulwich in south London, from 1967 to 1976.[14] He attended Jesus College, Cambridge University, obtaining a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages in 1981, and automatic MA three years later.[15][16]

Career

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After beginning his BBC career as a researcher on the Leeds edition of Look North, he worked in the corporation's London television newsroom for three years before gaining his first on-screen role at BBC Wales. He later returned to London and became the business and economics correspondent, appearing on The Money Programme between 1990 and 1992.[17]

After the dot com crash of 2000, he wrote the book Dot.bomb. He has covered issues such as Black Wednesday, the BCCI scandal and Marks and Spencer's competition troubles.[18]

He has evaluated the growth of websites and internet companies including the rise of Google and Wikipedia and online retailing. From January 2007 until leaving the BBC in 2021, he was the BBC's technology correspondent, with the job of expanding the BBC's coverage of new media and telecoms and the cultural impact of the Internet.[18]

On 30 May 2019, following his presentation of the first BBC broadcast over a 5G network, Cellan-Jones announced via Twitter that he had been diagnosed with early Parkinson's disease, but that he intended to carry on as normal.[19][20]

He announced on Twitter in August 2021 his intention to leave the BBC in October after 40 years.[4] Along with other well-wishers from the BBC, BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty replied to him on Twitter, calling him an "utterly brilliant man".[4]

Since March 2023 Cellan-Jones has contributed to a podcast Movers and Shakers which is "about life with Parkinson's". Recordings are made in a Notting Hill pub and presenters (Gillian Lacey-Solymar, Mark Mardell, Paul Mayhew-Archer, Sir Nicholas Mostyn and Jeremy Paxman) discuss "the highs and lows, trials and tribulations, of living with the condition".[21][22][23] In March 2024 The UK Broadcasting Press Guild made 'Movers and Shakers' its 'UK Podcast of the Year'.[24]

Personal life

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Cellan-Jones is married to economist and author Diane Coyle.[25] The couple have three adult children and live in West Ealing, London.[26][27][28]

He and Coyle adopted Sophie, a nervous rescue dog from Romania, in December 2022. They have reported on social media about Sophie's slow progress in settling in via the hashtag #sophiefromromania.[29] Cellan-Jones wrote a book about her, Sophie from Romania: A Year of Love and Hope with a Rescue Dog, published in October 2024.[30]

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2024 Birthday Honours for services to journalism.[2]

Publications

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  • Dot.Bomb: The Rise and Fall of Dot.com Britain (London: Autumn, 2001)
  • The Secret History of Social Networking (BBC, 2012)
  • With Mike Hally, Patently Absurd (Audio, 2013)
  • Always On: Hope and Fear in the Social Smartphone Era (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2021)
  • Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC (September Publishing, 2023)
  • Sophie from Romania: A Year of Love and Hope with a Rescue Dog (Square Peg Books, 2024)

References

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  1. ^ "Rory Cellan-Jones, Esq". Debrett's. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012.
  2. ^ a b Willis, Anna (14 June 2024). "All the people from London on the King's Birthday Honours 2024". MyLondon. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  3. ^ "Rory Cellan-Jones profile". BBC News. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Pearce, Tilly (4 August 2021). "BBC News reporter Rory Cellan-Jones leaves broadcaster after 40 years". Yahoo!. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d Obituaries, Telegraph (13 September 2019). "James Cellan Jones, television director best known for 'The Forsyte Saga' and 'Fortunes of War' – obituary". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  6. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory (8 May 2021). "Clearing out my parents' homes helped me piece together my missing past". The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 August 2024. Sylvia Rich ... kept the carbon copies of every letter she had written while working for decades as a secretary at the BBC after the war.
  7. ^ "James Cellan Jones obituary". The Times. 10 September 2019.
  8. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory (8 May 2021). "Clearing out my parents' homes helped me piece together my missing past". The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 August 2024. [M]y father, James Cellan Jones, when I was born in 1958, ... was 28 and she was 43. ... They never married, so I was born out of wedlock.
  9. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory (5 September 2023). "Behind the Cameras". Hatchards. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  10. ^ a b Cellan-Jones, Rory (8 May 2021). "Clearing out my parents' homes helped me piece together my missing past". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  11. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory (2023). Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC. September Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 9781914613449.
  12. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory (2023). Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC. September Publishing. p. 170. ISBN 9781914613449.
  13. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory (2023). Ruskin Park: Sylvia, Me and the BBC. September Publishing. p. 224. ISBN 978-1-914613-44-9.
  14. ^ Dulwich College website[permanent dead link‍]
  15. ^ Cambridge University. The Cambridge University List of Members for the Year 1991. Cambridge University Press, 1991. p. 228.
  16. ^ "Payments Innovation speakers list". TechUK. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  17. ^ Rory Cellan-Jones [@ruskin147] (4 September 2015). "@stuartmiles you are right and the rest of it is also somewhat bizarre. I was on the Money Programme 1990 to 1992, not 2004" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  18. ^ a b "Rory Cellan-Jones". The Guardian. London. 11 November 2009. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  19. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory [@ruskin147] (30 May 2019). "A couple of people have noticed my hand shaking in my live 5G broadcast today. So seems a good time to reveal that I've recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's. I'm getting good treatment and the symptoms are mild right now – so I'm carrying on as normal. Onwards and upwards!" (Tweet). Retrieved 30 May 2019 – via Twitter.
  20. ^ "5G: EE launches UK's next-generation mobile network". BBC. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  21. ^ Adams, Tim (23 July 2023). "In some ways, Parkinson's has meant a new lease of life': meet the Movers and Shakers". Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  22. ^ "Movers and Shakers podcast: Jeremy Paxman and Rory Cellan-Jones tell of a life with Parkinson's". iNews. London. 11 April 2023. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  23. ^ "The Movers and Shakers podcast is 'de-grimifying' disability". iNews. London. 10 May 2023. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  24. ^ "The Winner of the UK Podcast of the Year". Twitter. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  25. ^ Sherwin, Adam (13 October 2006). "Out with the governors and in with the trustees". The Times. London. Retrieved 22 May 2010.[dead link‍]
  26. ^ Coyle, Diane (19 February 1996). "Netsurfing is child's play". The Independent. London.
  27. ^ "Ealing residents scoop New Year's Honours". Ealing Gazette. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  28. ^ Cellan-Jones, Rory (21 November 2024). Sophie from Romania: A Year of Love and Hope with a Rescue Dog (1st ed.). London: Penguin (published 10 October 2024). p. 141. ISBN 9781529918588.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  29. ^ Smart, Andrew (15 January 2023). "BBC Rory Cellan-Jones shares progress with Sophie from Romania". The Herald. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  30. ^ "Sophie From Romania". Penguin Books. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
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Media offices
Preceded by
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 Technology Editor: BBC News
2007–2021 		Succeeded by
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