Truthful, factual, accurate
IT MAY NOT resonate in the age of spin but for copytakers and newsdesks throughout the country the name “Goodrick of Hull” — freelance journalist James Goodrick — was for decades a byword for truthful, factual and accurate reporting.
He worked to high standards. If a story didn’t “stand up” James Goodrick, who has died at the age of 91, would not do it. Broadsheet and broadcast newsdesks rejoiced in his prompt and accurate service but tabloid news editors could tear their hair out in the face of his obduracy.
Born in Hull, he left school at 14 to work in his father’s newspaper business, as an office boy, compositor, linotype operator and sub-editor.
Called up in World War II, James Goodrick was a captain in the Royal Artillery, then promoted to major and sent to serve in India and Ceylon. In 1946, back in Hull, he set up as a freelance and the legend was born.
In the early days of regional TV he became one of the BBC’s first local correspondents.
He was a regular fixture at elections, covering his last one in 2001 when, at 84, he was at Hull Guildhall well past midnight, phoning through the results. He stopped work in 2004.
John Davis