Sheer zest for life
DAVE WATSON lived his life at high volume. Colleagues at BBC Radio Derby used to say that he didn’t need a landline when he was reporting from Matlock. If he just opened the window, they could hear him in Derby 20 miles away.
Dave was an outstanding radio journalist who always brought that human dimension to his work. His coverage of the miners’ strike in the mid-1980s gained him recognition throughout the BBC as an outstanding journalist “who got under the skin of the dispute.”
After a brief stint at Radio One’s News Beat, he joined the BBC Midlands Today and then Central TV News in Birmingham.
He had no time for the personality culture that too many in the profession get sucked into. His mission was to be a good journalist first and last, and the peripheral froth was of no interest to him.
He would bring a smile to everyone’s face as he strode out of the gallery, holding his scripts aloft and proclaiming with mocking pride: “Another two minutes of television history.”
His sheer zest for life equipped him to meet the toughest challenge imaginable when he contracted multiple sclerosis. It was a condition to which he refused to submit. Even when he could no longer speak, he somehow found the strength and the will to make himself understood. He inspired everyone around him, including the medical staff, who were devoted to him.
Allister Craddock