The Late Paul Barnes

Paul was born in Coventry. He celebrated his 70th birthday in 2009, a year which also marked 40 years since his first ever radio broadcast.

He's worked as presenter and/or reporter on Today, The World at One, Woman's Hour, Sunday, Outlook (World Service), Jazz Notes and numerous other series and single programmes.

He's also been a TV presenter/reporter for Granada, ATV and Anglia, as well as the BBC. One long-running BBC series was Parents & Children, the audience for which included many people in the first category, and absolutely everybody in the second.

He was educated at Leamington College and Coventry College of Art. At art school he played the trumpet in the Weary City Stompers, spending more time than he should immersed in music, until the principal invited him to choose between his wife or his mistress, art or jazz.

He remained faithful to both, though later he did relinquish the trumpet in favour of the tenor saxophone.

Paul's love for the music has never left him, and the breadth of his enthusiasm is reflected in what he plays in his programme The Late Paul Barnes.

Before becoming a broadcaster, Paul worked in publishing, advertising and documentary film production. It was his films based on the last of British Rail's steam locomotives in the sixties that led to an invitation to "go on the wireless".

He is a voracious reader and he writes for various magazines, including Saga and The Oldie. In spite of his love of music what he relishes, is quiet.

Listen to The Late Paul Barnes Saturday evening from 11pm.