Conor Bradford: ‘When I was growing up we had B Specials guarding our house’

More often heard than seen as a broadcaster on BBC Radio Ulster, Conor Bradford, has been there and asked that, but after four decades on the airwaves he’s finally calling it a day - to do what?...well, he doesn’t really know.

“The time seemed opportune to lay down the cudgel and do something else, but what I’m going to do, I have no idea.”

Is he the sort of person who enjoys being idle? “Oh, yes, I’m a very idle person - sloth is my middle name,” he laughs.

One could be forgiven for thinking that Conor Bradford, with his posh, public school accent, is starchy and distant, but in reality the 68-year-old is warm, self-disparaging and funny.

On air he was unafraid to tease and be teased, his convivial broadcasting manner in delicious contrast to other more serious broadcasters. But he was also a polished and assured interviewer, taking no nonsense from the politicians he questioned.

Reflecting on his departure from his workplace of four decades, he said: “It’s a big junction in my life, a big change. I am doing the rounds of au revoir and farewell.

“I’ve just done a recording with William Crawley on his Talkback programme picking my favourite six discs and chatting about them and that will go out on Easter Monday. But I haven’t made any arrangements to do any more broadcasting. I’m calling it a day.”

POLITICIAN FATHER ROY BRADFORD

Conor’s late father, Roy Bradford was, of course, the well-known Ulster Unionist politician and a former Minister of Commerce in the old Stormont parliament. Before entering politics, he was a well-known journalist for the BBC in London and wrote two novels.

Conor and his younger brother Toby were born in London but the family moved back home when Conor was seven after his father decided to enter politics.

Roy Bradford wrote an influential weekly column for this newspaper and also served as a councillor and Mayor of North Down.

Conor, who lives near Strangford Lough with his partner of 30 years Hilary Hanna, has many strings to his broadcasting bow. He has worked on Good Morning Ulster and Evening Extra, his poised presentation style always to the fore. He even did a stint on Consumer Desk. But despite the variety of subjects, the one constant for listeners has been that voice - a household sound through Northern Ireland’s troubled times, and good times.

‘I NEVER HAD ELOCUTION LESSONS’

“I never had a strong Irish accent, although people in England always think I am Irish, and people in Ireland always assume that I am English or have a public school sort of accent, so I don’t know where I am. I’m a crazy mixed up kid, as they say!

“It’s a very easy accent to mock. I am cursed with it,” he laughs.

“My father sounded quite like me. I heard a programme which was called The Ulster Farm, which was an old Sixties black and white thing.

“They were showing an archive programme on the BBC and there was a very nice narration going on behind the scenes. I didn’t think about the voice, but I remember liking it.

“Then up came the credits and lo and behold it said ‘Narration by Roy Bradford’. It was after he died so I couldn’t ask him about it, and I don’t suppose he would have remembered doing it. “You inherit a voice and it is obviously tweaked by how you are brought up, but I want to put it on record I have never been to an elocution lesson in my life!,” he jokes.”

A ‘STRANGE’ CHILDHOOD

Growing up with a politician for a father during the Troubles made, he says, for an unusual childhood.

“Politicians always came to the house at Ardkeen Carnlea, where I was born and brought up, a big Edwardian house on Belfast Lough. We had B Specials guarding us. They lived in one of the outbuildings because my father was considered a target at the time. It was quite strange looking back on it.”

Unlike his father, however, pursuing a political career didn’t appeal to him.

“Because of the nature of my job working in news and current affairs, I had to make a decision - you are either a neutral person working at the BBC or you go into the political jungle and declare yourself for whatever party you want to support.

“I never did that, because I never really had any very firm convictions to chuck it all in, which is what it would have meant, so I didn’t.”

Conor studied History at Oxford and after graduating worked in a variety of jobs and lived in Italy for a year where he taught at the British Institute in Florence.

He returned to London where he worked as an insurance broker for Lloyds, “where the people still wore bowler hats and furled umbrellas”. He also sold antiques and even worked for a period on the oil rigs in Scotland.

It was a chance meeting on a flight to Belfast with former BBC journalist and author Martin Dillon which led him to apply for the BBC.

“We got chatting and he asked me ‘Have you ever thought about working at the BBC?’

“I took him at his word and badgered him the next week and they gave me a reel-to-reel tape recorder and told me to go and interview people. He said if they are any good we’ll use them, and if they aren’t we won’t, and you’ll just get paid on a pro-rata basis. It was very ad hoc in those days. There were no media courses. You didn’t train to become a journalist.”

HEALTH SCARES

In terms of health, Conor Bradford has had a rough ride over the last number of years, with not one, but two serious health issues knocking him off his feet.

In 2017 he had to take a year off work after a serious case of Hepatitis C, a virus that can infect the liver and can, if left untreated, sometimes cause serious and potentially life-threatening damage to the liver.

He hadn’t been feeling particularly unwell, but had a swollen stomach. His GP sent him to the Ulster Hospital where he was admitted.

The swelling was a sign his liver was in crisis and a series of tests revealed he had Hepatitis C.

The broadcaster was eventually put on a three-month course of anti-viral pills, but the illness zapped his energy and he spent months at home recuperating.

Conor has no idea how he contracted the virus, however it took a huge toll on his body with his weight dropping to just nine stone.

Then, during the coronavirus pandemic, he had another health scare.

“I didn’t get Covid, I got my own brand of illness.”

Conor, who has a holiday home in France, and loves nothing more than getting out and about on his bike, was in the country at the height of the pandemic.

“I had been going up a very steep hill on my bike in France and I bust a blood vessel because I was going too hard.

“I wound up in a hospital and the Covid ward was on the floor above me.

“It was at the absolute peak of Covid times, so not a great time really to be in hospital, but I didn’t have any choice in the matter.

“I am fine now. I’ve had those couple of health scares and I’ve pulled through, thank God.”

“People are surprised when I say I’ve been ill because I don’t look like a terribly ill person, which makes me sound a bit fraudulent, really,” he laughs.

“But you never know what’s going on under the skin.”

He admits that instead of taking on steep inclines on his trusty pushbike, he should pursue gentler, less high-octance pursuits, but he has no interest in them.

“I should take it easy, as they say.

“I should do yoga and pilates because I have high blood pressure, but I do biking which I find very good for me.”

He keeps a bike at his home in France and does intend to do more cycling when he returns.

“I do like going out on my bike a lot and I hope to spend some time in France. It’s a great biking country with the Tour de France and everything.”

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