About The Westminster Hour

Carolyn Quinn is our new presenter.

Carolyn was a political correspondent for the BBC for more than ten years.

In January 2004 she began presenting the Today programme - as well as working on PM.

After a French degree, she trained to be a teacher, but since university days she always yearned to be a journalist. She gave up teaching, got a job as a ward clerk at Charing Cross Hospital and started to volunteer on the hospital radio station.

She freelanced before joining the Irish Post and was then selected for a BBC local radio trainee scheme. After training and two years at Radio Solent, Carolyn became a reporter on the local radio desk for the BBC at Westminster.

She became a political correspondent in 1994. "One of my first jobs was door-stepping Tony Blair live, on air, just after he'd been elected Labour leader. Later in 2001, I was one of the journalists pursuing him around the country on his election bus. Stamina-wise though, nothing has compared with the 1997 campaign when I was posted on Paddy Ashdown's tour - we travelled more miles across Britain than I care to remember. But it was truly memorable as my first close-up experience of an election bandwagon rolling."

About the Westminster Hour

First broadcast in April 1998, The Westminster Hour is now into its ninth year, with 670,000 listeners every week.

The programme will keep you informed and in touch with the political events that will dominate the news the next week and beyond.

Our main role is anticipating and setting the scene for the week ahead, while, of course, reflecting what is happening at the weekend and what happened during the past seven days.

"Has a highly serious agenda and packs a lot into an hour without appealing only to obsessives"
The Independent

The programme is a mixture of interviews with politicians and reports on the politics and policies coming up.

Our reports preview big government announcements, such as Bills being presented to Parliament or 'White Papers', or look at issues and trends behind the news. Most of what you hear on The Westminster Hour you will not have heard elsewhere.

" The Westminster Hour, the Sunday night political programme, I greeted with joy on its arrival and have followed ever since."
Gillian Reynolds, radio critic, Daily Telegraph

But The Westminster Hour is not just about Westminster. We report on events in Europe, the devolved governments and in local government. And we are committed also to reflecting the work of Parliament's Select Committees.