Entertainment

Ex-Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross to pick up CBE at Windsor Castle ceremony

The broadcaster, who will be awarded for services to broadcasting, charity and crime prevention, previously said he was ‘delighted’ to be recognised.
The broadcaster, who will be awarded for services to broadcasting, charity and crime prevention, previously said he was ‘delighted’ to be recognised.

Former Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross, who hosted the show for more than two decades, is to collect a CBE at a ceremony at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.

The broadcaster, 73, will receive the award for services to broadcasting, charity and crime prevention.

It comes as the Queen, who is experiencing mild cold-like symptoms after catching coronavirus, is self-isolating at the Berkshire residence.

Ross, whose screen credits also include Sixty Minutes, Watchdog and Breakfast Time, previously said the honour was dedicated to his late colleague, Jill Dando.

After his co-presenter, Dando, was killed in 1999, he started a campaign to commemorate her leading to the creation of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at University College London, which has developed a multi-disciplinary approach to crime prevention.

Ross also described himself as “delighted” to have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021 and said his 50-year career had “all been a bit of a privilege”.

Speaking to the PA news agency, he said previously: “Obviously, I am delighted. The citation is really for three different things: broadcasting, charity work and for crime prevention; but, the truth is, it has all been a bit of a privilege really.

“Broadcasting is an honour in itself. It is a fantastic career to have. The charity initiatives flow directly out of that.”

“The death of my co-presenter, Jill Dando, led to the idea of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science in honour of her, which is at University College London, one of the best universities in the world, and it is now being copied around the world and, actually, this is its 20th anniversary, so in some ways this is an honour for them too,” he added.

The Murder of Jill Dando
Nick Ross helped inspire an institute of crime science in memory of his co-presenter Jill Dando, who was murdered outside her London home (BBC/PA)

Ross has been chairman, president, trustee or patron of a large number of charities including the heritage-focused Kensington Society and Prisoners Abroad.

He has also been involved in road safety campaigning, which he said was inspired by The Biggest Epidemic of Our Times, a documentary he worked on about road accidents.

Among other investees due to collect awards are Meera Naran, who has also campaigned for road safety after her eight-year-old son was died on a smart motorway.

Ms Naran, who was awarded an MBE last year, has vowed to continue raising awareness until there are zero deaths on the roads after losing her son Dev in a collision on the M6 in 2018.

Peter Beirne, head of the cold case team at Thames Valley Police, which has solved five historic murders, is set to receive the same award after being honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours last year.

McLaren racing car engineer, Mark Mathieson, who answered the Prime Minister’s call to make life-saving ventilators at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, is also due to pick up an MBE.