Always bright and early, it's Rachel with the headlines

David Clayton chats to former Radio Suffolk presenter Rachel Burden, now getting up extra early to bring us the national news and interviews on BBC TV and radio.

- David Clayton

RACHEL BURDEN WAS impressively chirpy when we chatted. It was something like 11 am, but for her, pretty much the end of a working day.

If you start your day listening to BBC Five Live, or catch BBC One’s Breakfast TV programme, you’ll have heard her or seen her. Whether it’s by accident or design, Rachel has been a slave to a 3.30 am alarm call for nearly all her working life.

Leading us through the morning’s news is second nature and something she says is a privilege despite the exceedingly early start. However, long-standing listeners to BBC Radio Suffolk might recall her as a bright young reporter on the radio some 20 years ago. Rachel cut her journalistic teeth on our local airwaves.

Rachel studied politics at university in Dublin then studied a year of broadcast journalism at Cardiff. She had a friend living in Woodbridge who offered her a bed after she landed a three-week work placement at the BBC’s station in Ipswich. That lead to a three-month contract and eventually a proper job.

“I can vividly remember my first day. I couldn’t have felt more proud walking into the BBC Radio Suffolk office,” she remembers. “I had a studio flat near Portman Road and my own little life. It was exhilarating. I was skipping through the air.”

From reporting with the Radio Car, she moved to producing the Breakfast Show, working with Mark Murphy. Mark remembers her well: “She was full of energy. Really good to have on the team.” Mark made the point that getting up at what he jokingly calls “stupid o’clock”, you need good people you can get on with. “She had an amazing voice,” he recalls.