Fiona Bruce’s Scottish roots and why she feels at home in the north east

Fiona Bruce is one of the most well-kept faces on the TV. But perhaps less well known is her close connections to her Scottish roots. The BBC Antiques Roadshow host can trace her family back to a small fishing village, Hopeman, in the north east of Scotland and she’s previously told the BBC that she’s always ‘felt Scottish’ as a result.

As well as fronting a host of primetime shows including Crimewatch, News at Ten and Question Time, Fiona, 64, is also a popular motivational and after dinner speaker, and the star can speak three languages – including Italian and French.

We’ve taken a look at the interesting life off screen of Fiona Bruce, and at her Scottish heritage…

Family in north east

Fiona’s dad John comes from a fishing family in the north east but moved to Singapore, when it was still a Malaysian state, in the 60s, with her mum Rosemary, where daughter Fiona was born in 1964, as well as her two brothers.

John had started out as a postboy before moving his way up to being a boss at Unilever, so the family enjoyed a comfortable life in south east Asia. But Fiona has previously said she remembers feeling a “strange sense of belonging” when she returned to her father’s home village for her grandfather’s funeral – with everyone in the family looking like her dad, with dark hair and blue eyes.

She told the BBC she has always “felt Scottish” as a result, which led to a more thorough delve into the past when she took part in Who Do You Think You Are in 2009.

Who Do You Think You Are?

Fiona felt compelled to investigate her heritage more and so signed up to find out more. As part of WDYTYA, Fiona headed to Hopeman, on the Moray Firth, to do some digging with programme experts. As well as finding out about her great grandfather John Bruce, a trawler skipper, died during minesweeping duty during the First World War, she looked into the life of her great gran, Isabella, who then had to raise eight children alone.

But it was the life of her great great great grandfather, George Bruce, that proved most memorable for viewers, after Poor Relief records showed he’d died in the poor house in 1875, as a ‘drunken creature’ suffering from malnutrition.

Reflecting on her journey, Fiona said: ““ feel incredibly proud of my dad.”

“And when I come back [to Hopeman] and I see what he started from and what the rest of them started from, it’s a really amazing thing.”

Successful TV career

Fiona is used to making waves in the entertainment industry and was the first female newsreader at BBC News at Ten. She’s also fronted a host of primetime shows including Crimewatch, Fake or Fortune, Question Time and BBC News at Six. An Oxford graduate, Fiona started out her working life as a researcher on Panorama in 1989 and she quickly rose up the ranks, leaving as an exec producer for a reporting role on Breakfast News in 1992.

Various stints on screen would continue over the next few years – including a presenter and reporter for BBC South East and from 1994 – 1995, she appeared as a reporter on BBC2’s current affairs programme Public Eye. After fronting Newsnight and Panorama and being made second presenter of Six O’Clock News in 199, she was then made first female anchor at News at Ten.

Husband and home life

Fiona married Nigel Sharrocks in 1994 at a ceremony in Islington. They’d met when newly graduated Fiona was working in an advertising agency, where her future husband was working as a director. The pair have two children – Sam and Mia Rose.

The family split their time between two plush homes, one in Belsize Park in London and the other in Sydenham, Oxfordshire.

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