Who is Andrew Marr and how long has he worked for the BBC?

BBC presenter Andrew Marr has been a mainstay of British television for the past twenty years.

He has interviewed the biggest political figures in the UK and always asks the hard-hitting questions that have at times landed him in hot water.  But what else do we know about him?

What is Andrew Marr's background?

Andrew Marr was born in 1959 in Glasgow, Scotland to parents Valerie and Donald Marr.

He decided he wanted to pursue a career in journalism after graduating with first-class honours.  By 1981 he joined The Scotsman as a trainee reporter.

This followed with stints at The Independent and ultimately became their editor in 1996, and was very successful.

The 60-year-old rose to stardom after being appointed the BBC's political editor in 2000, a role which he occupied for five years.

In 2005 he began to present his own television show: The Andrew Marr Show, which is still on TV today.

He is married to Jackie Ashley, a political journalist from The Guardian.

Why did he take a break from the Andrew Marr show?

Marr had to step away from filming his show, first in January 2013 after suffering a stroke and was hospitalised for two months.

Initially his family were told he wouldn't survive and if he did, he would be unable to speak and confined to a wheelchair.

However, the Scotsman defied the odds and was back presenting his show in September of that year.

The iconic political journalist had to step down from TV again in 2018 when he had to undergo an operation to remove a malignant tumour on his kidney.

Marr wasn't to be kept down for long and was back on our screens just three weeks later.

You can catch Andrew Marr doing what he does best on The Andrew Marr show, Sunday at 9.20am on BBC One.

Has Andrew Marr been involved in any controversy?

Despite Marr's supreme track record as a journalist, he has had his fair share of problems too.

In June 2008, Private Eye journalist Richard Ingrams reported in Marr's former paper The Independent, that he had been given a High-Court super-injunction, which prevented disclosure in the media of private data.

Three years later, after taking legal action Private Eye editor Ian Hislop published an interview with Andrew Marr in The Daily Mail, which revealed Marr had an affair with another journalist.

Furthermore, in September of this year Nigel Farage refused to appear on the BBC again after feeling as though he was treated like a “war criminal” by Andrew Marr.

In a heated interview in May, Farage slammed Andrew Marr’s questions as ‘ludicrous’.

When Marr asked if he wanted to change the NHS into a private insurance system, Farage, criticising Marr for being 'boring' and wanting to 'talk about the past'.