Fiona Bruce: The BBC's most dependable news anchor primed to succeed David Dimbleby on Question Time

Experienced newsreader, antiques hunter and one-time punk represents safe pair of hands

As veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby steps aside from hosting the BBC’s Question Time after 24 years in the chair, Fiona Bruce waits in the wings to succeed him.

A hugely experienced news anchor herself, Bruce, 54, has hosted the corporation’s Six O’Clock News, News at Ten, Crimewatch, Real Story, Fake or Fortune?, Hive Minds and Antiques Roadshow since joining as a researcher for Panorama in 1989 and represents a steady pair of hands.

Born in Singapore in 1964, she attended the International School of Milan and Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College in New Cross, a period in which she modelled clothes for the girls’ magazine Jackie.

She subsequently read French and Italian at Hertford College, Oxford, where she was briefly a punk and died her hair blue.

After graduating and before her arrival at Broadcasting House, she worked for a management consultancy and a number of advertising agencies but did not take to either profession.

Gradually working her way from a supporting role at Panorma, she began reporting in front of the camera for Breakfast News, Newsroom South East, First Sight and Newsnight.

By 1999, Bruce was presenting the Six O’Clock News as cover for Huw Edwards before advancing to News at Ten in 2003 upon the retirement of Michael Buerk.

She has held newsreading roles at the BBC ever since and, in addition, presented Crimewatch between 2000 and 2007 as a replacement for the murdered Jill Dando.

Children in Need has provided her with a regular opportunity to show a lighter side to her character, following in the tradition of Angela Rippon dancing with Morecambe and Wise. A performance of “All that Jazz” from the Broadway musical Chicago particularly impressed in 2007 - Bruce enjoying surreal support from backing dancers Dermot Murnaghan, Bill Turnbull, Nicholas Owen and Andrew Marr.

The showstopper had an unintended consequence, however, making her an unlikely sex symbol. Comedian Jan Ravens mercilessly sent her up on sketch show Dead Ringers thereafter, impersonating her as an innuendo-purring femme fatale: “Hello, my name is Fiona Bruce, sitting on the luckiest chair in Britain.”

A follow-up charity performance in 2010, in which she, Sophie Raworth, Kate Silverton and Susanna Reid sang a Lady Gaga medley in bizarre space age costumes under the direction of Louis Spence, was somewhat less successful, albeit a worthy effort for a good cause.

That same year, she won Rear of the Year and accepted the award in person before regretting doing so and subsequently dismissing the accolade as “demeaning”, making light of the situation during appearances on Top Gear opposite Jeremy Clarkson.

Since kept busy by antique hunting and quiz shows on BBC Four, Bruce appears ready for a new challenge and the cut-and-thrust of Question Time should be just the ticket.