Newsman with a missionary's zeal

If Esther Rantzen's journalism has always worked side-by-side with the entertainment business, her protagonist, John Ware, has worked mostly in the more rarefied atmosphere of TV current affairs documentaries.

A reporter with BBC1's flagship Panorama for 10 years, he has a reputation as a tough, uncompromising journalist with a missionary's zeal to get to the truth on hard issues.

It was at Granada's World in Action 13 years ago that Mr Ware won the first of his two Royal Television Society (RTS) home current news awards, for a devastating profile of Gerry Adams. The portrait of the Sinn Fein activist as a determined terrorist, plotting violence in Northern Ireland and on the mainland was a shocking one, and one which the IRA blamed for an attempt on Mr Adams's life.

Mr Ware's interest in Ireland was first excited during a brief stint as a reporter in Belfast with the Sun newspaper before his move to television. For many years, Ireland was his main interest.

He received acclaim for a Panorama programme cal-led "Dirty War", detailing the close links between British army intelligence and loyalist paramilitaries in the Province.

Mr Ware's second RTS award was for a report into the hard-left anti-racist "witch-hunts" on the then Labour-controlled Brent Council in North London. He also helped uncover the Westminster gerrymandering voting scandal.

Four years ago, Mr Ware took over as presenter of BBC's Rough Justice.