Stephen Sackur

Stephen Sackur was presenter of HARDtalk, the BBC’s flagship international current affairs interview show from 2005-2025. Stephen has interviewed presidents, prime ministers and a host of high-profile guests from the worlds of culture, sport and business. In November 2010, Stephen was awarded the ‘International TV Personality of the Year Award’ by the Association of International Broadcasters. Before taking over HARDtalk, Stephen was based successively in Cairo, Jerusalem, Washington DC and Brussels as one of the BBC’s most senior foreign correspondents. In the US he interviewed Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, covered the disputed 2000 US Presidential Elections, the Lewinsky scandal and the Clinton impeachment trial. He led the BBC's coverage of 9/11 from Washington DC. In the Middle East he reported on the Oslo peace process, and the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Stephen is a graduate of Cambridge and Harvard Universities and has honorary doctorates from Warwick University and the Geneva School of International Diplomacy.

His first book, ON THE BASRA ROAD, was published in 1991. He is now writing HARD TRUTH for Headline Press to be published in 2026.