Remembering Brian
Nine News presenter Peter Hitchener looks back on a week full of tragedy and remembers a colleague who earned respect across network lines.
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Nine News presenter Peter Hitchener has spoken of his memories of Brian Naylor, the man whom he worked beside for twenty years.
Naylor and his wife Moiree died in the bushfires last Sunday.
Last Sunday, Hitchener, Tony Jones and crew drove to Kinglake to present the news from the town.
“We were doing the bulletin from Kinglake and on the way up the mountain we drove past Brian’s road (Coombs Rd), the road that he lived on,” he told the Sunday Herald Sun.
“From where we were looking at it, it looked hopeless.
“You would think that nobody would have survived.
“At that stage we hadn’t been able to contact Brian.
“I must have been hoping that he and Moiree were in another part of the state, or maybe interstate.
“I didn’t know that he had actually been at Kinglake West.
“So it came as a horrible shock.”
With that sinking feeling, Hitchener composed himself to read the 6pm news with tragedy all around him – and without any way of knowing if his suspicions were accurate. It was not until soon after 7.30pm that Hitchener and Tony Jones, who was also very close to Naylor and read sport with him in the 1990s, fronted a news break to announce the terrible news.
It was one of the hardest bulletins both experienced news readers would ever do.
“It was just another part of the tragedy that had been unfolding,” Hitchener said of announcing his friend’s death. “The number of lives lost was increasing and our thoughts were with everybody.
“People had lost family members and loved ones and among the dead were Brian and Moiree, part of our news family. You could say it was just terrible.
“It was shocking.”
No one could imagine how difficult it would have been for Hitchener and Jones to read that bulletin, but it was what Naylor would have wanted them to do.
“I hope we would continue his tradition,” he said.
“That’s certainly what he would have wanted us to do.”
Naylor was one of 181 to have so far been announced in the catastrophic death toll. Describing him as “warm and very gracious,” Hitchener said everybody respected Naylor, regardless of network rivalries.
“The mark he made on our town and our state and our news in Victoria is quite incredible.”
Source: Sunday Herald Sun
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6 Responses
I remember, that living over here in the south-west of Perth. The stories of the tragedies of the Victorian bushfires defeated me, my neighbour was crying. I’m 22 and I hope the person(s) who did this gets imprisonment for all those lives destroyed. I feared for my brother but he luckily got back safe from Victoria on his trip.
Althrough I do not approve of television these days with all the abrasive, confronting murder-esqe programings and today’s ‘worshipping celebrity’ with their antics and decisions that influence people the wrong way of life. I feel this generation is embracing celebrity so bad and terrible, it’s simply ridiculous. Shame on you Seven and Nine, and probably the ABC for their overly political attitude and not doing something about it.
Minus the ghastly questions by the Perth newsreaders with the likes of goofy Rick Ardon and Susannah Carr and Monika Kos on TT.
I’d always liked Peter Hitchener and I’d trust him with my life, I feel he’s the most decent person representing Nine and I would love to meet him one day, and how he was brave and incredible to read about Brian’s commitment to Nine those many years ago. God bless you Mr. Hitchener, R.I.P. Brian.
Brian was a really respected personality in news (The “Brian told me so” ads were testament to this) rather than just an interchangeable face as we might seem to have today. People felt good to have his “company” each evening. He will be missed by many.
Miss the Brian told me so promos.
As far as the tradegies over the fires,what has been forgotten in part is the speed of the wind and fire and the change in wind direction – been reported in 4 minutes 25 kilometres was covered.
yeh it’s very sad that this has happened, it’s terrible how many lives have been lost with these fires.
Brian’s death is very sad. If only he had flee from his burning house instead of protecting it.
Whilst we will probably never really know the finer details of how many lives were lost, the policy given to the community was, and still is, one built on “defend or leave.” It is already the subject of much debate. A Royal Commission will now look into allaspects of the fires including this policy. I think rather than dwell on what might have been, this post acknowledges the man himself from one who worked beside him, as well as learning how some news teams were personally impacted from events they usually report as observers only.