ONE of television's leading journalists took time out to speak to the Chorley Citizen when he made a flying visit to the town last week.

Martin Bashir, of the BBC's documentary series Panorama, spent last Thursday evening at Saint Michael's C.E. High School, on Astley Road, presenting awards to pupils both past and present and later speaking to the audience and to our reporter David Higgerson.

Martin, who chose to visit the school instead of flying out to Washington, wouldn't talk about the award-winning Princess Diana interview which he conducted last year, instead opting to chat about the lighter moments of his career - including the time he was mistaken for Johnny Mathis and when he went to film Sebastian Coe at Anfield, only to find Seb couldn't get in!

He made a surprise return visit to the school on Friday morning to take an impromptu question and answer session with a year 11 Media Studies group, speaking about a variety of subjects concerning the Media, including cheque-book journalism, its obsession with the Royal Family, censorship, invasion of privacy, something which he said he had suffered from when it was announced he would be conducting the Diana programme.

Since the interview, Martin has had some 7,000 invitations to functions and only accepted 10, one of which was at Saint Michael's.

Speaking exclusively to the Chorley Citizen, Martin, who is a devout Christian, said he had really enjoyed visiting the school.

He told me: "It has been a really enjoyable experience. It has been great to visit a school which radiates such warmth and is obviously so successful.

"It has also been good to be able to go to the classrooms, instead of just being present for the awards ceremony."

Headmaster Bob Hardwick said: "We invited Martin after one of our staff read a piece about him in the Radio Times, which clearly illustrated the depth of his Christian faith and his interest in education.

"Guests who are invited to speak at the awards evening always have one thing in common, they are always Christians. We are very honoured that Martin was able to attend, and fit us into his very busy schedule.

"His speech was inspirational and the good humour with which he shared refreshments with pupils, staff and guests very much exemplified the quality of his gift of time to us."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.