Profile: Graham Easton

Before I met Dr Graham Easton all I knew about him was his soft, yet confident, voice that wouldn't go amiss on a relaxation programme. This, combined with the fact that he is a BBC Radio 4 presenter, gives the image of a portentous, polished looking chap. So I was surprised when I arrived at his house and he answered the door dressed in old baggy tracksuit bottoms and a white T shirt, with bare feet. He explained that he was “working from home,” another surprise given that his job entails presenting Radio 4's Case Notes (a medical affairs programme) and producing other programmes for the BBC's Science Radio Unit.

Graham's journey from general practitioner to full time broadcast journalist has been down to hard work and perseverance rather than glitz and glamour. At school, he wanted to be either a journalist or a doctor: “I remember thinking, wouldn't it be great to become a doctor, to do it, to get inside information about it, and explain the mystery about how doctors think and how the body works to non-medical people,” he recalls.

Presenting health programmes on various BBC radio and television channels has granted him this wish. Superficially, it all seems a bit too easy and some may accuse him of leaving one elite club for another; after all, he is now …