Funeral of Doncaster journalist who served Yorkshire for 65 years to take place

The funeral of a Doncaster journalist who served Yorkshire for 65 years and worked alongside chat show host Sir Michael Parkinson is to take place tomorrow.
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Alan Berry worked as a reporter, sub-editor and feature writer on titles in Sheffield and Doncaster during his long career and was still writing up until as recently as ten years ago.

Mr Berry, who lived in Harwell, near Doncaster, died on December 30 at the age of 91.

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He was awarded an MBE for his services to journalism in 1991 and wrote a number of books on bygone Doncaster during a career which saw him work alongside the popular Barnsley chat show presenter when the pair were reporters on the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Journalist Alan Berry, who has died at the age of 91.Journalist Alan Berry, who has died at the age of 91.
Journalist Alan Berry, who has died at the age of 91.

On his retirement in 2011, Mr Berry, who regularly wrote a bygones column for the Doncaster Star, fired a parting shot at local journalism of the time in a farewell interview with Sheffield Star reporter Martin Smith.

He said: “Over 65 years there have been some great stories and good times, I’ve always loved the job whether as a reporter, feature writer or sub-editor. But you get to the point where you feel you have done your whack.”

“When I look at the quality of news coverage we get now I think it’s awful. There are so few reporters now and so many stories are missed. We covered all the big stories back then, newspapers were where everyone got information, not like today.

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“When I first started at the Doncaster Chronicle in 1945 there were three weekly papers and two evenings in the town, all with their own staff. They used to say that the Doncaster Chronicle office ran on fags, bad language and endless cups of tea. They were different days.”

“I wouldn’t change a thing though. Journalism suited me, it’s been a great job. I have no regrets about my career or any other part of my life.”

In his interview, Alan said he had no real desire to be a pioneering journalist, “just a desire to know things about people and what’s going on in the world.”

“One job sticks in my mind that was something and nothing really,” he said.

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“I heard a story that some people were living in a sunken barge at Stainforth.

“It had all been sunk but they’d raised part of it and were living in that half. Amazing.”

Alan also recalled the time he worked with ‘Parky’ in the Doncaster office of the YEP.

“I was a sub-editor on the Chronicle when a young Michael Parkinson started work there. He certainly livened the whole place up.

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“He was a good reporter, that was the main thing about him. He came in and told some of the old boys how they should do the job and of course they didn’t like that.

“He was said to have had a row with the editor who was supposed to have thrown a diary at him – but I think it might have been the other way round.”

The funeral service and cremation will take place tomorrow at Barnby Moor Crematorium at 1pm.