In Conversation with BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner

On 6 June 2004, six Al-Qaeda gunmen ambushed a BBC crew reporting from the Al-Suwaidi district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was an attack that left their then Security Correspondent, Dr Frank Gardner OBE, partly paralysed in the legs, and his cameraman, Simon Cumbers, dead. Yet in April 2005 — only 10 months after being shot — Frank returned to work at the BBC. 

More astonishingly still, Frank has thrived. While his pre-2004 résumé was already formidable – Captain in the Territorial Army, Middle East Manager of Flemings Bank, and BBC’s Cairo Bureau Chief — his list of accolades and achievements in the two decades since have entirely eclipsed it. He has cemented his role as the BBC’s long-term Security Correspondent, firmly establishing himself as one of the most authoritative voices on war and terrorism, and even now he frequently reports from the field. His services to journalism have seen him made an OBE, voted Person of the Year by the UK Press Gazette, and awarded the Zayed Medal for Journalism, the El Mundo Prize for International Journalism, and the McWhirter Award for Bravery. He is a best-selling author of both fiction and non-fiction works, while his mastery of sports such as scuba diving and sit-skiing — a source of inspiration for disabled and able-bodied persons alike — earned him the presidency of the Ski Club of Great Britain. Frank is likewise serving as the current president of the British Trust for Ornithology, a reflection of his status as a passionate and highly knowledgeable birdwatcher. 

His most recent honour, however, came last month, when the University of St Andrews bestowed upon him an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD). Delivering the Laureation, Assistant Vice-Principal Professor Frank Lorenz Müller praised the “astounding energy, prodigious talent, admirable courage, and enviable achievement” that has defined Frank’s life. Inviting University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Dame Sally Mapstone to confer on Frank his honourary degree, Professor Müller remarked, was an opportunity to recognise his “major contribution to journalism, to helping audiences across the globe gain a better understanding of the Middle East, and to championing the cause of individuals who, every day, overcome disability when achieving astonishing feats”.

Speaking exclusively to The Saint after the ceremony, Frank described the experience as “absolutely fantastic,” adding with a smile: “1413… this is a really, really prestigious honorary degree to get.” Though he himself studied at the University of Exeter — “at diametrically the opposite end of the country” —  Frank expressed admiration for St Andrews’ global outlook, and especially the notion that a windswept corner of Scotland could compete with Ivy League campuses in America. “It’s miles away from anywhere and it doesn’t have a reputation for the best weather in the world,” he said with a laugh, “and yet you draw in the brightest and the best… with something like 140 different nationalities studying here. It’s got a special quality to it here.”

Reflecting on his own experience of starting out at the BBC World Service in 1997, Frank had clear advice for this year’s graduates. “Choose a speciality,” he urged, “and try to become a subject matter expert in what you’re doing.” He especially encouraged students not to shy away from hard work early on in their careers: “Take all the opportunities you can… do the weekend… do the bank holidays, do the overnight shifts if necessary. These things will lurch you forward.”

For international relations students in particular, his message was one of openness and critical thinking. “Try and keep your sources of information fairly broad,” he said. “Sometimes, in my own broadcasts, I’ll include the views of people whom I totally disagree with… it’s not up to me to tell our audience what they should think; it’s up to them to choose. All I can do is present the facts in as fair a way as possible.” His decades of work covering the Middle East have shown him firsthand how entrenched assumptions and cultural stereotypes — especially in the aftermath of 9/11 — can distort understanding and fuel division. He warned against becoming “curmudgeonly and sclerotic,” stating, “You’ve got to be open to new ideas and different ideas… I listened to plenty of people whom I disagree with, but I want to hear their arguments, and sometimes I think, ‘You know what, they’ve got a point there, I’ve changed my mind on that.’”

His most heartfelt words, however, were reserved for students living with disability, especially those just newly adjusting to life-altering injuries. He acknowledges that “for the first year, it’s going to be grim,” but even so emphasises that “there’s a fork in the road… you can go down a vortex of self-pity and despair … [or] you can get support, work through it, and start to enjoy the things you were doing.” Recalling his own months-long rehabilitation, he admits he initially began on the former path: “I inevitably started to mourn that, ‘Ah, I’m never going to run into the sea holding hands with my children, I’m never going to chase them around the playground, I’m not going to chase them up trees…’ [until] I had a brilliant visit from a brilliant psychiatrist… who said, ‘You’ve done all those things Frank, you don’t need to do them again. Just think of all the stuff you can still do.’” That resonated with Frank. Though he still lives with pain — even now, he is cradling and massaging his leg — he insists that it is possible to “minimize the annoyances and intrusions of disability into what should be as normal a life as possible,” and that “the most important thing” – gesturing to his head – “is up here.”

Frank also spoke at length about the continuing need to change public perceptions of disability. “The one thing I can’t stand is the invalid-isation [sic] of somebody who’s got a physical disability,” he said, adding that this is something he frequently encounters with the airline industry, where he gets “strapped in like Hannibal Lecter into some device and then just treated like a lump of meat.” Likewise, highlighting the plight of the thousands of veterans from Afghanistan, many of whom he has personally met, Frank stresses the point that “they are absolutely a part of society — they, I, us.”

Despite the gravity of his reporting — war, terrorism, and international security — Frank manages to find solace and optimism in nature. A lifelong birdwatcher, he explains that he has expanded his wildlife photography since the Covid lockdown to include dragonflies and butterflies. “It’s a huge sort of salve,” he says, “and it acts as a really nice counterbalance to the stuff I do.” As for students anxious about the future, he warns against giving undue importance to alarmist headlines. Referring to the recent exchange of fire between Iran and Israel as an example — which he covered for the BBC — he dismissed titles suggesting it was the start of World War 3 as “stupid,” describing how he “even had to reassure [his] own daughters that we’re not about to enter a hugely dangerous conflict.” Instead of despair, his message is one of measured realism, emphasising the need to “keep stuff in perspective.”

Frank’s parting words to the graduating class of 2025 were similarly simple yet striking: “You didn’t choose a mediocre university, you chose one of the best universities in the world, so don’t choose a mediocre career path. Make the best of it.” And Frank Gardner should know. As Professor Müller, who presented Frank with his honourary degree, observed, “it is the mark of the man that what happened to him in the Al-Suwaidi district of Riyadh on 6 June 2004 merely serves to accentuate [his] record, rather than end or deflect it.”

Photos by Manraj Gill