On Tuesday, Alex Beresford had about 68,000 people following him on Instagram. By Wednesday morning it was almost double that. As the man who helped bring down Piers Morgan on breakfast TV, interest is only likely to grow.
Perhaps not a household name, he is one of those television people you recognise without being able to put your finger on why.
Beresford, 40, was born in Bristol. His mother is white and from Britain, and hisfather is black and from Guyana.
He began his television career in 2004 working for ITV’s regional news programmes in the West Country, initially as an Autocue operator. In 2005 he retrained as a weather presenter and joined the national rota in 2007.
From 2012 he began presenting the weather on the ITV breakfast programme Daybreak, standing in for Laura Tobin. When it was replaced by Good Morning Britain, Beresford continued to appear and has become a familiar part of the team.
In 2019 he intervened powerfully in a debate about knife crime, shouting across the studio as one guest started out on a “build more prisons” line. “It doesn’t work … listen, I have grown up in some of these communities that you guys are talking about; prison is not a deterrent.”
Ten days later came the news that Beresford’s cousin had been stabbed to death. He later presented an ITV documentary titled Knife Crime and Me, in which he travelled across the UK to better understand the issues.
Beresford has always had a fun side, and in 2018 he was one of the celebrity ice skaters on ITV’s Dancing on Ice. In advance of disco week he presented the GMB weather in a John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever-inspired white suit with flares and huge lapels.
He was good on Dancing on Ice, but not quite good enough and was eliminated, with double irony, in fairytale week after he performed to Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over.
One thing was clear to viewers: Beresford was a fit man, something he celebrates and takes seriously. A month ago he posted a picture of himself doing pull-ups, shirtless and muscled. He accompanied it with a message about emerging stronger in body and mind from 10 days of self-isolation.
Certainly that strength of mind was on view when he stood up to Morgan on Monday, but it is not the first time he has shown he is no pushover. In 2017 he stood in front of Morgan because it was time for his forecast. “Get back in your weather box, now,” said Morgan. “I’m so not going to do that now that you’ve said it,” Beresford replied, through gritted laughter.
In 2019 Beresford walked off set after Morgan, jokingly, took against him joining a debate about gambling, saying: “You know what, mate, you’re doing the weather … your job is the weather.”
As Beresford walked out, Morgan said: “Look at him, little drama queen … go on, off you go.”
The shoe was on the other foot this week when Beresford criticised Morgan for continuing “to trash” the Duchess of Sussex. After Morgan walked off, Beresford called his behaviour “pathetic” and “diabolical” and later tweeted: “I wish I had the privilege to sit on the fence. In order for me to do that I would have to strip myself of my identity and that’s not something I can do. It’s not any of our places to pick apart claims of racism in order to make us feel more comfortable.”
