Rajiv Popat

Rajiv Popat has been a reporter in the Midlands for 30 years. He started his career as a radio journalist before joining ITV in the Midlands in 1995. During that time, he has worked on a variety of programmes covering news about the Indian subcontinent, a funky arts show and a current affairs series. His first and most nerve-wracking live TV report was covering the funeral of Mother Teresa.

For more than twenty years, Rajiv has been a reporter and presenter on ITV News Central in both the East and West Midlands. He’s been involved in many of the award winning programmes during that time.

Rajiv has covered some of the biggest stores in the region, including the discovery of the remains of King Richard III in a council car park to Leicester City Football Club overcoming odds of 5000-1 on winning the Premier League in 2016; a dream true for the club, the tens of thousands of fans and the city.

Ask Rajiv what he enjoys most about his job and his reply ? ‘Variety’. Variety because no two days are the same. It’s an opportunity to meet some truly fascinating and interesting people of all ages and backgrounds.

He also worked for national broadcasters and reported from a variety of countries – India, Zambia, America, Portugal and Spain to name a few.

One of his career highlights was going back to Uganda, the country of his birth. He returned to the ‘Pearl of Africa’ for the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of Asians from the East African country by the dictator Idi Amin. It was an emotional and enlightening experience travelling to the town where he was born, visiting the school where his father taught and retracing some of the steps his parents took walking around the glorious River Nile.

Rajiv is also part of the Speakers for Schools programme which inspires young people to achieve and reach for the sky. It gives them a unique insight into a wide variety of professions. He regularly visits schools as part of the scheme and gives talks about his role as a journalist and how it has evolved over the past three decades.

Despite all the changes, Rajiv says he can’t imagine doing anything else – making that deadline is still as enjoyable and rewarding now as it was when he was started.