Education
Born in Middlesex, Hanrahan was educated at Street Ignatius, Stamford Hill, Tottenham. He studied politics at the University of Essex, where he was a member of an amateur dramatic society.
Born in Middlesex, Hanrahan was educated at Street Ignatius, Stamford Hill, Tottenham. He studied politics at the University of Essex, where he was a member of an amateur dramatic society.
In addition he had spells presenting The World at One on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio Four and on the rolling news channel British Broadcasting Corporation News 24. He is best remembered for his coverage of the of 1982. Hanrahan joined the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1970 as a photographic stills clerk.
He was one of the six News Trainees appointed by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1971 and went on to become a scriptwriter, then duty editor in the British Broadcasting Corporation television newsroom.
He worked for a spell as the British Broadcasting Corporation"s Northern Ireland correspondent. As the duty reporter he was sent to join the press corps attached to the task Force.
What he thought a temporary arrangement became for the duration, and when on HMS Hermes, was responsible for one of the most memorable journalistic moments of the campaign, when he commented: This got him around the reporting restrictions placed by military intelligence, enabling him to reassure the public that all the British Harrier jump jets had returned safely without saying how many there were. Hanrahan later used the phrase as the title of his autobiography.
During the 1980s, Hanrahan was based in Hong Kong, then in Moscow in the 1980s and 1990s.
He commentated on the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 and the funeral of Yasser Arafat in 2004. He fell ill with cancer the week before the 2010 general election, and died on 20 December 2010.
He was a critic of communism, and once stated that "Europe has a lot to thank Mikhail Gorbachev for".