British politician (born 1960)
Judith Ann Bunting is a television producer and politician who served as a Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South East England from 2019 to 2020.[3] In 2014, she was chosen by the Royal Society of Chemistry to be one of their 175 Faces of Chemistry.[4]
Early life
She had a sister, Janette,[5][6] born 2 June 1956. They lived at 4 Eastern Close in Dogsthorpe.[7]
Bunting attended Peterborough County Grammar School for Girls, then Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where she obtained a Master's Degree in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) in 1979.[8] Her father taught Mechanical Engineering at Peterborough Regional College.
Career
Television
Bunting has been a producer of educational and science-based documentary television since the 1990s. Her early producing credits include the BBC series Tomorrow's World, Teen Species,[9][10] Horizon[11] and Robert Winston's The Secret Life of Twins[12] and Superhuman.[13]
She produced three series of the series Body Hits[14] and the RTS Award-winning Breast Cancer - the Operation for BBC3.[15]
In 2007, she was series producer for the BBC Wales series, The Museum. She followed this by executive producing Rocket Science for BBC2[16] and Headshrinkers of the Amazon for the National Geographic Channel. Her 2009 documentary for the National Geographic Channel, The Neanderthal Code was nominated for a Grierson Award for Best Science Documentary.[17]
Since 2013, Bunting has been series producer for production company Remark! on over 30 episodes of Magic Hands, a programme for CBeebies featuring poetry and Shakespeare for children translated entirely into British Sign Language, in which the presenters are all profoundly deaf.[18]
Politics
Since 2012, Bunting has increasingly focused on politics. In the 2015 and 2017 UK General Elections, she stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Newbury[19] and both times came a distant second behind Richard Benyon.[20] She has consistently pursued a broader engagement with science in politics and education.[21][22] In September 2017, Bunting ruled out a third run as the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Newbury to "focus on her career as a television producer".[23]
Bunting was elected as a Liberal Democrat MEP for the South East England in the 2019 European Elections.[24] She was the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Education and Culture in Europe, and also sat on the Industry, Research and Energy committee.
Personal life
She lives in Newbury, Berkshire.
References
