Rock awards role for Esler

Newsnight host Gavin Esler has landed an unlikely presenting role, as master of ceremonies for a prog rock awards bash.

Esler – who has interviewed figures such as Margaret 
Thatcher, David Cameron and Bill Clinton – will front the ceremony honouring music acts past and present next month.

Among those in the running for the Orange Amplification Progressive Music Awards, organised by Prog magazine, are Jethro Tull, Marillion, Pink Floyd and It Bites.

Esler has long been a fan of prog rock and is in a relationship with the violinist Anna Phoebe who has performed with Tull.