[1] The BBC then sent him to Northern Ireland to report on the Troubles,[4] a period of time which Peter Ruff, writing in the Guardian, regarded as marking him out to his employers as "a potential "foreign fireman" correspondent".
He filed reports from Spain during the attempted coup d'état known as 23-F,[2] Montevideo in Uruguay during the Falklands War,[1] and Romania during the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu.
[3] In the early days of the war, colleagues were amused by the facetious nicknames which he gave to their government minders;[5] one he dubbed "the veritable prune", another became "the sanctimonious undertaker".
[1] Upon commencement of air raids by the Coalition, Simpson was delighted to receive a telex from his father which read, "Congratulations on being bombed by the Americans, it happened to me three times in the Second World War".
[5] He would later answer a question on a survey as to whether, in the course of his work for the BBC, he had been subjected to hazard with the words, "Yes ... Two thousand-pound penetration bomb propelled by Tomahawk missile.
[3] He was also not keen on television journalism, fearing that irrelevant points of style, such as the clothing worn by the reporter, could overwhelm the substance of the piece.
[1] Simpson retired from journalism in 1998,[2][4] although he did return to work for the BBC briefly during the Iraq War, providing expertise for the Corporation's Asian service.