During the 1950s, Gicquel began a career in acting. He was also a
flight attendant on the
airline UAT from 1953 to 1960 He started work at the
Coulommiers office. On 8 December 1962, he married at
Boissy-le-Châtel on the road to Coulommiers. Roger Gicquel sent his reports from his
Citroën 2CV. He regularly socialised with his colleagues in the local press from the
Freedom of Seine-et-Marne and
Country Briard newspapers whom he met at "The Modern" Inn in
Saint-Cyr-sur-Morin. Then the newspaper asked him to create the
Normandy Morning as a local edition of the
Parisien for the Upper Normandy region. He also wrote for other local publications in
Elbeuf and
Les Andelys, as well as in those of
Évreux,
Louviers, and
Vernon. In 1971, he left
Normandy Morning to become a consultant for two years for the information service at UNICEF. Then he served as chief information officer for
ORTF. Encouraged to move to radio by Roland Dhordain, founder of
France Inter, Roger Gicquel joined the station and created a press review that he presented from 1968 to 1973. He also became chief reporter in 1969. In 1975, he became the news presenter on the
20 hours Journal at
TF1 despite his lack of television experience. In competition with
France 2 TF1 asked him to "Personalise the Information to better differentiate ourselves and retain the loyalty of the public". Each evening, Roger Gicquel began his report by an editorial in which he gave his opinion. This personalisation, which subsequently appeared outdated, was the trademark of Roger Gicquel's appearances on television, watched nightly by millions of French people. Inspired by the TV journalist
Walter Cronkite, the news presenter at the American channel
CBS News, He claimed his independence from political influence and his freedom of speech: "I maintained that the audience should be able to watch the journal and hear of a tidal wave in the Ganges delta even without images rather than see the birth of a calf in an aquatic zoo in Tokyo".
Ladislas de Hoyos, the star presenter of the weekly journal on TF1 from 1990 to 1991, also followed the same approach. He was particularly famous for his opening sentence on the
20 hour Journal on 18 February 1976: "France in fear". This underlined the emotion caused by the kidnapping and death of a small boy Philippe Bertrand at
Troyes by
Patrick Henry. This saying was diluted, however, because a few minutes later, he clarified that this fear is a feeling which we must not give up. Leaving the presentation of television news in 1981, Roger Gicquel then held several positions at TF1. He directed and produced major news stories and documentaries, all while maintaining a chronicle on
Europe 1 until 1982. From 1987 to 1994, he returned to
France Inter with a Weekend Press Review. In 1994, he made his return to television at the request of Jean-Pol Guguen, director of the regional station
France 3 Ouest, == Personal life and commitments ==