The BBC then sent him to Northern Ireland to report on the Troubles, 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". Simpson went on to report from some of the most dangerous locations in the world. He filed reports from Spain during the attempted coup d'état known as 23-F, Montevideo in Uruguay during the Falklands war, and Romania during the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu. He would later go on to report from Sarajevo during the siege.