Howard was born in Poynton, Cheshire and grew up in Preston. He graduated from Durham University in 1980 with a degree in geography.
…Scott-Joynt, Hannah
Hannah’s love of radio began in her teenage years. She gained a degree in radio, film and TV at Canterbury Christ Church University. Her first broadcasting job was with BBC Radio in Herts, Beds and Bucks. She moved into television as a network announcer on BBC One and BBC Two (1997 – 2000). She was the launch announcer on BBC Choice. In 2000, she appeared on BBC One’s daytime show Talking TV and showed presenter Vanessa Feltz behind-the-scenes of network control – and Vanessa even did two short daytime BBC One links.
…Barnes, Ruth
Ruth graduated from the University of Cape Town. She was a regular contributor to The Tom Robinson Show (BBC Radio 6 Music, 2009 – 2012) and she presented The Other Woman (Amazing Radio, 2011 – 2015). Ruth was a continuity announcer for BBC One and BBC Two (March 2011 – 2015 and 2017); and since January 2018, she has been heard on BBC Four. In 2014, she began presenting documentaries on BBC Radio 4. And in 2016, she became director of Chalk and Blade, a podcast production company.
…Whitfield, Ashleigh
Ashleigh was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1980. She graduated from the University of Sunderland. In 2001, she won a radio competition to be the traffic and travel reporter at Century FM.
…Alagiah, George
George was born in Colombo, Ceylon. His parents moved to Ghana in West Africa in 1961. He read politics at Durham University and whilst there wrote for and became editor of the student newspaper Palatinate; he was also a sabbatical officer of Durham Students’ Union. He worked on South Magazine from 1982 until joining the BBC in 1989. He was the developing world correspondent based in London, foreign correspondent (1989 – 1994) and from June 1994, South Africa correspondent, based in Johannesburg. He reported on events ranging from the genocide in Rwanda and the plight of the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq to the civil wars in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Somalia.
…Badawi, Zeinab
Zeinab’s broadcasting career began as an ITN newscaster, working on Channel 4 News (1989 – 1998). She also presented on the ITV Morning News in the 1990s and on the Channel 4 Daily in 1990.
In 1998, she joined the BBC and spent five years working on live political programmes based at Westminster. She then moved to radio, where she presented The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4 and Newshour on the BBC World Service.
In April 2005, Zeinab was announced as the new presenter of BBC Four’s news programme, The World. The programme – also broadcast on BBC World News – was rebranded as World News Today in May 2007. She continued to present the programme until 2013.
…Wright, Beccy
Beccy graduated with a BA Hons in drama from the University of Bristol in 1981. She was a professional actress on stage, radio, television and film before joining the BBC in 1996.
…Slorach, Alyson
Alyson’s broadcasting career began in local radio in 1998. She first presented at Signal FM in Stockport, then The Pulse in Bradford and Lite AM in Manchester.
…Beaven, Steven
Steve was a regular voice on BBC One Wales, BBC Two Wales and BBC Choice Wales (2000 – 2002). Shortly after leaving BBC Wales, he moved to TV Centre as a network director on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four.
Steve later returned to his roots and worked at ITV News in the Central South region. On any given day he might be production assisting, reporting, and/or producing.
Tucker, Tegwen
In October 2007, Tegwen took up a position as the sole announcer for BBC Four. She also works as an actress and voiceover artist, doing corporate voice work and providing voices for popular children’s TV show, Fireman Sam.