Showreel

BBC One Northern Ireland

Hearle, Duncan

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Duncan’s broadcasting career began in Singapore just before World War II. When the colony fell, he was imprisoned and made to work on the notorious Burma railway. In 1946 he applied to the BBC for an announcing job. He got it and was posted to Belfast in January, where he remained for the next thirty years.

Duncan worked mainly on radio during his time with BBC Northern Ireland, becoming known as the ‘Voice of Radio Ulster’. He presented over 20,000 local news bulletins. He read his last news script during the 8.55am bulletin on BBC Radio Ulster on 21st September 1976.

Duncan then retired from broadcasting and moved to Wales.

During his time with BBC Northern Ireland, Duncan also performed some television announcing duties.


Love, Walter

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Walter joined the BBC in London as a studio manager in 1958. After a year with the BBC in Edinburgh, he moved to Broadcasting House in Belfast, where, after a year, he became a staff announcer. Throughout the 1960s, Walter was the main television news presenter with BBC Northern Ireland. He also looked after the radio continuity operation and presented various radio programmes.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Walter also carried out television continuity duties with BBC Northern Ireland.

In 1978 he went freelance, presenting the magazine programme Day by Day. In the late-1980s, he took up the afternoon slot on BBC Radio Ulster, presenting Love in the Afternoon. He then became the presenter and producer on Love Forty.

In 1998, he was awarded an MBE for his services to broadcasting.