Miranda was born in Stanstead, Essex. She began acting at the age of 18, playing Maria in a 1958 production of Twelfth Night at Stratford.
…Carpenter, Harry
Harry was born in London. During World War II he served as a telegrapher in the Royal Navy. He began his journalistic career in 1946, working as a sub-editor for several national newspapers in Fleet Street.
…Roberts, John
John was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He moved to London and joined the BBC on a short-term contract as a relief BBC TV newsreader (June – November 1963).
…O’Keeffe, Meryl
Meryl was born in Nairobi, Kenya and educated in South Africa. In 1950, she began her radio career in the South African Broadcasting Corporation, based in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
…Woodall, Corbet
Corbet was born in Hampshire. He was a scholar at Eton College.
…Hewer, John
John was born in Leyton, Essex. He was an actor/writer, who was a long-time member of the London’s Players Theatre.
…Bligh, Jasmine
Jasmine was born in London. She was the niece of Esme Ivo Bligh, the 9th Earl of Darnley and a descendant of Captain William Bligh, the commander famously usurped in the Mutiny on the Bounty.
…Ellis, Norman
Norman worked at the Met Office (1947 – 1984). He was a BBC TV forecaster (March 1959 – March 1964); during the same period he was also heard on BBC Radio. He joined former BBC TV colleagues on Nationwide to celebrate the 25th anniversary of BBC TV Weather in January 1979 – Bob Wellings interviewed past and present weather forecasters.
…Macintosh, Alex
Alex was born in Fulham. He was a former actor. His voice was heard on the very first advert for Gibbs SR Toothpaste shown at 8.12pm on the opening night of ITV on 22nd September 1955.
…McQueen, Barry
Barry was born in Sydney, Australia in 1932. He originally studied medicine but moved into radio as a commercial announcer (1950 – 1953). For the next six years, he worked in both television and radio for ABC as a newsreader; he also presented Thursday at One (1957), Night Out at Scott’s (1958) and Happy New Year (1959). He worked on commercial TV in Melbourne (1959 – 1960) and presented Today (1960).
…Gray, Gavin
Gavin was a senior news editor for BBC News. He also made brief on-screen appearances reading the news. In March 1957, Donald Baverstock, editor of the current affairs TV programme Tonight, introduced a short news summary within the programme, transmitted from Egton House (where BBC Radio 1 was housed for many years) and read by a senior duty news editor. Gray read the first news summary on 22nd March 1957. It turned out to be a short-lived experiment and Gray read the final (in-programme) news summary on 21st August 1957.
…Priestland, Gerald
Gerald was educated at Charterhouse and New College, Oxford. He joined the BBC in 1949 as a news sub-editor. He spent his first six months on a contract, writing obituaries. He apparently jokingly wrote his own obituary shortly before leaving the job, for a post as a sub-editor in the news gathering operation. In 1954, he was posted to the BBC’s office in New Delhi, as BBC Radio News foreign correspondent (1954 – 1958) – the youngest person to fill that role (at 26). His next assignment would take him to Washington, D.C. (1958 – 1960) where he was number two correspondent. More foreign assignments awaited: he was Beirut correspondent (1961), and would then go on to spend four years as the BBC’s Middle East correspondent. He then requested a transfer back to London as a television newsreader.
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