Chris – a former actor – was born in Hambledon, Surrey. After working as a farm labourer, he joined the British Army and trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and in 1953 received a commission in the Royal Regiment of Artillery of the British Army. He was promoted to lieutenant in February 1955, but resigned his commission in September 1956. He had a relatively undistinguished acting career – his greatest screen role being Charlton Heston’s body double in Ben-Hur (1959). He later appeared as an interviewer in Ask Mr Pastry (1961) and as himself in Mr Pastry’s Pet Shop (1962).
…Singleton, Valerie
Valerie trained as a dancer at the Arts Education School. She studied for two years at RADA (winning a one-term scholarship) and spent a year at Bromley Repertory as an assistant stage manager, playing small parts.
…Raworth, Sophie
Born in Surrey and after completing a degree in French and German at the University of Manchester, Sophie spent a year teaching English to teenagers in Toulouse before studying for a postgraduate course in broadcasting and journalism at City University, London.
…Edwards, Huw
Huw was born in Bridgend, Glamorgan and graduated from University College, Cardiff with a first-class degree in French. He joined the BBC as a news trainee in 1984 and originally worked for BBC Wales and S4C, but then moved to become a reporter for BBC TV’s Panorama (1993). Some of Huw’s later roles: parliamentary correspondent, BBC Wales (1986 – 1988); political correspondent, BBC TV News (1988 – 1997); chief political correspondent, BBC News 24 (1997 – 1999).
…Scott, Jack
Jack was a popular BBC TV forecaster (17th May 1969 – 4th May 1983) and for many years was the senior forecaster. He also presented forecasts on BBC Radio. He was a Met Office employee (1941 – 1983), working on RAF stations (1941 – 1968).
…Winton, Nan
Born Nancy Wigginton, Nan was co-presenter on BBC TV’s Information Desk (1955 – 1956) and Mainly for Women (1957).
…Colvile, Charles
Charles was born into a naval family, in Rochester, Kent. He was educated at Westminster School and joined the BBC as a finance clerk in January 1975. The following year came his ‘lucky break’ when he applied for a job as clerk to Radio 4’s The World at One and PM programmes and ended up presenting a sports round-up on the Saturday edition of PM. His first broadcast was 24th April 24 1976 and he was, in his own words “appalling”!
…Edwards, Barbara
Barbara was born in 1939. She joined the Met Office in 1957 and until 1962 worked in the library and editing department at Harrow, sub-editing and proofreading meteorological publications; in 1962, she moved to Bracknell HQ to undertake similar work. From 1963 until 1970, she worked as a forecaster at Gatwick and Heathrow Airport. Barbara was based at the London Weather Centre forecasting for commerce and industry (1970 – 1979) and has the distinction of being the first female national BBC TV forecaster, appearing from January 1974 until June 1978; she was also heard on BBC Radio during the same period. She was the BBC One Christmas Day weather presenter once, in 1975.
…Pitts, Valerie
Valerie was an actress. She was RADA-trained (1955 – 1957) and worked in the theatre initially.
…Brook, Peter
Peter had a very distinctive, deep, rich voice. He was an announcer at Southern TV (1969 – 1971) and a newsreader for BBC Norwich’s Look East.
…Hayes, Geoffrey
Geoffrey was born in Stockport and attended drama school in Manchester. For generations of pre-school viewers, he was the popular presenter known to viewers as ‘Geoffrey’. He appeared in over 1,000 editions of Thames TV’s long-running children’s series Rainbow (1973 – 1991). He joined after the original presenter, actor/writer David Cook, decided to leave to concentrate on other work. He tipped off Hayes, having performed alongside him in repertory theatre. Geoffrey would remain with the show for the next two decades. He also wrote for the programme and appeared on The Sooty Show (ITV, 1977) and Altogether (ITV, 1981).
…Finighan, Adrian
Adrian is a Welsh journalist. He joined the BBC in 1988, working in local radio as a reporter and producer.
…McCaskill, Ian
Ian was born John Robertson McCaskill in Glasgow. His national service took him into the RAF and in 1959, he joined the Meteorological Corps. He left in 1961 to join the Met Office and later postings included Prestwick Airport, Malta and the Manchester Weather Centre.
…Akua, Nana
Nana was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in July 1971 (as Nana Akua Amotemaa-Appiah), after her parents came over from Ghana in the 1960s. She relocated to the US with her parents, aged 11, but would later return to the UK and study business and finance at university.
…Parkin, Leonard
Born in Thurnscoe, West Riding of Yorkshire, Leonard began his career as a reporter on the Wakefield Express series of weekly papers, then Yorkshire Observer, Bradford Telegraph and Argus and Yorkshire Evening Post. He was one of the BBC’s early television news reporters in the BBC News division (1954 – 1960) and was later BBC Radio News Canada correspondent (1960 – 1965) and Washington correspondent (1963 – 1965). In November 1963, as deputy correspondent in Washington, his Radio Newsreel report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy proved to be an historic recording. He also worked as a reporter on BBC TV’s Panorama (1965 – 1967). He was involved in coverage of five general elections: BBC reporter (1966); ITN reporter (1970, February 1974, 1983) and ITN presenter 1979.
…King, Susan
Susan presented various BBC TV children’s series during the 1970s: Country Search (BBC One, 1975 – 1977); Play It Again… (BBC One, 1975); BBC Manchester’s The Sunday Gang (BBC One, 1976); Horses Galore (BBC One, 1977 – 1979); BBC Manchester’s sports series Stopwatch (BBC One, 1978 – 1980). She was also a guest on All-Star Record Breakers (BBC One, 1975 – 1980), a panellist on Star Turn (BBC One, 1976, 1977 and 1979), and a reporter on We’re Going Places (BBC One, 1979).
…Soanes, Zeb
Zeb trained as an actor and graduated from the University of East Anglia where he was spotted by the BBC.
…Chell, Carol
Carol was born in 1941. An actress, she studied drama at The Royal Academy of Music and was a qualified teacher who presented many schools series for Granada TV and Central TV including: The Messengers and Enough to Eat.
…Long, Sarah
Sarah was a RADA-trained actress. She was best known as a Play School presenter. She made her debut appearance on the programme on 6th September 1971. Producers John Lane, Peter Ridsdale-Scott and pianist Jonathan Cohen all agreed that Sarah wasn’t a good singer. However, she was a lovely actress and was given another chance, and worked well on screen. Their judgement proved right, as she stayed on the presenting team for a further 15 years. The earliest surviving footage within the BBC archives of Sarah on Play School is Friday 10th September 1971 and archivist and author Paul R. Jackson viewed the programme. It was a little odd that when Sarah showed items to be used in the Pop Goes the Weasel song, that she couldn’t make a brown paper bag burst – but this was kept in the final recording.
…Lewis, Anthony
Anthony was born in Leeds. He began acting at the age of nine, with roles in television shows including Heartbeat (1994), Cracker (1995), The Detectives (1995) and A Touch of Frost (1996).
…Jaque, Natalie
Natalie gained a degree in journalism with distinction and then backpacked around the world for a while (before the days of e-mail, iPad or mobile phone). She worked as a staff announcer with the BBC from 1997 until 2004, mainly live on BBC Two. Since March 2015, she has been a freelancing voice on both BBC One and BBC Two. Natalie was also the first female voice on BBC Knowledge and BBC Choice, and went on to become the BBC’s first freelance announcer.
…Fox, Everton
Everton was born in Cambridge in 1964. He worked in the Department of Social Security as a civil servant before joining the Met Office in 1991. He spent a year at the Norwich Weather Centre. Having completed the forecaster foundation programme in March 2000, which included on-the-job training at RAF Marham in Norfolk, he went on to become a forecaster at the London Weather Centre where he worked for three months.
…Foulkes, Jerry
Jerry was a Children’s ITV presenter who provided the continuity links, alongside Scally the puppet dog, from 28th March until 22nd December 1989. On the first day that Jeanne Downs took over from him (on 2nd January 1990), they had a mop and a bucket in the studio, and a name tag with “Foulkes” on it. During the links both she and Scally made some amusing comments about it.
…Young, Helen
Helen was born in Crawley but raised in East Grinstead and Old Coulsdon/Purley, Surrey. She graduated with a BSc (hons) in geography from Bristol University in 1990 and joined the Met Office in September 1990, working in the commercial services division as a consultant, providing climatology reports for the building and transport industries. She wrote climatological reports for county councils and often had to go out to rural locations and report on whether proposed road routes would be fog prone or frost prone. Helen commented: “It was a great job, but you were certainly less popular than being a TV weather forecaster!” She trained as a forecaster in November 1992 and moved to Bristol Weather Centre in February 1993. She appeared as a forecaster on local TV for HTV for one week as emergency cover. Later, she would move to BBC Bristol, appearing on Points West.
…Morris, Christopher
Chris was born in Luton. His career in broadcasting and journalism spanned 60 years.
…Dougall, Robert
Robert was born and educated in Croydon. After leaving school, he worked briefly in the City, before joining the BBC in the accounts department. He made his first broadcast on the old Empire Service on his 21st birthday in 1934. On the day World War II was declared, and speaking as an anonymous Englishman, he broadcast a last-minute appeal to the German people to stop the invasion of Poland. He was a reporter in the early years of the war before joining the Royal Navy. He was based in Northern Russia as an interpreter for 18 months.
…Griffiths, Derek
Derek is fondly remembered by a certain generation as a children’s TV presenter during the 1970s on Play School and Play Away.
…Dimmock, Peter
Peter was a pioneering sports broadcaster and a senior BBC television executive during the formative years of the medium in the 1950s. He was born in London and at the outbreak of war, joined the Royal Army Service Corps territorial unit and was called up only two months later to serve in France, during the retreat from Dunkirk. In March 1941, he was allowed to transfer into the Royal Air Force and qualified as a pilot officer. Then in 1943, he became a flying instructor on Tiger Moth and Miles Magister at various flying training schools, with the rank of Flight Lieutenant, and in February 1944 was appointed as a staff officer at the Air Ministry.
…Creegor, Vivien
Vivien was born in London and admits to being on the wrong side of 55. She began her career at the BBC in 1976 as a production assistant in BBC Drama, where she also abridged books for BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime. Vivien was invited on to the BBC’s in-house broadcast training scheme and was taken on by BBC Radio 4 as an announcer (1980 – 1982).
…Cant, Brian
Brian was a much-loved actor and iconic children’s TV presenter. He enthralled generations of children with his contributions to many classic series including Play School (1964 – 1987) and Play Away (1971 – 1984).
…Cartledge, Andy
Andy joined the BBC as a studio manager in the early 1960s and was a continuity announcer on both BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 (October 1968 – April 1969) before he moved over to TV Centre and became a familiar voice on BBC One and BBC Two.
…Whitmore, Richard
Richard was born in Hitchin. He began his professional career in journalism as a reporter for the local newspaper in Hertfordshire.
…Eynon, Malcolm
Malcolm was born in 1947. He joined the BBC in 1974 and for 27 years was a regular voice as a network announcer on BBC One and BBC Two before taking redundancy in October 2001.
…Hammal, Bruce
Bruce was born in 1951. He’s a former studio manager and BBC TV announcer (1975 – 1984). He also appeared in-vision on BBC TV’s Breakfast Time‘ in 1983, in the TV Choice slot and as the out-of-vision commentator on Come Dancing (1980 – 1984).
…Allan, David
Born Gordon Allan in Manchester, David is a broadcaster with over 50 years’ experience and, for people of a certain generation, is a very recognisable voice. Certainly one of the great broadcast voices of all time.
…Stuart, Moira
Moira was born in London to Dominican-Barbadian African-Caribbean parents. She began working for the BBC in 1973 as a production assistant in the Radio Talks and Documentaries department.
…Foord, Bert
Bert was employed by the Met Office from 1947 until 1990. He was a BBC Radio/TV weatherman from 1963 until December 1973.
…Aspel, Michael
Michael was born in London. He was evacuated during World War II, for four-and-a-half years, to Chard in Somerset. He worked as a tea boy at William Collins publishers and completed his National Service in the ranks of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (1951 – 1953).
…Offer, Peter
Peter was born in July 1963. He joined the BBC in November 1985 as an assistant sound recordist, BBC TV. He worked in post-production for a wide variety of programmes, including many long-running series such as Miss Marple, Bergerac and Lovejoy.
…Roslin, Clive
Born in Zimbabwe, Clive began broadcasting on Rhodesian radio at the age of seven, on schools and children’s programmes. He listened to the BBC Overseas Service as a child.
…Martin, Keith
Keith was born in Sandwich and was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. He trained in catering, then joined the Merchant Navy but illness brought him home and he started work in the advertising department of Granada Television in London.
…Polhill-Thomas, Siân
Born on The Wirral, Siân is an ex-international sprint hurdler. She gained a BA (hons) in acting from LIPA.
…Neil, Andrew
Andrew was born in Paisley and attended Glasgow University, where he edited the student newspaper, the Glasgow University Guardian; he also dabbled in student television.
…Baker, Richard
Born and educated in London, Richard graduated from Cambridge University and served in the Royal Navy during World War II, returning to London to work as an actor and teacher.
…Kendall, Kenneth
Born in India, Kenneth was educated at Felsted School and Oxford, where he gained a degree in modern languages. He was a school master and later captain in the Coldstream Guards during World War II. He was injured on D-Day.
…Guru-Murthy, Krishnan
Liverpool-born and educated at Oxford University, Krishnan’s broadcasting career began in 1988, when he presented discussion programme Open to Question (BBC Two, 1988 – 1989); he was also a reporter on youth current affairs programme Reportage (BBC Two, 1988 – 1989).
…Yates, Alastair
Alastair was a broadcaster whose career spanned four decades. He was born and brought up in Burton-upon-Trent.
…Newmarch, Duncan
Duncan joined Grimsby Hospital Radio in 1990. He has a commercial radio background, having worked for Lincs FM (Lincolnshire), Invicta FM (Kent) and Trax FM (Yorkshire), where he presented the breakfast show.
…Coia, Paul
Born in Glasgow, Paul’s ambition was to become a dentist but as his exam results were, as he puts it “underwhelming”, he instead attended the University of Glasgow and Paisley College of Technology to do a BSc degree course.
…Andrew, John
John’s broadcasting career began at ILR station Radio Tees. He then joined BBC Newcastle before moving to London as a reporter/presenter on BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme. He presented Thames News with Andrew Gardener during the 1980s.
John is currently a correspondent/presenter for BBC Network News. He occasionally presents on the BBC News Channel. During his career at the BBC, he initially specialised in local government, covering the rise and fall of the poll tax and the Westminster gerrymandering scandal. He has since covered general news too, including the Harold Shipman murders and the war in Kosovo.
Taylor, Andy
Andy was a BBC TV network announcer (1989 – November 1997). He also voiced BBC TV presentation trails (1990 – TBC). Andy’s last day with BBC network presentation was Saturday 8th November 1997. When closing down BBC Two just before 3am on 8th November 1997, his colleague Michaela Saunders gave Andy a mention: “That’s it from BBC Two tonight. Just time to remind you of BBC Radios 1 through to 5, where you can find music, news and chat right through the night. And as the witching hour of 3 o’clock approaches, all of us on the team thank you for being with us tonight and would like to say a fond farewell to one of our announcing colleagues – Andy Taylor left us this evening. And he’s off to find the sun – we wish him Bon Voyage and we wish you a good night.”
Brooks, Rosemary
Rosemary was a BBC TV network announcer (1968 – 1969).