John was born in Bosham, West Sussex, the son of a farmer. After taking an interest in the weather from the age of four, he studied geography at the University of Salford, followed by meteorology at the University of Birmingham.
…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.
…Giles, Bill
Bill was born in Dittisham, near Dartmouth in Devon. He joined the Meteorological Office at Exeter in January 1957 on leaving the Bristol College of Science and Technology. Later that year, as an 18-year-old, he was sent to Christmas Island to observe the meteorological effects of the H bomb tests and later recalled seeing the “horrendous clouds”. Bill was based in Germany as an observer with the RAF (1961 – 1963) and worked as a lecturer at the Met Office’s training college (1968 – 1970).
…Kirkwood, Carol
Carol was born in Morar. After attending Napier University in Edinburgh, where she gained a BA in Commerce, she initially joined the BBC’s secretarial reserve in London, in 1984. Various internal moves led to her first broadcasts for the BBC’s Religious Broadcasting department on BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4. In 1993, Carol joined the BBC’s Television Training department at Elstree on a freelance basis as a presenter. During this time she researched, produced and presented a bi-monthly programme called Talking Issues and a weekly programme for HTV – The Guide.
…Finighan, Adrian
Adrian is a Welsh journalist. He joined the BBC in 1988, working in local radio as a reporter and producer.
…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.
…Bertram, Trish
Born in Royston, Herts, Trish started out as a stage manager in the theatre and was the longest-serving female TV announcer in the UK. She announced live for LWT, ITV, Channel 5, BBC World, BSB Galaxy, Super Channel, TVS, Westcountry TV and The Family Channel.
…Yates, Alastair
Alastair was a broadcaster whose career spanned four decades. He was born and brought up in Burton-upon-Trent.
…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.
…Escolme, John
John obtained a BA (Hons) in communication, cultural studies and public media from the University of Leeds.
…Avery, Philip
Philip – born in 1959 – served with the Royal Navy as a forecaster (1984 – 1994). His broadcasting career began in 1996 with The Weather Network, based in Birmingham. Within months he moved to London to appear on The Weather Channel. He joined the BBC Weather Centre in April 1998 and became a BBC TV national weather forecaster in March 1999. He appeared on BBC TV’s Breakfast News and international TV channels, BBC Prime and BBC World.
Amroliwala, Matthew
Matthew became a national BBC correspondent in 1990. He spent some time based in Northern Ireland where he reported on events such as the Shankill bombing, the Greysteel shootings and the first IRA ceasefire.
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