Alun is an actor who has occasionally freelanced as an announcer. Announcing jobs include S4C and BBC Wales TV.
Hall, Terry
Terry appeared with the Lenny the Lion puppet in the 1950s and 1960s.
…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.”
Smith, Alister
Alister was a continuity announcer in the presentation department at BBC Scotland (April 1981 – December 1989); starting in radio before moving to television, then back to radio again.
Speaking to us in February 2006, Alister recalled his radio days at BBC Scotland: “In radio, the pace was more relaxed and the work far more varied than the TV side. Apart from straight continuity announcing I often presented Leisure Trail, a programme for outdoor enthusiasts broadcast on Saturday mornings and produced by the late Murdoch McPherson. Then, for a good while, I had my own show called The Light Programme – easy-listening music and chat for Friday afternoons with many interesting guests from the world of music and entertainment. There was also Alister Smith’s Christmas Lights – broadcast early on Christmas morning and featuring young local musicians of all ages.
“At the same time I was also the person behind Leslie McQueen, Tom Ferrie’s charismatically camp visitor to the late chart show that went out Mondays to Thursdays on BBC Radio Scotland between 10pm and midnight. Much to my surprise, Tom’s teenage audience quickly embraced this gay little baker from Rutherglen until he soon became a regular guest: with his accordion, his trumpet and those awful renditions of country and western songs accompanied and sung excruciatingly. Furthermore, Lesley was a prominent feature of Tom Ferrie’s Christmas and New Year specials, as illustrated by Tom and Leslie’s New Year Party etc.
“In a different domain, presenting orchestral concerts for BBC Radio 3 was another of my many privileges, taken along with all the additional things I was allowed to do at BBC Scotland, made my entire time there highly satisfying and eminently enjoyable. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world!
“After leaving the BBC, I went into commercial radio as head of production at CentreSound 96.7 in Stirling (now Central FM), where I was ever so fortunate to have as my boss Mr Colin Lamont – aka Scottie McClue – surely one of the most affable men you will ever meet. But commercial radio was not my bag. Thus I drifted into tertiary education and IT where I remained until retirement.”
Griffith, Mari
Mari was a BBC Wales TV continuity director/announcer (1980s and 1990s). She then went freelance and was heard regularly on BBC Radio Wales.
Brooks, Rosemary
Rosemary was a BBC TV network announcer (1968 – 1969).
Webb, Gillian
Gillian was a BBC TV in-vision network announcer (1946 – 1947). Born in Leicester, in 1926, Gillian became a student at RADA soon after she left school in 1943. When she was called up for National Service she enlisted in ENSA and began touring England with Twelfth Night. She then toured the Middle East with the play Nine to Six, in which her part was of a mannequin with a few lines, but it took her to Cairo, Alexandra, Basra, Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut and Jerusalem.
It was at Habbaniya Airport in Iraq that she met her future husband, Lieutenant Wilson of the United States Army Air Force and, in the course of just seven days, got engaged to him. Upon returning to England in May 1946, Gillian began to see agents and film directors. It was after little success she was given an introduction to the BBC and she got the job of female television announcer. She began her new job on 17th July 1946.
Gillian never saw her announcing job as long term. In an interview published in December 1946 she stated that she was currently reading all she could about America and “has all the states off by heart and can point them out on the map.” In between reading about the US, Gillian also listed her interests as “reads thrillers, plays tennis, and waits for her visa to the United States which in any case won’t be of any use before January when she is twenty-one.” Gillian finally left Alexandra Palace and her announcing job on 20th March 1947 and never returned to television again. Her vacancy was filled by Sylvia Peters after an extensive search for a new female announcer. Sylvia was the youngest of the entrants at 21 years of age.
Gillian’s whereabouts at the current time are not known. Thanks to Simon Vaughan of the APTS for the background information above.
Hayden-Smith, Andrew
Andrew is a former CBBC presenter. He’s currently an announcer on ITV.
Austin, Craig
Craig Austin combines roles as a broadcaster, writer and producer. He started his media career in radio and moved on to television, dipping his toes in ink along the way.
Craig is from Uddingston, on the outskirts of Glasgow, and is the youngest of four boys. He started a career in medical laboratory sciences but after three years he returned to student life to study media. He does miss the white coat though!
It was during his final year as a student that he got his first professional broadcasting gigs, writing and presenting travel and traffic reports on a number of Scotland’s radio stations, as well as doing commercial voiceovers. A short spell hosting his own shows on Radio Tay in Dundee followed, before Craig found himself in Carlisle, working as an announcer, presenter and producer for Border Television.
…Baines, Brian
Brian Baines was a regular presenter of Look North bulletins from Leeds during the late-1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In fact, Brian was the first voice to be heard on Look North. He was also one of the main continuity announcers for BBC North TV during the 1970s and early 1980s when BBC English regions had their own continuity. He still provided continuity into local programming on BBC North until the late-1980s.
He retired from BBC Leeds on 25th April 1988. Sadly, Brian passed away on 30th June 2006, aged 75.
Fleming, Arlene
Arlene was a BBC TV network announcer from the mid-1990s until 1999 (TBC). She’s now an announcer and newsreader on BBC Radio 4.
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.
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