Pam Royle tonight presented ITV News Tyne Tees for the final time.
…Gaynor Barnes and John Shires exit ITV News Calendar
Gaynor Barnes and John Shires have presented their final edition of ITV News Calendar.
…Bance, Greg
By passing the 11-Plus, Greg gained entry to his local grammar school in north London, but education seemed to gain little purchase on his mind, which was focussed on tuning around the short wave, discovering the existence of offshore radio and determination to escape as soon as possible.
…Edwards, Tom
Tom was born in Norwich. He began his career as a newspaper journalist on the Eastern Evening News and when Anglia TV opened, he worked on in-house commercials and even had a small role in one of their dramas. He compered a weekly live pop show, Beat on the Border, from Border TV in Carlisle and returned years later to the ITV regional company as an announcer/newsreader.
…Shaw, Clem
Born Clement Murphy-Shaw, he sold antiques and cars before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama. After a series of elocution lessons, he joined BBC Two as an announcer/director in 1966 and stayed until 1973. He then moved on to the announcing staff at various ITV regional centres including Anglia (1973 – 1974), Tyne Tees (1974 – 1975 and 1991 – 1992) and Scottish TV, before moving to Border (1975). During this period, Clem was an active member of CND and wrote a book of poems as well as scripting/directing the odd small documentary.
…Neville, Mike
Mike began his career as a newspaper journalist. He would later move into acting before joining Tyne Tees TV first as an announcer then as a reporter (1962 – 1964). He then switched to the ‘other side’ to present the BBC TV’s Look North programme from Newcastle for a staggering 32 years. He also became quite well-known nationally for his regular appearances on BBC TV’s Nationwide in the 1970s. In 1989, Neville was caught by TV prankster Noel Edmonds with a ‘Gotcha’ on his BBC One programme Noel’s Saturday Roadshow. He was tricked into thinking he was filling seven minutes of airtime because there was a technical fault.
…Pitts, Valerie
Valerie was an actress. She was RADA-trained (1955 – 1957) and worked in the theatre initially. She later worked at Tyne Tees Television as an announcer and interviewer for the regional news magazine programme North East Roundabout (1959 – 1960); she left the programme in 1960 to marry James Sargent, who was stage manager of the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company. Valerie also worked at Granada Television, Associated Rediffusion and Anglia Television during this period.
…Lines, Judi
Judi is a former Anglia Television announcer (1973 – 1976), BBC East TV announcer and Look East anchor who moved north to take up a continuity announcer’s job at Tyne Tees Television (mid-1980s – early 1990s). She left the company when it was taken over by Yorkshire Television.
Weston, Colin
Colin was one of the most familiar faces on Granada. He started with the station in 1968. From the late-1970s until the 1990s he also worked on a freelance basis for London Weekend, Southern, Tyne Tees, Border, Yorkshire, HTV, Anglia and TVS. Colin was the senior announcer at Granada when he left the company in 1998.
Doody, Pat
Pat announced for Border and Tyne Tees Television (1970s) and also voiced ads for Metro Radio (mid-1980s). He also announced for LWT (dates TBC). He was the voiceover for the Border TV version of Mr and Mrs – his inimitable introduction used for each show: “It’s Mr and Mrs – and here’s your host, Derek Batey”. Most of his time from the late-1970s up until his death in 1990 was spent at Border Television and indeed he was announcing on Border on 27th February 1990, the night before his death.
Steel, Bill
Bill Steel is mainly remembered as Tyne Tees Television’s chief announcer and one of the main presenters of the evening news magazine programme, Northern Life, when it started in 1976. He has also announced on various other ITV stations over the years, such as Associated Rediffusion, Thames and Border Television.
His first job at TTTV was as an assistant transmission controller and he then progressed to voiceover work, including a spell as the announcer on TTTV’s Song for the Swinging Sixties pop music show. He then took up a newsreading job at ABC Television in Manchester and Birmingham while continuing his day job during the week as a transmission controller at TTTV.
When ABC and Rediffusion merged in 1968 to form Thames Television, Bill was kept on as an announcer, working with former Tyne Tees colleague, David Hamilton. At around this time he was also asked to take on some voice only continuity at Tyne Tees, present the nightly news magazine programme, Today at Six and was also offered a job as breakfast show DJ on the North East’s new commercial radio station, Metro Radio.
A very busy man, Bill at this stage was forced to give up advertising voiceover work and his transmission control job to concentrate on the other elements of his successful broadcasting career. After his news contract ended, he moved over to continuity and took over from Neville Wanless as chief announcer in 1988.
He left Tyne Tees in 1996 and since then has developed his acting career — in 1997 he joined Coronation Street briefly as Bernard McKenna. He was also a presenter on Century Radio and a director of a local media training company.
Oldfield, Valerie
Valerie was an Anglia Television and Tyne Tees Television in-vision continuity announcer in the 1960s. She also presented the Anglia children’s programme Afternoon Club (1960 – 1963).