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.
…Lucas, Trevor
Trevor was ATV London’s man in the continuity hot seat in the 1960s. A bit of a smoothy, he received lots of fan mail, and also had the honour of making the last announcement on the station before it was replaced by London Weekend Television in 1968. Trevor moved to ATV in the Midlands from 1968 when the station won its seven-day franchise there.
Bagguley, John
Southern Television presenter and in-vision continuity announcer in the 1960s.
…Jones, Robin
Robin’s broadcasting career began as an announcer with Teledu Cymru/WWN (1962). He then moved to BBC Wales as a radio and television announcer (1964 – 1982). When S4C began, Robin was appointed chief announcer (1982 – TBC). Post-retirement, he still occasionally freelanced as an S4C announcer.
Harrison, Keith
Keith worked at BBC Radio Cleveland in the late-1970s, including presenting the early morning show On the Move (1978).
…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).
Stuart, Vivien
Vivien was born in 1957. Following university, she accepted a place on the Broadcast Journalist Training Scheme in 1975, which led to several years working as a studio manager.
…Hookey, Russell
Russell moved to Channel TV from the Chrysalis Group in London where he had been newsreading on London radio stations Heart 106.2 and LBC 97.3 (often heard as a regular member of Sandi Toksvig’s team) and also presenting on LBC News 1152. Prior to that he worked in commercial and BBC radio in the regions for more than twelve years as a newsreader, producer and reporter and occasionally popped up covering stories for television with BBC South Today.
At Channel TV, Russell was initially a stand-in presenter on Channel Report; he later became one of the programme’s regular presenters. He also provided continuity announcements at Channel TV.
Russell later moved to ITV Border, where he presented bulletins and filled in on the main Lookaround programme.
Austin, Mark
Mark was a BBC TV sports reporter (1985 – 1986) before joining ITN in October 1986 as a sports correspondent. His first assignments for ITN were to cover England’s successful Ashes tour of Australia, as well as the America’s Cup.
He stayed for four months in Australia and unexpectedly found himself reporting on the extraordinary Spycatcher trial.
He has covered all the major sporting events for ITN, including the Olympics, Wimbledon, the British Open and Rugby internationals.
In 1995 he was seconded to ITV to report from South Africa on the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Since joining ITN he has specialised in covering foreign events, travelling all around the globe. Based in Hong Kong in 1993 as Asia correspondent, he returned in 1996 (until 1998), reporting on major events in the region, including the handover of the island to the Chinese in July 1997.
From 1994 until 1996 he was based in Johannesburg as Africa correspondent. He returned to London in mid-1998 and from 1999 he was a special/senior correspondent. He was an occasional newscaster of weekend news bulletins on ITV and the ITN News Channel in August 1998 and again from October 1999.
In May 2001 he presented ITV’s reality game show Survivor.
In 2004, Mark became a regular face in the newscaster’s chair. He took over from Sir Trevor McDonald as the main anchor of the late-night weekday news programme on ITV in December 2005.
Gray, Donald
Donald was an accomplished actor. He was a relief BBC TV in-vision network announcer (1952 – 1953, 1955). He later announced at ATV in London at the weekends. Gray also provided the voice of Colonel White in the cult 1960s children’s television classic, Captain Scarlet.
…O’Hara, James
James was a graduate of Manchester and Aberdeen universities. He joined BBC Scotland as a radio/TV announcer in 1977, having spent a number of years at Grampian TV as a presenter/announcer.
…Gosney, Kerrie
Kerrie grew up in the Peak District. She graduated in cultural studies, media, film and communication from Sheffield Hallam University in 1998.
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