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ITV Network Limited/ITV plc

Newman-Sanders, Sandy

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Sandy was one of the first announcers/newsreader/presenters on Anglia, from 1959. His full name was Cecil Walter Newman-Sanders but he was known as “Sandy” at Anglia. He joined Anglia from the London Planetarium. His previous employment included teaching, fishing and work as a cartoonist! He was Anglia’s first newscaster.

Famous people he interviewed included King Hussein of Jordan, Alf Ramsey, and Morcambe and Wise. He left the newsroom at Anglia in 1965 to become their education officer, and retired c. 1983, aged 74. His hobbies included golf and amateur radio.

Sandy died in 1993, leaving three children, 10 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.

Nesbitt, Mike

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Mike’s journalistic career began within the BBC’s sports department in the mid-1980s. In 1986, he became one of the regular presenters on BBC Radio Ulster’s breakfast news and current affairs offering, Good Morning Ulster.

In 1990, he moved to PR company Anderson Kenny. By 1992 he had shifted back into regular TV presenting, becoming one of the main anchors on UTV’s regional news programme, Six Tonight. He quickly established himself as one of the key figures within the station’s news department.

However, in February 2006 came the shock announcement that Mike was not renewing his contract with UTV. Speaking at the time, he said: “I have decided to leave because I just feel very strongly that the time has come to move on.

“I believe it is time for a new challenge and I have several projects in the pipeline.

“I will be sorry to leave behind a very fine bunch of journalists, and above all, will miss working with my wife Lynda, who is a key factor in UTV’s success story.”

Other TV credits: Sunday Morning (ITV, 1999 2001), a religious affairs programme, co-presented with his wife Lynda Bryans; Counterpoint, and its successor Insight (UTV, 1992 – early 2000s), a current affairs programme; Home Sweet Home (UTV, 2004 – 2006), a home and garden series, co-presented with wife Lynda.

When he stepped away from on-screen roles, Nesbitt and his wife set up their own independent media services company.

In January 2008, Mike was confirmed as the Victims Commissioners for Northern Ireland – a role established by the Northern Ireland Assembly to highlight the interests of victims of The Troubles. He left that post in February 2010 to stand as a candidate for the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists in the Strangford constituency in the 2010 General Election. He lost out to the Democratic Unionist Party’s Jim Shannon. A year later, Nesbitt stood in the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election, again in Strangford. He was elected, along with 5 other MLAs in that constituency. On 31st March 2012, he was elected leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. He remained in that role until 2017.

Smith, Derek

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Derek’s broadcasting career began in 1999 at The Travel Channel where he was a continuity announcer. He was a member of the original team of announcers (and ‘the Scottish voice’) at the Biography Channel when it launched in the UK in 2000. Also in 2000, Derek took on a newsreading role at Radio Forth in Edinburgh; he remained there until joining Living TV as a continuity announcer in 2003.

Derek headed back north and joined the SMG continuity team in 2005, providing announcements on Scottish and Grampian TV (later rebranded as STV). He performed the first live announcement from STV’s new studios at Pacific Quay on Saturday 22nd July 2006.

Derek still finds time to fit in his other gig – travelling the world as a BA cabin crew member – which he has been doing since 1985.

Crowest, Richard

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Richard started his broadcasting career as a researcher and reporter with BBC Radio Humberside, after which he moved on to run the audio arm of a corporate communications company in his native Norwich. His voice skills were spotted by Anglia Television where he spent eight years as a continuity announcer (1990 – 1998). During these years he also wrote for BBC Radio 4, produced a pilot for a radio game show and edited guide books for Jarrold Publishing.

In 1998, he moved into the area of heritage interpretation, attending an MA course at St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill, where he went on to graduate with distinction. Since then, he has worked for the likes of the National Trust and the British Library.

In 2003, Richard co-founded Corvidae – an internet venture focusing on the museum and heritage sector.

Stein, Gary

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Gary combined in-vision continuity for Grampian with radio presenting for Northsound 1, having previously done in-vision work for the local cable distributor in Aberdeen. When Grampian was taken over by STV he was left with only the radio work and subsequently left Aberdeen to join Clyde 1. He later reportedly left Clyde to go into radio management.

Taylor, Alan

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Eccentric, jovial, avuncular HTV West continuity announcer and programme presenter on both HTV West and HTV Wales who also found fame on the national ITV network, first as the presenter of one of the many incarnations of Mr and Mrs, and, secondly as Nancy Kominsky’s eager assistant in HTV West’s almost cult-status Paint Along with Nancy. Locally, he was well known for his Tinker and Taylor children’s slots. The Mr and Mrs programme went on to be produced by Tyne Tees Television, and, most famously, Border Television, when the host was Derek Batey.

Former colleague Guy Thomas told us: “Alan was the most popular and best-loved television personality in Wales and the west of England, establishing himself as a versatile, all round entertainer and he was admired as much by his colleagues as by the large audiences he won for the television programmes in which he appeared.

“After working in his family’s Cardiff electricity business and seeing active Navy service in the Mediterranean war zone he began entertaining in amateur variety bills, turning professional by appearing all over the country in pantomimes and music halls, including London’s West End. He joined TWW as an announcer in 1959. His popularity started to rise with an afternoon 10-minute slot for children which he shared with a glove puppet (a kind of not too distant relation of Sooty) for a birthday greetings show called Tinker and Taylor. TWW had a large audience for television quiz shows, most of them the idea of the Canadian TV personality Roy Ward Dickson. Alan became the ideal host for these shows, starting with Three Little Words, Try for Ten and the blockbuster of them all, Mr and Mrs, which ran year after year. It is probably true to say it was the most popular programme series TWW transmitted, rarely missing the number 1 spot in the ratings.

“For HTV, Alan began a series of programmes in which he learned to paint (his interest was already there) called ‘Painting With Nancy’ and the demand for the return of ‘Mr And Mrs’ was so great, the company, which had dismissed the idea of repeating their predecessor’s liking for the quiz show format, bowed to the inevitable. The success was repeated and HTV also brought back, again with Alan, ‘Try For Ten’. In 1982 Alan retired to open an antique shop in Bath and then went to live in Spain where he died in 1997.”