Born in India, Kenneth was educated at Felsted School and Oxford, where he gained a degree in modern languages. He was a school master and later captain in the Coldstream Guards during World War II. He was injured on D-Day.
…Yates, Alastair
Alastair was a broadcaster whose career spanned four decades. He was born and brought up in Burton-upon-Trent.
…Brinton, Tim
Tim was educated at Summer Fields, Eton and went to the University of Geneva. After National Service, he trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama and in the early 1950s he joined the BBC as a radio announcer.
…Maxwell, Raymond
Raymond was an announcer/newsreader with UTV from the late-1960s. He later moved to RTÉ in Dublin, where he was one of the announcers appearing during the opening night of RTÉ 2. He was accompanied at the launch of RTÉ 2 by fellow announcers Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir and
Róisín Harkin.
Andrew, John
John’s broadcasting career began at ILR station Radio Tees. He then joined BBC Newcastle before moving to London as a reporter/presenter on BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme. He presented Thames News with Andrew Gardener during the 1980s.
John is currently a correspondent/presenter for BBC Network News. He occasionally presents on the BBC News Channel. During his career at the BBC, he initially specialised in local government, covering the rise and fall of the poll tax and the Westminster gerrymandering scandal. He has since covered general news too, including the Harold Shipman murders and the war in Kosovo.
McDermott, Helen
Helen graced Westward TV screens in the 1970s, jumping ship in 1979 to the safer haven of Anglia Television, which she joined as a continuity announcer and newsreader. Helen was an anchor of the East edition of the company’s main evening topicality programme, Anglia News until 2001. Beyond that, she presented various other programmes for Anglia.
She was a presenter on Radio Norwich until 2010. In January 2011, she joined BBC Radio Norfolk in Norwich as presenter of the 11am to 1pm slot (Monday – Thursday). The programme was dropped in January 2012. In 2014, she took up a presenting role with Mustard TV.
Gladwell, Robert
Robert is a former Associated Rediffusion announcer.
Didsbury, Neil
Neil’s broadcasting experience dates back to 1995 when he joined the team at a hospital radio station in Norwich. In 1996, he moved to 103.4 The Beach in Lowestoft; he remained there for a year.
Neil’s voice has also been heard on Pirate FM in Cornwall and on Topshop TV at the clothes store’s main Oxford Street branch. As well as being head of music and producer at his university radio station during his three years study, Neil also has experience of working with the teams at Blue Peter and BBC Radio 1.
Having graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in broadcasting studies, Neil joined Granada TV’s northern transmission centre in March 2001, as a continuity announcer; his voice was heard on Granada, Yorkshire, Tyne Tees and Border Television between March 2001 and October 2002. He also voiced programme promotions across the Granada Media Group, including LWT, Anglia and Meridian.
Neil stayed in Yorkshire for a year after being made redundant in October 2002, presenting radio shows for the Teamtalk group and Magic 828AM.
In 2003 he was approached by Vibe 105-8FM, a regional dance radio station in the east of England, to front their breakfast news. Twelve months after arriving, Neil also became the voice on all of the station’s imaging.
After a company takeover, Vibe 105-8FM was rebranded in September 2006 as Kiss 105-8FM.
Neil also regularly voices commercials on both television and radio across the UK and Europe.
Westwood, Stephen
Stephen was a Carlton TV (London) announcer (1997 – TBC). He also covered the ITV Nighttime service.
Donat, Chris
Chris was an Anglia TV announcer (1989 – 1991).
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.
…Jamieson, David
David was an ATV daytime out-of-vision announcer (1970s) who also presented a show for BRMB Radio in Birmingham. David went on to become head of presentation at ATV’s successor, Central Television in 1986 and remained in that role until Carlton Television took over in the mid-1990s. He now lives in Andalucia.
David told Showreel: “The regular daytime announcer was Peter Davies, an old friend with whom I’d worked in BBC local radio in Leicester. When he was on leave, or there were other gaps in the roster, I would fill in from sign-on at 9.25am (no breakfast telly then) until 6pm, when the evening announcer (usually Kevin Morrison or Peter Tomlinson) came on duty. Daytime was out-of-vision, which suited me fine! 9.25am to 12 noon was schools programmes which ATV networked to the rest of ITV, so suddenly I was speaking to the nation! Frightening stuff! After the shift, I’d scoot off and do my radio programme. I have to say that working at ATV was wonderful, and a part of my career which I treasure.”