Tim Ewart was born in Suffolk and began his journalistic career in 1967 at the Bury Free Press, his local newspaper.
…Elsmore, Philip
Philip was born in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire.
…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.
…Scott, Jack
Jack was a popular BBC TV forecaster (17th May 1969 – 4th May 1983) and for many years was the senior forecaster. He also presented forecasts on BBC Radio. He was a Met Office employee (1941 – 1983), working on RAF stations (1941 – 1968).
…Martin, Keith
Keith was born in Sandwich and was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. He trained in catering, then joined the Merchant Navy but illness brought him home and he started work in the advertising department of Granada Television in London.
…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.
Kennedy, Sheila
Born in 1936, Sheila Kennedy began her career as a theatre actress and dancer, appearing for eighteen months in the Drury Lane production of The King and I.
…Bates, Simon
Simon was born in Birmingham and raised in Suffolk and Shropshire. He is perhaps best known for his long stint as a BBC Radio 1 DJ (1976 – 1993).
…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.
…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.
…Marshall, Peter
Peter was a continuity announcer in various ITV regions: Ulster TV (1967 – 1969); Anglia TV (1970 – 1973); Southern (dates TBC); Thames Television (dates TBC); ATV (Midlands) (dates TBC); HTV West (dates TBC). He was also the national host of the TV Times Awards and Miss United Kingdom on the ITV network (1970s and 1980s). He also presented the BBC’s Come Dancing (1980 – 1983), and regularly reported for ITV’s Wish You Were Here? Marshall originally trained as a teacher, and then an actor with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before joining a Bournemouth rep company.
Blackmore, Guy
Australian-born former pirate radio disc jockey (known as Jim Gordon, or Jumbo Jimmy Gordon during his time on Radio Caroline North), who went on to become an in-vision continuity announcer for Thames Television, a relief announcer at Southern TV and also a voice-only announcer on the BBC.
Sadly, Guy died of lung cancer in 2000.
Fisher, Evadne
Evadne is a former Central TV continuity announcer. From Central, she moved on to host the late-night Thames Television strand (mid-1980s – 1991), along with colleagues Patricia Yorston and Victoria Crawford.
After leaving Thames in 1991, Evadne worked as a freelance corporate presenter and voiceover artist. She later turned to teaching – firstly at The Avon Academy, where she subsequently became director of drama. She was also head LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) teacher at Trent College in Long Eaton.
Evadne was a teacher and examiner for LAMDA.
Robbie, Christopher
Christopher was an announcer for Associated Rediffusion, Southern, Anglia and Thames TV. He had a friendly air and a great screen presence. He presented Southern’s final programme, It’s Goodbye from Us with great panache, and was one of only two continuity announcers featured, the other one being veteran colleague Brian Nissen. After Southern lost its contract, Christopher popped up from time-to-time as an announcer on TVS, before going into theatre.
He later went on tour with a one-man play about Charles Darwin. He trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. In the theatre he has achieved notable success in the plays of Shakespeare, Ibsen, Lope de Vega, Calderon, Euripedes and Miller. For four years he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, during which time he played the title role in King Lear. On television his portrayal of the Cyberleader in the Doctor Who adventure The Revenge of the Cyberman won him a cult following. Christopher has also worked as a director and designer and his play The Sirens of Eroc, was written under the nom-de-plume of James Alan. As an artist he has held successful exhibitions of his photographs.
Prebble, Simon
In 1960, Simon attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and began his acting career in one of Britain’s first television soap operas, Home Tonight with David Hemmings. For the next eleven years he worked extensively on radio and television and in provincial repertory theatre, including a year with Ian McKellen’s Hamlet.
After working as a continuity announcer and newsreader at Southern TV (1970), Prebble joined the newsroom at Capital Radio, the second commercial radio station in Britain, where he hosted London’s Day. He then embarked on a career as a presenter and voiceover, including thirteen years as the promo voice of Thames Television, as well as regular promo work for HTV and Anglia TV. He was also an announcer for Anglia TV. From 1984 he was the announcer for the British version of the phenomenally successful game show The Price Is Right with Leslie Crowther.
In 1990, Prebble moved to New York where he continued doing voiceover work. As well as recording numerous radio and television commercials, he also character-voiced cartoon series, such as Courage the Cowardly Dog; he hosted and presented several television documentary series, notably Target Mafia; and narrated the IMAX film Endurance about the Shackleton expedition. In 1996, he was a lead actor for a year (as villain Martin Chedwyn) on the American daily soap opera As the World Turns.
In the US, he also began narrating audio books. His work has gained him more than eighteen Earphone awards, nine nominations for the Audies (the audiobook Oscars), and in 2005, he was named Narrator of the Year by Publishers Weekly.
Apart from his acting career, in 1967 Prebble designed and produced the ‘executive toy’ called Newton’s Cradle.
In 2003, at Chiswick House London, he married Swedish graphic artist, Marie-Janine Hellstrom. In 2007, along with his wife, he became a US citizen.
Prince, Mike
Mike is a former ATV continuity announcer. He joined the company in the 1960s and stayed with its successor, Central, until the mid-1980s. Mike also announced, occasionally, for HTV Wales, HTV West, Thames and Southern Television.
…Holden, Hilary
Hilary was a Central Television and Thames Television announcer (1980s). Later, she worked for Carlton Television (London) as an announcer (1994 – 5th February 1997).
Hilary now lives in France.
Hamilton, David
David started his television career as a continuity scriptwriter for ATV, but soon moved to the glamorous side of the camera as an announcer and programme presenter.
…Lipscomb, Mark
Mark started his television career as a cameraman and moved into continuity with TVS before joining Thames Television as a continuity announcer in the 1980s. He stayed until Carlton took over and was the only member of the Thames continuity team to move to the new station at its launch on 1st January 1993. Mark was Carlton’s senior announcer until October 2002 when the Carlton identity was dropped. However, Mark continued to present weekend bulletins for Central News (South) – a role he had been performing since 1991. He has also presented the main early evening news programme during the week.
Mark spoke to Showreel in January 2006: “Over the past three-and-a half-years I have had the opportunity of working on a number of projects at Central News. I was assistant producer on a few outside broadcasts including Central’s pan-regional Britain on the Move campaign and the Fairford Royal International Air Tattoo. More recently while our studio was being redesigned for the ITV rebranding, we took Central News outside and presented the programme from five of the region’s hospitals. I helped produce this and was also the roving reporter each night taking on a variety of tasks, from sampling the hospital Christmas dinners to being a cleaner for the day and hospital porter. My skills were also put to the test one night when due to sickness with one of our directors, I ended up directing the outside broadcast. It was a great week and well-received by the viewers. That together with some radio presenting and voiceover work, I have been a busy man since leaving Carlton.”
Holness, Bob
Bob was born in Vryheid, Natal in South Africa. The family moved to Kent when he was seven.
…Stevens, Lorna
Lorna was an HTV West and Thames TV continuity announcer who moved to the HTV weather department when in-vision announcing was axed in 1993. She was regularly seen as a weather presenter on both HTV West and HTV Wales, but recently left when weather presentation was centralised in Birmingham. Lorna is also believed to have announced for HTV Wales.
A former professional model who worked with The Bluebell Girls first in Barcelona, Spain, and then in Paris, she started her broadcasting career on her return to the UK with local ILR station Radio 210 in the Thames Valley. She went on to work as an announcer for BBC Radio 4 and was a network announcer on BBC TV (1984 – 1986), before embarking on a career as a freelance announcer/presenter for several ITV companies and also on BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting). Lorna also worked as an announcer on Westcountry Television in Plymouth for around 18 months from 1993 with colleague Peter Griffin.
Andrews, Eamonn
Born in Dublin, Eamonn Andrews began sports commentating for Radio Éireann in 1939 and subsequently worked on various programmes for BBC Radio, including Sports Report (1950 – 1962).
On television he hosted the BBC’s parlour game What’s My Line? (1951 – 1963), Crackerjack (1955 – 1964), ABC Television’s World of Sport (1965 – 1968) and This is Your Life until his death in 1987.
He joined Thames Television from ABC in 1968 and was the first anchor of its nightly news magazine programme Today until 1977. At the same time, he was active as a chat show host and children’s programmes presenter, as well as being a keen businessman.
Alford, Sally
Sally was born in Weston-super-Mare, in November 1940. She is a former actress, who went on to become an in-vision continuity announcer for TWW in the 1960s and its successor, HTV West (spring 1968 – c. 1985).
…Andrew, Ken
Former Thames TV and BSB news presenter.
Houston, Robin
Well known Thames Television announcer and newsreader (late-1970s – 1992) and LWT continuity announcer. Robin was also a familiar voice to viewers across the ITV network, for his voiceovers at award ceremonies and the Royal Variety Show. Robin has also been heard as the voice of the questions on Channel 5’s 100%. He also presented the channel’s One to Win gameshow.