Fred is a former schoolteacher. He is an actor, who became a popular Play School presenter, making his debut on 16th July 1973 (earning £45 a programme). This began a 15-year association with the programme, which would see Fred appear in 382 editions.
…Finighan, Adrian
Adrian is a Welsh journalist. He joined the BBC in 1988, working in local radio as a reporter and producer.
…Canham, David
David was a continuity director/announcer with BBC Wales TV (summer 2000 – autumn 2002). He performed the final link with the BBC One balloon symbol in March 2002, before the channel was rebranded; during the junction, he also treated viewers to a final glimpse of the balloon-themed channel clock.
He later moved to London to take up a continuity announcer/transmission controller role with BFBS Television, where he remained for three years. He has extensive experience in transmission control, having worked at BSkyB, Molinare and Viasat. During his time at Viasat, he played a role in introducing a tapeless server-based playout infrastructure.
David also provided voiceovers for Teachers TV.
Leeson, John
He was born John Ducker in Leicester. He is an actor who is best known as the much-loved voice of computer dog K9, trusty sidekick to Doctor Who (1977 – 1981, 1983, 2006 and 2008).
…Darval, John
John was one of the original team of announcers at Channel 5 when it launched in March 1997. He was responsible for the Sunset Beach cult craze on Channel 5 daytime. John operated Beaver the puppet on Milkshake, where he was also known as John the Voice, when the childrens’ strand launched in September 1997.
John left Channel 5 in 2002, although he still provided relief cover occasionally. He later worked for Smooth Radio in the West Midlands and BFBS TV continuity and transmission control.
Farnham, Jane
Jane started out as ‘Pippa Horn’, the travel and breakfast co-presenter at Red Dragon FM in Cardiff. Whilst working on the breakfast show she was approached by HTV Wales to present Time Out, a holiday programme based in Wales. She then went on to present her own drivetime show at Medway FM in Kent, which also involved producing features and organising competitions and roadshows.
In 1998, Jane started work at Metro Networks presenting travel reports for the Chris Evans breakfast show on Virgin FM and she also landed a job on the continuity sofa at ITV 2.
In May 2000, she started working for Earth and Space at NOW – a pioneering convergence channel broadcasting to Asia and worldwide on the web. The work involved anchoring live science programmes, interviewing guest scientists, writing web pages and occasionally working on location for special reports.
During 2001, Jane worked in Holland and Athens for five weeks at a time directing and presenting travel programmes for a new broadband/linear channel called Viewing 4 Leisure.
In 2002, she worked with Ant and Dec on ITV 1 as a regional presenter on Record of the Year.
In 2004, Jane filmed kids show X-perimental for BBC One. Working as the science reporter, it was Jane’s responsibility to get the science across in an unpatronising, no-nonsense, yet easily understood manner.
Also in 2004, Jane worked as a studio/location presenter for TV Travel Shop, which involved a shoot in America filming Go Florida.
Jane has also worked as a continuity announcer on Channel 5 and Challenge (dates TBC).
Jane is currently a freelance presenter.
She has also worked at Price Drop TV, where she had to talk and sell non-stop for three hours at a time. She has guest-presented on QVC. She is also a children’s presenter for British Forces TV.