Jacqui was born in Ilkley, Yorkshire and moved to East London at the age of seven.
…Burak, Lukwesa
Lukwesa was born in Ndola, Zambia in 1974 (date unknown). She is named after her royal tribal family.
…Frais, Carrie
Carrie was born in Welwyn Garden City. She began her broadcasting career spending a year as a newsreader/producer on Heart FM (from June 1995). She then joined LBC’s News Direct, London’s first 24-hour news station, as a news and showbusiness presenter/reporter/producer (June 1996 – June 1998).
…Haycocks, Paddy
Paddy was born in Portsmouth. He worked at BFBS radio (British Forces Broadcasting Service) in Cyprus (1966 – 1968). He performed various roles including tape editing, reporting, presenting and studio management (1966 – 1968).
…Twining, Sasha
Sasha was born in Yorkshire. She is a presenter, journalist, conference host and facilitator. She began her career in radio and worked as a DJ for several years at various local and regional radio stations, including BBC Radio Solent.
…Dickson, Peter
Peter was born in Belfast. His name and face may not be as familiar as his voice, which has featured in some of the biggest UK TV entertainment shows.
…Allen, Glen
Glen is a voiceover artist/presenter who found fame with his knowledgeable introductions to Dr Who, Blake’s 7 and other cult shows on UK Gold.
…Lang, Isobel
Isobel was born in Lincoln. She graduated in 1991 from Exeter University with a BSc (Hons) degree in mathematics. She joined the Met Office in September 1991 and was initially based at the London Weather Centre, where she prepared forecasts for the press; she also presented the weather on local radio. Isobel appeared briefly as a holiday relief forecaster for Meridian TV before joining the BBC Weather Centre in May 1995. She was a regular BBC network television forecaster (December 1995 – August 2006). She had a baby boy (Benjamin Bryon) in October 2002 and after a second child was born, returned from maternity leave in summer 2004.
…Hulland, Louise
Louise was born in Burnley and graduated from Durham University. She is a Sony Award-winning presenter, journalist and documentary maker specialising in presenting programmes on crime and social issues. Since 2014, Louise has travelled round the country presenting for various BBC local radio stations (from Lancashire to London, Devon to Berkshire). She’s also been a news presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music, a reporter for Newsbeat (BBC Radio 1) and The Arts Show (BBC Radio 2), and has spent years behind-the-scenes at BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, including working with Sir Terry Wogan, Steve Wright, Chris Moyles, Jo Whiley, Sara Cox and The Sunday Surgery.
…Carlton, Amanda
Amanda has voiced English language audio courses (e.g. Linguaphone, Pearsons, Hugo, Longmans, de Agostini) since 1986. From 1988, she voiced trails for Anglia TV, Living, Granada Plus, Disney and TVS. Amanda got an attachment as a BBC TV network announcer (1988 – 1990) and was one of the voices on BBC TV’s Points of View (1987 – 1990). She also voiced BBC TV programme trails (1991).
…Walker, Patrick
Patrick was born in London in June 1967. His broadcasting career began in hospital/local radio. He then moved to television, working as a network continuity announcer on BBC One and BBC Two (August 1994 – November 1998).
…Colvile, Charles
Charles was born into a naval family, in Rochester, Kent. He was educated at Westminster School and joined the BBC as a finance clerk in January 1975. The following year came his ‘lucky break’ when he applied for a job as clerk to Radio 4’s The World at One and PM programmes and ended up presenting a sports round-up on the Saturday edition of PM. His first broadcast was 24th April 24 1976 and he was, in his own words “appalling”!
…Finighan, Adrian
Adrian is a Welsh journalist. He joined the BBC in 1988, working in local radio as a reporter and producer.
…Akua, Nana
Nana was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in July 1971 (as Nana Akua Amotemaa-Appiah), after her parents came over from Ghana in the 1960s. She relocated to the US with her parents, aged 11, but would later return to the UK and study business and finance at university.
…Jaque, Natalie
Natalie gained a degree in journalism with distinction and then backpacked around the world for a while (before the days of e-mail, iPad or mobile phone). She worked as a staff announcer with the BBC from 1997 until 2004, mainly live on BBC Two. Since March 2015, she has been a freelancing voice on both BBC One and BBC Two. Natalie was also the first female voice on BBC Knowledge and BBC Choice, and went on to become the BBC’s first freelance announcer.
…Morris, Christopher
Chris was born in Luton. His career in broadcasting and journalism spanned 60 years.
…Creegor, Vivien
Vivien was born in London and admits to being on the wrong side of 55. She began her career at the BBC in 1976 as a production assistant in BBC Drama, where she also abridged books for BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime. Vivien was invited on to the BBC’s in-house broadcast training scheme and was taken on by BBC Radio 4 as an announcer (1980 – 1982).
…Hammal, Bruce
Bruce was born in 1951. He’s a former studio manager and BBC TV announcer (1975 – 1984). He also appeared in-vision on BBC TV’s Breakfast Time‘ in 1983, in the TV Choice slot and as the out-of-vision commentator on Come Dancing (1980 – 1984).
…Offer, Peter
Peter was born in July 1963. He joined the BBC in November 1985 as an assistant sound recordist, BBC TV. He worked in post-production for a wide variety of programmes, including many long-running series such as Miss Marple, Bergerac and Lovejoy.
…Bertram, Trish
Born in Royston, Herts, Trish started out as a stage manager in the theatre and was the longest-serving female TV announcer in the UK. She announced live for LWT, ITV, Channel 5, BBC World, BSB Galaxy, Super Channel, TVS, Westcountry TV and The Family Channel.
…Yates, Alastair
Alastair was a broadcaster whose career spanned four decades. He was born and brought up in Burton-upon-Trent.
…Griffiths, Tracey-Anne
Now Tracey-Anne McCoy. Tracey-Anne started off with Downtown Radio as a newsreader (late-1980s – 1992). She then moved into television, becoming a continuity announcer and newsreader on Ulster Television (1992 – 1996).
Tracey-Anne moved to London in 1997 to take up an announcing role with Channel 4; she is also heard on E4 and regularly voices Film4 programme trails. She remained at Channel 4 until 2015.
Tracey-Anne has also worked for Sky News, Living TV and Discovery.
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.
Blight, Vicki
Vicki was a continuity announcer with Channel 5 (dates TBC). She had previously provided continuity links for Living, Living 2 and Sky 1.
Armah, Claudia-Liza
Claudia-Liza is a TV news presenter. She has worked for Sky News and the BBC (60 Seconds, BBC Three). Since 2014, she has worked for the London Live television channel, where she hosts Headline London.
…Guha, Isa
Isa is a cricket commentator/presenter for the BBC and Sky Sports.
…Aziz, Lisa
Lisa is probably best known in her role as anchor on Sky News, where she worked from 1993 until autumn 2005. She began her television career at BBC West television in 1984, working on their regional news programme. In 1985, she switched sides, moving to HTV West as a reporter and presenter, where she remained until c. 1988. She then moved to TV-am, initially in a reporting role, but later becoming a news presenter, taking over from Gordon Honeycombe. Following the demise of TV-am, Lisa worked briefly for BBC World Service Television and the NBC Superchannel before moving to Sky News.
In September 2005, Lisa returned to Bristol, becoming one of the regular co-anchors on ITV West’s The West Tonight. From 16th February 2009, she became co-presenter of the pan-regional news programme The West Country Tonight, which replaced The West Tonight (ITV West) and Westcountry Live (ITV West Country).
…Smith, Oliver
Oliver has been a continuity announcer on Turner Classic Movies, BBC America, Sci-Fi Channel and The History Channel. He has also voiced trails for television including BBC, ITV, Sky, UKTV Gold and Zone Thriller.
Longdon, Erica
Erica was a Carlton Television (London) announcer (January 2000 – 2002). She also announced at Channel 4 (1988 – 1992), The Family Channel (1993 – 1996) and The Disney Channel (1997 – TBC).
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.
Last, John
John started in continuity announcing as a freelancer for ITV 2 (January 2005 – 2007). He also worked as part of the Channel 5 continuity team (mid-2006 – early 2008).
As of late-2008, John was announcing for Virgin 1. His acting career was also taking off, with appearances in various short films behind him, such as Hammered, written by Noel Clarke (Doctor Who and Kidulthood). He also stars in the feature film, Do Elephants Pray?.
John has a BA (Hons) in media performance from the University of Salford.
Balshaw, Samantha
(Formerly Samantha Howkins). Samantha was a TSW in-vision continuity announcer and assistant transmission controller. She moved to London to work for Carlton in 1993 and then for Meridian in Southampton. In 2003, eight years after joining Meridian, Samantha took some time off to look after her children. In 2006, she joined Sky as a transmission controller, working on the movie channels.
Young, Lynsey
Lynsey graduated from the University of Manchester. She began her broadcasting career co-presenting and producing the Breakfast Show for Heart 106.2 (January 1997 – February 1997). She then became a national reporter (October 1997 – December 1999), fronting travel news on Kiss 100, Virgin Radio, TalkSport, Magic 105.4 and GMTV.
…Fothergill, Phil
Phil was an Anglia Television announcer (1989). He moved from the announcer’s chair to a behind-the-scenes role, as a producer in the promotions department. He went on to work at The Family Channel and, in 1995, he became promotions manager at the popular QVC channel.
McDowell, Andrea
Scottish voice who served an attachment as a BBC TV network announcer (1989). She was also a BBC World Service TV announcer (1992). She worked briefly as an announcer for ITV Carlton in London (1993). She has also worked as an announcer with BSB, Living TV, BBC Scotland and Channel 5.
…Rogers, Graham
Graham was a staff ITV network announcer (October 2002 – TBC). He is a former Radio 210 disc jockey who fronted TVS’ overnight service, Late Night Late. He joined Meridian from TVS to present the overnight service Nightime. He went on to become one of Meridian’s four duty announcers, also providing continuity for Anglia and HTV West. Graham has also announced for Channel 4.
Additionally, Graham continues to freelance as a presenter and voiceover on programmes for Sky, Channel 5 and ITV 2. He also produced and presented the Exercise Helping Hand documentaries in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Smith, Kelly-Anne
Kelly-Anne has been a continuity announcer with Channel 5, Virgin 1 and UKTV Food (dates TBC).
She has also voiced promotional trails for BBC TV, ITV and BBC America and provided station imaging for many major radio networks around the world.
Cooper, Mike
Mike spent the first four years of his career at BBC Radios WM and Shropshire. He was also a freelance continuity announcer for Central (1993 – 1996). In January 1994, he moved south to work for SSVC (now BFBS) as a self-op announcer and transmission controller.
Mike says: “Having moved south I contacted Carlton and freelanced as an announcer for them from March 1994 until March 1997, then jumped across to the other side of the glass to become a transmission controller for ITV 1 working for LNN. I’d actually started as a transmission controller on a freelance basis in December 1996, then became a staff member in May 1997. To round things up, I stayed with LNN until October 2002. In that time I tried unsuccessfully to move into the newsroom as a director, and my frustration eventually led to finding an opening as a freelance director at ITN alongside my full-time job! I eventually left LNN a week before the rebrand to ITV 1 took place and Carlton/LWT disappeared forever.”
Later, Mike worked at the BBC as a news director. He then went on to spend almost three years doing the same at Sky News. In 2008, he moved back behind the microphone to work full-time as a voiceover artist. In addition to voicing TV programmes, he has returned to continuity: for a time at Film24, and on an ongoing basis for History.
Smith, Derek
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.
Boleto, Leah
Leah is a TV news presenter. She spent 11 years with Newsround (2009 – 2021) and has more recently been presenting for Sky News and 5 News.
…Jago, Becky
Becky was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and graduated from the University of Bedfordshire with a BA in Media Performance in 1997.
…Anthony, Patrick
Patrick was born in Dublin. With five years of theatre behind him, he began his broadcasting career at HTV Wales, as a newsreader and announcer, and became the first Irishman to read the Welsh news in English!
…Alexander, Lucy
Lucy’s journalistic career began as a reporter with BBC local radio – BBC Radio Solent, BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester and BBC Greater London Radio. Her first TV job was with Anglia TV as a producer. She soon moved on to reporting and presenting on Anglia News.
She later became a regular face on the ITV London regional news programme London Today and was soon co-anchoring the early evening London Tonight with Alastair Stewart.
Lucy later co-anchored the breakfast programme on the ITV News Channel with Andrew Harvey. In 2006, she joined Sky News.
Tilling, Roger
Carson, Mike
Mike was one of the best-known voices on LWT as the station’s key promotions voiceover man (1983 – 2001). He also had a stint in the continuity booth as a station announcer (2001 – 2002). Mike has also announced and voiced promos for TVS, Meridian and Sky to name but a few.
…Wheatley, Jonathan
Born in Hammersmith, London, Jonathan Wheatley has built a distinguished career spanning broadcasting, journalism, and presentation on both sides of the Atlantic.
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