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. He was educated at The Belfast Royal Academy and obtained a Bachelor of Arts honours degree from Queen’s University, Belfast. Peter possibly holds the record for youngest ever continuity announcer on UK TV: at the age of 17, he joined BBC Northern Ireland, whilst still at school.
…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.
…Everard, Martin
Martin’s first on-air role was as a relief announcer with BBC Northern Ireland in the 1960s. From there he moved to London and gradually moved up through the ranks of TV presentation, before moving into programme production. He took some time out from his BBC job to participate in the British America’s Cup Challenge (Lionheart) (1979 – 1980).
…Malhi, Manju
Manju was raised in north west London, surrounded by Indian cultures, traditions and lifestyles. She was a BBC TV network announcer (mainly BBC Two, 1990 – 1999 and 2001 – 2006 (freelance)) and a BBC World Service TV announcer (1992). She provided voiceovers for trails featured on BBC News 24 and she was also an announcer on UKTV’s Good Food channel. She presented the early (4am – 6am) weekend show on BBC Radio 2 (January/February 1997).
…Constantinis, Jayne
Jayne was born in Yorkshire. She has an acting diploma from the Royal Academy of Music and a modern languages degree from Cambridge. She studied journalism at the LCP and has written for publications including Condé Nast Traveller and Good Housekeeping.
…Bower, Stephanie
Stephanie was born in Dundee and went to the University of Glasgow. She initially worked in TV magazines in Glasgow (1996 – 1997) before moving into broadcasting with Granada Sky Broadcasting (1997 – 1999) as an announcer. She moved to a similar role with BBC TV network in 1999. Her time at the BBC included an attachment to BBC London 94.9 (October 2001 – May 2002). She then remained on the BBC TV continuity team until 2006.
…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. His distinctive voice has been heard announcing on BBC One and BBC Two since January 1991 (staff until December 2010 and freelance since 2011). Peter made a reference to moving on to pastures new after 20 years before the film on 31st December 2010 on BBC One. But he would soon return to BBC One and BBC Two. He was also a regular voice on UK Gold (c. 2000 – 2004) and on Sky Arts 2 (January 2012 – June 2015). Since 2002, he has been director of Speech Marks Ltd.
…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.
…Copland, Jane
Jane was a continuity announcer with BBC Scotland TV (1986) and could also be seen reading the news in-vision at lunchtime. She then moved to Channel 4, where she worked on the announcing rota in the late-1980s and during the 1990s. In more recent times, as well as being the voice of Orange, Jane also provides continuity announcements for UKTV History.
Flynn, David
In 2005, David began announcing duties for the UKTV network (on UKTV Food, UKTV Gold and UKTV People), whilst training to be an actor at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
…Escolme, John
John obtained a BA (Hons) in communication, cultural studies and public media from the University of Leeds. He also has a post-graduate diploma in broadcast journalism, from City University, London and a Masters degree in modern European studies, from London Metropolitan University.
John’s broadcasting career began in 1991 with the BBC; he was a newsreader and producer with BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Radio Surrey.
In 1992, he made the switch to television, presenting and reporting for Yorkshire TV’s early morning (GMTV) and evening news programmes. John returned to radio in 1993, newsreading and writing for Classic FM. He went back to the BBC in 1994, presenting and producing for the BBC World Service.
In 1997, he took up a position as a network TV announcer with BBC TV; his voice was heard on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Choice. From 1999, he switched to the announcer’s booths at UK Gold and BBC World TV.
It was back to radio again in 2001; John became an announcer for the BBC World Service (Education Network). In 2004, he switched to presenting: initially for the English programme for China; and then in 2005, he began presenting the live, daily ‘BBC Xtra’ English programme, heard on BBC Arabic.
John tells us that he is an enthusiastic pro-European…and Finland lover!
Boccaccio, Susanna
Susanna is a former Wave FM (Blackpool) journalist who moved to Border Television as an in-vision continuity announcer. She later became a producer/presenter at Border Television. In the mid-1990s, Susanna was also an in-vision announcer at UK Gold.