Downie was a BBC TV national weather forecaster (1956 – 1958). He died in 1979.
Flood, Pamela
Pamela is a former Miss Ireland and was an in-vision announcer on RTÉ Network 2 from the late-1990s. She went on to present a late-night programme strand on RTÉ One in early 2000, appearing in-vision.
Pamela left RTÉ in early 2001 but returned c. 2003 to co-present RTÉ One’s fashion show, Off the Rails.
Fogarty, Noel
Noel was an announcer on RTÉ One and RTÉ Network 2 from 1988 until the mid-1990s. He also worked as a newsreader on RTÉ 2FM during 1992.
C. 1994, Noel spent a year fronting the in-vision junctions on RTÉ One’s daytime service; these segments included interviews with studio guests on a wide range of topics. He also worked on the RTÉ daytime magazine programme Live at 3, filling in for Derek Davis once a week for one year.
In 1997, Noel moved to the Irish News Network (INN), presenting radio news bulletins. In January 2005, he was appointed evening editor at INN.
Baird, Brian
Long-serving Ulster Television announcer and newsreader. Brian was a regular face on the station during the 1970s and well into the 1980s. He retired from this role c. 1986. He was also a teacher and lecturer at Stranmillis Teacher Training College and a former president of the Ulster Society of Rugby Football Referees.
Brian died in December 1998 after a long illness. He was 69.
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.
…Bagguley, John
Southern Television presenter and in-vision continuity announcer in the 1960s.
…Oldfield, Valerie
Valerie was an Anglia Television and Tyne Tees Television in-vision continuity announcer in the 1960s. She also presented the Anglia children’s programme Afternoon Club (1960 – 1963).
Harrison, Keith
Keith worked at BBC Radio Cleveland in the late-1970s, including presenting the early morning show On the Move (1978).
…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.
…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.
Hookey, Russell
Russell moved to Channel TV from the Chrysalis Group in London where he had been newsreading on London radio stations Heart 106.2 and LBC 97.3 (often heard as a regular member of Sandi Toksvig’s team) and also presenting on LBC News 1152. Prior to that he worked in commercial and BBC radio in the regions for more than twelve years as a newsreader, producer and reporter and occasionally popped up covering stories for television with BBC South Today.
At Channel TV, Russell was initially a stand-in presenter on Channel Report; he later became one of the programme’s regular presenters. He also provided continuity announcements at Channel TV.
Russell later moved to ITV Border, where he presented bulletins and filled in on the main Lookaround programme.
Austin, Mark
Mark was a BBC TV sports reporter (1985 – 1986) before joining ITN in October 1986 as a sports correspondent. His first assignments for ITN were to cover England’s successful Ashes tour of Australia, as well as the America’s Cup.
He stayed for four months in Australia and unexpectedly found himself reporting on the extraordinary Spycatcher trial.
He has covered all the major sporting events for ITN, including the Olympics, Wimbledon, the British Open and Rugby internationals.
In 1995 he was seconded to ITV to report from South Africa on the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Since joining ITN he has specialised in covering foreign events, travelling all around the globe. Based in Hong Kong in 1993 as Asia correspondent, he returned in 1996 (until 1998), reporting on major events in the region, including the handover of the island to the Chinese in July 1997.
From 1994 until 1996 he was based in Johannesburg as Africa correspondent. He returned to London in mid-1998 and from 1999 he was a special/senior correspondent. He was an occasional newscaster of weekend news bulletins on ITV and the ITN News Channel in August 1998 and again from October 1999.
In May 2001 he presented ITV’s reality game show Survivor.
In 2004, Mark became a regular face in the newscaster’s chair. He took over from Sir Trevor McDonald as the main anchor of the late-night weekday news programme on ITV in December 2005.