Long-standing UTV presenters, Frank Mitchell and Ken Reid today retired from their respective roles with the station.
…Gaynor Barnes and John Shires exit ITV News Calendar
Gaynor Barnes and John Shires have presented their final edition of ITV News Calendar.
…Arthur, Toni
Toni was born Antoinette Alice Priscilla, in Oxford. She won a music scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of nine and gave a concert at the Wigmore Hall in the same year. She trained as a nurse at University College Hospital. She was a folk music singer and was married to fellow musician Dave Arthur (1963 – 1977). They released several folk music albums (1964 – 1975).
…Buchan, Josephine
Josephine was born in London in 1955. She presented various programmes for the BBC, including: Take Two (BBC One, 1984 – 1985); Pebble Mill at One (BBC One, 1984 – 1986); Rock Around the Clock (BBC Two, 25th August 1984); A Song for Christmas (BBC One, 1985). She was a reporter for Did You See…? (BBC Two, 1985) and Off the Record (BBC Two, 1985), and guest-supported on Best of Brass (BBC Two, 1986). She also appeared on Canned Carrot (BBC One, 1990).
…Cowan, Barry
Barry Cowan was one of the leading faces of BBC Northern Ireland news and current affairs during the worst of The Troubles in the 1970s and 1980s. He was much-respected by broadcast colleagues and by politicians. Born in Coleraine, County Derry/Londonderry, Barry was educated at Ballymena Academy and graduated in physics from Queen’s University, Belfast. His broadcasting career began in the early 1970s with the BBC, where he was a studio manager. But the man who would eventually become a formidable on-air talent quickly moved into reporting and presenting. In 1974, he became the main anchor on BBC Northern Ireland’s flagship current affairs/news programme, Scene Around Six.
…Coverdale, Frances
Frances was born in London. She is a former newspaper journalist.
…Priestland, Gerald
Gerald was educated at Charterhouse and New College, Oxford. He joined the BBC in 1949 as a news sub-editor. He spent his first six months on a contract, writing obituaries.
…Chalmers, Judith
Judith was born in Stockport, Cheshire. Her sister Sandra (Sandy) Chalmers also performed on Children’s Hour for BBC Manchester and later worked in London as editor of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Judith began broadcasting for the BBC when she was only 13, after being selected for BBC Northern Children’s Hour by producer Trevor Hill. She presented many programmes from Manchester, including Children’s Television Club (1956) and Mainly for Women (1957).
…Thomas, Guy
Guy was born in May 1931. He was invited to join Television Wales and West (TWW) in 1959 as the first newsreader/interviewer at their newly opened Bristol studio before becoming anchorman of the nightly news magazine TWW Reports, covering Wales and the West Country.
…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.
…Hailes, Anne
Anne has been working in the media all her working life. She began her broadcasting career with BBC Northern Ireland in the 1980s, contributing to radio programmes, before establishing her own sixty-minute weekly magazine, At Home with Anne Hailes. She was also involved in programmes for the BBC World Service.
…Raworth, Sophie
Born in Surrey and after completing a degree in French and German at the University of Manchester, Sophie spent a year teaching English to teenagers in Toulouse before studying for a postgraduate course in broadcasting and journalism at City University, London.
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