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McDermott, Helen

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Helen graced Westward TV screens in the 1970s, jumping ship in 1979 to the safer haven of Anglia Television, which she joined as a continuity announcer and newsreader. Helen was an anchor of the East edition of the company’s main evening topicality programme, Anglia News until 2001. Beyond that, she presented various other programmes for Anglia.

She was a presenter on Radio Norwich until 2010. In January 2011, she joined BBC Radio Norfolk in Norwich as presenter of the 11am to 1pm slot (Monday – Thursday). The programme was dropped in January 2012. In 2014, she took up a presenting role with Mustard TV.

Baines, Brian

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Brian Baines was a regular presenter of Look North bulletins from Leeds during the late-1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In fact, Brian was the first voice to be heard on Look North. He was also one of the main continuity announcers for BBC North TV during the 1970s and early 1980s when BBC English regions had their own continuity. He still provided continuity into local programming on BBC North until the late-1980s.

He retired from BBC Leeds on 25th April 1988. Sadly, Brian passed away on 30th June 2006, aged 75.


Austin, Craig

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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.

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Griffiths, Tracey-Anne

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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.

Bower, Colin

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Colin Bower was born in Cheltenham Spa, and took his first steps in broadcasting as a disc jockey with radio stations in Africa before embarking on a television career that would span decades.

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Badawi, Zeinab

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Zeinab’s broadcasting career began as an ITN newscaster, working on Channel 4 News (1989 – 1998). She also presented on the ITV Morning News in the 1990s and on the Channel 4 Daily in 1990.

In 1998, she joined the BBC and spent five years working on live political programmes based at Westminster. She then moved to radio, where she presented The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4 and Newshour on the BBC World Service.

In April 2005, Zeinab was announced as the new presenter of BBC Four’s news programme, The World. The programme – also broadcast on BBC World News – was rebranded as World News Today in May 2007. She continued to present the programme until 2013.

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Gower, Mike

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Mike started his broadcasting career as a radio presenter on Radio Forth in 1974. In 1979, he joined BBC Scotland as a continuity announcer. The following year, he moved over to STV where he was a continuity announcer, newsreader and sub-editor, until 1990. Mike then moved into production for STV, working as a producer/director until 1999, when he went freelance.

Mike also lectures at Napier University and Glasgow Metropolitan College.

Cassin, Anne

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Anne’s broadcasting career began in 1982 as a researcher and reporter, and later news presenter, on pirate station Radio Nova. She joined RTÉ as a continuity announcer in 1987 and became a newsreader and reporter in 1990. She was the presenter of Capital D, an RTÉ magazine series for Dublin residents. She also presented the monthly Crimecall programme. Currently, she co-presents the thrice-weekly Nationwide programme, alongside Mary Kennedy.

Lithgoe, Lynette

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Lynette started her television career as an in-vision announcer at Granada Television. She then moved to the BBC in the East Midlands as a presenter (1989) and later became a national BBC TV newsreader (February 1990 – October 1991), mostly on weekend bulletins and for BBC Two’s News View. She also presented the charity appeal programme Lifeline in the late-1980s. She left to join BBC World as a newsreader in 1991.

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Austin, Wendy

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Wendy joined BBC Northern Ireland in November 1976, fresh from her presenting duties on Downtown Radio. She joined the commercial radio station earlier in 1976, following four years as a newspaper journalist: initially with the East Antrim Times (1972 – 1974) and then the Belfast Telegraph (1974 – 1976). Wendy’s BBC career began as a TV reporter but by the 1980s, she was also presenting on Scene Around Six and later, Inside Ulster. She co-presented the BBC NI opt-outs during Children in Need and was also the face of a local supermarket chain’s advertising campaign in the 1980s.

As well as appearing on screen, Wendy was also involved with BBC Radio Ulster’s breakfast programme Good Morning Ulster, from the early 1980s. Since the late-1980s, Wendy has mostly stayed with radio. She has been one of the main presenters on BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster and between 1988 and 1998, she presented nationally on BBC Radio 4, on programmes such as PM, Pick of the Week and Woman’s Hour. However, she did pop up on TV screens occasionally – she took over from former colleague Sean Rafferty as presenter of The DIY Show.

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Baird, Brian

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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.

Hookey, Russell

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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

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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.


Baker, Peter

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During the 1980s, Peter worked at BBC West in Bristol, presenting news bulletins and filling in as co-host on the main Points West programme alongside Viv Creegor and Graham Purches.

In 1988 he moved to Granada TV In Manchester where he hosted the nightly Granada Action social information programme. He also presented the breakfast show on Key 103 radio.

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Armstrong, Fiona

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Fiona began her career as a reporter/presenter for Border Television in the early 1980s before becoming one of ITN’s main newscasters (March 1987 – 1992). She was the first co-anchor on GMTV in 1993, and later returned to Border TV as one of the anchors of the relaunched Lookaround news programme.

She also fronted a cookery series called Easy as Pie for Carlton Food Network where she demonstrated her skills in the kitchen. Fiona has also featured in a series of programmes for Granada TV on Health and Slimming. She also regularly chairs major conferences and award ceremonies.

Matheson, Rob

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Rob was a continuity director/announcer with BBC Scotland (1995 – July 2008), covering TV and radio. He was also involved in managing the transition from analogue to digital transmission systems. Currently, Rob is a news presenter and reporter for BBC Scotland TV and radio.

He has also worked as a freelance reporter at Westsound FM and presented for QFM. Other posts include: reporter for Stirling Sports Agency, Glasgow; reporter for Slough, Windsor and Eton Observer; reporter/financial editor for Drapers Record business-to-business magazine.

Prebble, Simon

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In 1960, Simon attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and began his acting career in one of Britain’s first television soap operas, Home Tonight with David Hemmings. For the next eleven years he worked extensively on radio and television and in provincial repertory theatre, including a year with Ian McKellen’s Hamlet.

After working as a continuity announcer and newsreader at Southern TV (1970), Prebble joined the newsroom at Capital Radio, the second commercial radio station in Britain, where he hosted London’s Day. He then embarked on a career as a presenter and voiceover, including thirteen years as the promo voice of Thames Television, as well as regular promo work for HTV and Anglia TV. He was also an announcer for Anglia TV. From 1984 he was the announcer for the British version of the phenomenally successful game show The Price Is Right with Leslie Crowther.

In 1990, Prebble moved to New York where he continued doing voiceover work. As well as recording numerous radio and television commercials, he also character-voiced cartoon series, such as Courage the Cowardly Dog; he hosted and presented several television documentary series, notably Target Mafia; and narrated the IMAX film Endurance about the Shackleton expedition. In 1996, he was a lead actor for a year (as villain Martin Chedwyn) on the American daily soap opera As the World Turns.

In the US, he also began narrating audio books. His work has gained him more than eighteen Earphone awards, nine nominations for the Audies (the audiobook Oscars), and in 2005, he was named Narrator of the Year by Publishers Weekly.

Apart from his acting career, in 1967 Prebble designed and produced the ‘executive toy’ called Newton’s Cradle.

In 2003, at Chiswick House London, he married Swedish graphic artist, Marie-Janine Hellstrom. In 2007, along with his wife, he became a US citizen.

Aziz, Lisa

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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).

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Barbet, Matt

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Matt trained at Cardiff’s journalism school. His first broadcasting experience was as a freelance at Red Dragon FM in Cardiff.

In 1999, he joined ITN where he spent two years working for Independent Radio News. In June 2001, Matt moved to the BBC, starting as a reporter on BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat and later moving to a newsreading role on the Sara Cox Breakfast Show. He was also a reporter for the BBC’s Liquid News.

Matt joined BBC London in 2003. He became a high-profile presenter there, fronting coverage of the July 2007 bombings from King’s Cross. In summer 2007, he made his presenting debut on the BBC Breakfast programme.

On 20th August 2007, it was announced that Matt would be joining Five News as a presenter and correspondent. His first Five News was in November 2007. In February 2011, he was announced as the new presenter of the main 5pm programme, following Natasha Kaplinsky’s departure. On 11th June 2012 came the news that Matt was to leave 5 News to join ITV’s Daybreak. His last day with 5 News was 26th July 2012. He made his debut with Daybreak on 3rd September 2012. On 3rd March 2014, ITV announced that Daybreak would be axed later in the year and replaced by a new programme, Good Morning Britain. Matt finished up with Daybreak on 4th April 2014.

Matt returned as host of 5 News on 28th April 2014. He presented the 6.30pm edition. He also presented The Cycle Show on ITV 4 (2014 – 2015) and The Saturday Show on Channel 5 (2015 – 2016).

In late-2017, Matt departed from 5 News. He presented his final edition on 15th December 2017.


Ballantine, Pamela

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Pamela’s broadcasting career started off in radio: she read the news on Downtown Radio in the early 1980s. She also presented on BBC Radio Ulster. Pamela’s first appearance on Ulster Television – as a continuity announcer – was in 1984. As part of the announcer’s role, she also read the news.

She left the announcing team around the start of the new franchise period in 1993 and went on to co-anchor the station’s main news programme. She presented the lifestyle and leisure programme UTV Life (1999 – 2009). In May 2009, Pamela returned to UTV’s continuity department, after seventeen years. As well as the announcing role, she was also a relief weather presenter. A year later, her staff contract with the station was not renewed. Press reports claimed UTV had told Ballantine that her role was no longer available and had offered her freelance work which she later accepted.

Pamela continues to freelance at the station and act in an ambassador role. Since 2016, she has presented the new incarnation of UTV Life.


Rafferty, Sean

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A familiar face on BBC Northern Ireland in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Sean was one of the main presenter on the local news programmes Scene Around Six and later, Inside Ulster.

Other TV work for BBC Northern Ireland in the 1980s/90s included arts magazines Prospect and 29 Bedford Street. He co-presented thirty editions of The DIY Show with Denise Waterman. In 1995, Sean left BBC Northern Ireland to become the presenter of BBC Radio 3’s In Tune programme, where he remains today.


Brittain, Andrew

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Andrew was an announcer with Granada from the late-1980s until the late-1990s. He was also the voice of Stars in Their Eyes. He was a daytime newsreader and also a reporter for Granada Reports. In the 1990s, Andrew also narrated some of the later World in Action documentaries. He also did voiceover work for radio commercials and corporate clients.