Born in 1929, Vera worked as an actress in the theatre and began her broadcasting career in Children’s Hour on BBC Radio in Manchester (1948 – 1954), working with Violet Carson and Uncle Mac, before going for an audition for BBC Children’s Television in London.
…Kendall, Kenneth
Born in India, Kenneth was educated at Felsted School and Oxford, where he gained a degree in modern languages. He was a school master and later captain in the Coldstream Guards during World War II. He was injured on D-Day.
…Yates, Alastair
Alastair was a broadcaster whose career spanned four decades. He was born and brought up in Burton-upon-Trent.
…Newmarch, Duncan
Duncan joined Grimsby Hospital Radio in 1990. He has a commercial radio background, having worked for Lincs FM (Lincolnshire), Invicta FM (Kent) and Trax FM (Yorkshire), where he presented the breakfast show.
…Coia, Paul
Born in Glasgow, Paul’s ambition was to become a dentist but as his exam results were, as he puts it “underwhelming”, he instead attended the University of Glasgow and Paisley College of Technology to do a BSc degree course.
…Brinton, Tim
Tim was educated at Summer Fields, Eton and went to the University of Geneva. After National Service, he trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama and in the early 1950s he joined the BBC as a radio announcer.
…Wartnaby, David
David is currently one of the voices of Channel 5.
…Doyle, Bernadette
Bernadette was a relief continuity announcer at RTÉ in the late-1960s. She was also a teacher.
Maxwell, Raymond
Raymond was an announcer/newsreader with UTV from the late-1960s. He later moved to RTÉ in Dublin, where he was one of the announcers appearing during the opening night of RTÉ 2. He was accompanied at the launch of RTÉ 2 by fellow announcers Bernadette Ní Ghallchóir and
Róisín Harkin.
Finnerty, John
John was an announcer on both RTÉ TV channels from the mid-1980s. In the early 1990s, he moved across to the newsroom to present TV and radio news bulletins. John was one of the main presenters of the RTÉ One One o’Clock News from 2005 until his retirement in June 2017.
Crowley, Sharon
Sharon joined RTÉ in 1979. She was a continuity announcer on RTÉ 2 from the early to mid-1980s.
Leonard, Aidan
Aidan joined the RTÉ TV continuity announcing staff in 1994, and worked mainly on RTÉ One. This was in addition to presenting his 2FM radio shows. Aidan left the TV job within a year or so.