Charles was born into a naval family, in Rochester, Kent. He was educated at Westminster School and joined the BBC as a finance clerk in January 1975. The following year came his ‘lucky break’ when he applied for a job as clerk to Radio 4’s The World at One and PM programmes and ended up presenting a sports round-up on the Saturday edition of PM. His first broadcast was 24th April 24 1976 and he was, in his own words “appalling”!
…Pitts, Valerie
Valerie was an actress. She was RADA-trained (1955 – 1957) and worked in the theatre initially.
…Brook, Peter
Peter had a very distinctive, deep, rich voice. He was an announcer at Southern TV (1969 – 1971) and a newsreader for BBC Norwich’s Look East.
…Mitchell, Leslie
Leslie was a BBC radio announcer (1934 – 1936) and was the first BBC TV in-vision announcer, based at Alexandra Palace (1936 – 1938). During the war, he was a regular narrator for the British Movietone News newsreel, shown in cinemas across the UK. When BBC Television opened up again after World War II, he was preoccupied with prospects in the film business. He became an interviewer on BBC TV’s Picture Parade (1946 and 1948 – 1951) and also presented Come Dancing (1950).
…Finighan, Adrian
Adrian is a Welsh journalist. He joined the BBC in 1988, working in local radio as a reporter and producer.
…Akua, Nana
Nana was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in July 1971 (as Nana Akua Amotemaa-Appiah), after her parents came over from Ghana in the 1960s. She relocated to the US with her parents, aged 11, but would later return to the UK and study business and finance at university.
…Soanes, Zeb
Zeb trained as an actor and graduated from the University of East Anglia where he was spotted by the BBC.
…Lewis, Anthony
Anthony was born in Leeds. He began acting at the age of nine, with roles in television shows including Heartbeat (1994), Cracker (1995), The Detectives (1995) and A Touch of Frost (1996).
…Jaque, Natalie
Natalie gained a degree in journalism with distinction and then backpacked around the world for a while (before the days of e-mail, iPad or mobile phone). She worked as a staff announcer with the BBC from 1997 until 2004, mainly live on BBC Two. Since March 2015, she has been a freelancing voice on both BBC One and BBC Two. Natalie was also the first female voice on BBC Knowledge and BBC Choice, and went on to become the BBC’s first freelance announcer.
…Muncaster, Martin
Martin was born in Tillington, near Petworth, Sussex and was educated at Stowe.
…Reid, Paul
Paul was born in July 1974. Before finishing university, he started working for Downtown Radio/Cool FM as a holiday relief newsreader and occasional reporter in 1997, becoming full-time by 1998 when he graduated from Bournemouth University.
…Olver, David
David was educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Belfast College of Business Studies. He joined the BBC Northern Ireland presentation team at the age of 18, in January 1978 and took up duties which included television and radio newsreading, as well as television and radio continuity.
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