Leeming, Jan

Jan was born Janet Atkins in Woolwich, south east London. In 1959 she joined the BBC, initially working in the Programme Correspondence Section, and then as a junior secretary in the Science Unit at Broadcasting House.

It was here that she met Talks radio producer Owen Leeming, who became a life-long friend. In the early 1960s, she took his surname by deed poll and travelled with him to his native New Zealand.

She worked as an actress touring in many theatre productions in Australia and New Zealand, including with English actor John Trevor’s Shakespeare group, The Young Elizabeth Players, (founded in 1958).

In 1963, she became known to viewers as Jan Leeming and worked as an announcer for NZBC in Wellington and at ABC in Sydney. The same year, she became the first female newsreader on television, working for Channel 10 in Sydney.

In August 1966, Jan returned to the UK and worked for temp agencies. She appeared as a French maid in the BBC One comedy series Hugh and I (13th December 1966).

She went for a newsreader audition at Granada TV in Manchester and was offered a six-month contract for four days work a week. In April 1967, she moved to Westward Television in Plymouth as an announcer, staying for about a year.

In 1968, she joined The Oxford Playhouse for a repertory season under the direction of Frank Hauser. In 1969, Jan returned to television when Tom Salmon took her on as an announcer at BBC Plymouth. She also got experience doing radio interviews.

After six months, Jan auditioned at BBC Bristol and became a presenter of children’s show Tom Tom (BBC One, November 1969 – July 1970).

In 1970, Jan joined HTV West in Bristol as the main presenter/interviewer on the twice-weekly series Women Only. She later worked as a reporter, and after a few months, became co-presenter with Bruce Hockin on Report West.

She also presented a local series called Profile, which looked at the life and work of West Country characters. She left in June 1976.

Jan returned to the BBC to co-present The Food Programme for BBC Scotland, alongside Donny B. MacLeod and Derek Cooper. She also joined the lunchtime magazine show Pebble Mill at One, broadcasting from the foyer of BBC Birmingham (BBC One 1976 – 1978).

In 1979, she got a one-year contract with BBC Radio 2 as an announcer/newsreader and met Patrick Lunt, who became her third husband in 1980.

BBC Radio 2 became a 24-hour operation and Jan was one of the presenters on the overnight show You and the Night and the Music (1979 – 1980).

On 10th March 1980, Jan made her debut as a BBC TV news presenter, having taken on a relief newsreader role on attachment from BBC Radio 2. She replaced Richard Baker who had taken three months leave.

Jan’s notable news presenting dates were:

• Bank Holiday Monday 5th May 1980: Jan was on duty for the longest ever newsflash, when the SAS ended the Iranian Embassy siege.
• 25th June 1980: first presented the Nine o’Clock News.
• June 1981: it was announced that Jan would move to weekend news programmes and News Review (BBC Two).
• 2nd January 1982: Jan famously carried on reading the news when a studio bulb exploded, shattering hot glass down on to her during the news summary within Grandstand.
• 31st August 1984: Jan presented the final edition of Evening News (it would be replaced by the Six o’Clock News the following week).
• 4th January 1986: Jan co-presented the first edition of News View (BBC Two).
• 15th February 1987: Jan was attacked and sprayed in the face with ammonia by three youths, when she disturbed them in the Newsround office on the 7th Floor of TV Centre. The incident occurred 20 minutes before she was due on air for the BBC One news at 9.10pm.
  
  Special correspondent Christopher Morris stepped in at a few minutes’ notice. Although still suffering from burns to her face, Leeming returned the following Saturday and at the end of the evening news bulletin, thanked viewers for their cards and flowers – which got her a reprimand from her bosses.
• 28th February 1987: News and Sport (BBC One) was abandoned after a few minutes when a fire alarm sounded due to a small fire at TV Centre. The bulletin restarted an hour later at 11.15pm with a short explanation about the fire at the end of the bulletin.
• 11th April 1987: Jan’s final news broadcast.

Jan presented the BBC One Christmas Day news on five occasions: 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1986. She was twice voted Newsreader of the Year by the Television and Radio Industries Club TRIC and also won the Pye Award for Television Personality of the Year in 1982.

In June 1980, Jan stepped in for the heavily pregnant Eve Pollard, to review the fashion at Royal Ascot for BBC Television Sport.

Jan appeared twice on the Royal Variety Performance: in 1982 with Esther Rantzen and Gloria Hunniford, reenacting Anything You Can Do from Annie Get Your Gun; and again in 1985, with Michael Aspel and Russell Harty reenacting Triplets from the MGM film Band Wagon.

She hosted Miss England (BBC One, 1979), Miss United Kingdom (BBC One, 1979) and the Eurovision Song Contest (1982).

Other TV credits include:

• Knitting Fashion (BBC Two, 1976);
• Zodiac and Co (BBC One South West region only, 1977);
• Chelsea Flower Show (BBC Two, 1979);
• Midlands Tonight (BBC One Midlands region, 1979);
• Seeing Stars (BBC One, 1980);
• Motor Show 80 (BBC One, 1980);
• The Boys of the Old Brigade (BBC One, 1982);
• The West in Trust (HTV);
• Craft inserts on This Morning (ITV, 1988 and 1990);
• Co-presented magazine programme The Garden Party from the Botanic Gardens, Glasgow (BBC One, 1989);
• Whatever Happened to…? (BBC One, 1993);
• Stand-in news presenter on The Big Breakfast (Channel 4, January 1996);
• Contestant on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, where she came sixth (ITV, 2006);
• Safari School (BBC Two, 2007);
• Ready Steady Cook (BBC Two, 2007);
• Cash in the Celebrity Attic (BBC Two, 2008);
• Come Dine with Me (Channel 4, 2010);
• Celebrity Five Go on Holiday (Channel 4, 2011);
• The Real Marigold Hotel (BBC One, 2016);
• Celebrity First Dates;
• The Real Marigold on Tour (BBC One, 2017 and 2019).

She was a panellist on:

• Star Turn (BBC One, 1981);
• Blankety Blank (BBC One, 1983 – 1984 and 1986 – 1988);
• Top Secret (BBC One, 1982 – 1983);
• I’ve Got a Secret (BBC One, 1984, 1986 and 1988);
• Call My Bluff (1988).

On 5th May 2019, Jan joined fellow news presenters Sue Lawley, Angela Rippon and Julia Somerville on BBC Radio 4’s The Reunion to discuss pioneering women newsreaders, with presenter Sue MacGregor.

Jan appeared in various pantomimes:

• Fairy in Robinson Crusoe at the Wimbledon Theatre, with Dennis Waterman and Rula Lenska;
• Robin Hood in Babes in the Wood at the Hexagon, Reading, with Little and Large;
• Prince Charming in Cinderella at the Princess Theatre, Torquay (1989);
• Fairy Bowbells in the Carlisle Leisure Centre’s production of Dick Whittington (2003);
• Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Theatre Royal Windsor (2006).

In 2009, Jan appeared for 10 weeks in Calendar Girls in London’s West End.

Since 2000, much of Jan’s time has been spent in corporate work and her long-time passion working with a cheetah conservation charity in South Africa.

Her autobiography Addicted to Love was published by Robson Books in 2003. Jan married five times and has one son, Jonathan, born in May 1981, who lives in Australia. She currently lives in Kent, where she is a guide at Canterbury Cathedral.

Personal information

Clips of Jan on The TV Room

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Acknowledgements