Liam was born in Cardiff. He graduated in 2002 with a BSc (Hons) Geography degree from the University of Wales in Swansea.
Two weeks before his graduation, he applied to the BBC and got the job of a BBC regional broadcast meteorologist/broadcast assistant working across a variety of regional platforms – regional BBC One and local radio (October 2002 – March 2006). He made his TV weather presenting debut in June 2003, aged 22, in his home nation and later appeared as holiday cover for other BBC TV regional presenters.
A promotion in spring 2006, saw Liam work as a BBC broadcast meteorologist across a variety of channels and platforms (BBC News, BBC World News, BBC Radios 1, 2, 4 and 5 Live), as well as online and for the red button (March 2006 – January 2007).
In January 2007, he took a nine-month break from broadcasting to study at the Met Office College in Exeter to undertake further meteorological training and completed a forecasting course. He undertook an academic course that involved four months of theoretical and five months of on-the-job training.
Liam returned to the BBC Weather in September 2007 as a BBC broadcast meteorologist (specialist forecaster/team leader) broadcasting across a variety of channels and platforms (BBC One, BBC News, BBC World News, BBC Radio’s 1, 2, 4 and 5 Live) as well as online and red button (September 2007 – November 2011).
Liam broadcast on additional programmes – The Weather Show, BBC World Service radio and made regular weekend appearances on BBC Breakfast (May 2008 – 2011).
In September 2011, it was announced that Liam would be leaving the BBC and in November 2011 he became Channel 4’s weather presenter – the first employed by the channel.
Away from weather broadcasting, Liam is musical. He learned to read music at the age of seven, whilst learning the recorder at primary school. Having mastered the recorder, he started having piano lessons at the age of eight for a period of just over a year. During this time, he also took up the trombone, but later gave it up to concentrate on the piano.
For his GCSE music exam, he played grade 5 piano pieces, despite having never sat a formal grade exam in his life. During his GCSE music course, Liam developed an interest for composing his own music. It was at this stage that he got his first taste of computer music.
Liam used to be a member of a Samba percussion band and played a huge surdo drum. He dabbled with a few other percussion instruments as well.
He is a member of PRS for music and has had his music used in television programmes on channels around the world – including Channel 4, MTV, TLC, Discovery and TV 3.
Correspondence
Paul R. Jackson corresponded with Liam in June 2018.
On which BBC channel did you make your debut in June 2003?
“My debut was on BBC One Wales in 2003, broadcasting the lunchtime and evening weather on BBC Wales Today.”
What was it like being the first weather presenter for Channel 4?
“Yes, I broadcast from the ITN studios at Gray’s Inn Road. It was really exciting and a proud moment to be the first weather presenter that Channel 4 has. Being the sole weather presenter, it gave me the opportunity and freedom to shape the Channe1 4 weather offering how I wanted – both on TV and online. It was also nice to have sociable hours – not having to work weekends, bank holidays, nights or early mornings anymore!”
Personal information
Clips of Liam on The TV Room
Liam may be featured in video/audio clips on our other websites. Click the links below to display a listing (a 404 error will appear if no clips are found):
Online presence
Acknowledgements
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