Stableford, Howard

Howard was born in Poynton, Cheshire and grew up in Preston. He graduated from Durham University in 1980 with a degree in geography.

In 1981, he joined BBC Radio Lancashire and later worked at BBC Radio Northampton (1982 – 1984).

He joined CBBC, where he presented Puzzle Trail (1983), Jigsaw (1984), Beat the Teacher (1984) and Newsround (1984).

He took part in the CBBC panto Aladdin and the Forty Thieves (1984). The same year, he auditioned unsuccessfully for Blue Peter.

Howard attended Newsround’s 50th anniversary event on 31st March 2022.

He is probably best remembered for presenting the long-running science series Tomorrow’s World (1985 – 1997).

He co-presented a special 90-minute Tomorrow’s World Live: For One Night Only on BBC Four in November 2018. alongside former colleagues Maggie Philbin and Dr Hannah Fry.

He later worked for BBC Radio 4, the Open University, Granada TV and NBC.

He was President of the UK’s Institute of Patentees and Inventors (1992 – 1997).

He now lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.

Correspondence

Paul R. Jackson corresponded with Howard in May 2022.

How did you get your first television job with CBBC – was it advertised or did you approach them?

“Swap Shop was over and Children’s BBC, as it was called then, was gearing up for the next Saturday morning show – Saturday Superstore.

“They decided to do the first outside broadcast from Northampton with Keith Chegwin and hook up with a BBC Local radio presenter. I was that presenter.

“Keith was wonderfully generous and said ‘there are parts in the script where we do things together but you can do them on your own if you like.’ I jumped at the chance.

“Got noticed by other BBC Children’s producers who were watching the first edition of SS and they contacted my boss Mike Marsh, asking if I would be interested in doing more BBC kids telly.”

What was it like working on the CBBC panto as one of the thieves and did you meet many of the CBBC presenters or did you all record sections separately?

“It was great fun. I remember working with Nick Witchell (Newsy in the Panto) and thinking it was generous of him to do that since he was already an established grown up news reporter.

“Ian Oliver was the producer/director I think and he directed me on Beat the Teacher.

“The Panto was set around Ed the Duck whose creator was a BBC Children’s production assistant.”

What was it like joining such a legendary programme as Newsround – any major stories that you recall presenting?

“I have just been to the Newsround 50 years reunion party in London.

“My goodness, Newsround taught me so many things. Most importantly I think, how to write for a television audience.

“The skills I learned there later served me well in telling complicated science stories to a general network audience on TW.”

“My favourite memory is telling the story of the anniversary of the allied bombing of Dresden in WW2. Awful for the people of Dresden of course and I found a phrase that said ‘A night that will always be remembered as the night of The Devil’s Tinderbox.’  I decided that would be my climactic sentence.”

“However, I recorded ‘A night that will always be remembered as the night of The Devil’s Thunderbox’! It was a recorded piece and we were in the Newsround office watching the show go out live. There was an awkward hushed silence and the show’s producer just glared at me!

“John Craven and I became good friends. It was he who introduced me to Judith and TW.”

You made the transition to “adult/grown-up” TV quite quickly – was it a conscious decision to move on so quickly after only a few years?

“On Newsround, JC’s right hand man, reporter Paul McDowell always said to me ‘If the opportunity arises move into adult TV. You can’t stay too long in Children’s.

“I was very lucky. In one golden year (1985) I was asked to take a bigger role in SS, invited to be a BP presenter (when Michael Sundin left), separately to take on the main role in Newsround and invited to join the TW team.

“The latter was grown up telly, so that’s what I did after auditioning and being selected.”

How did you get the job on Tomorrow’s World and did you always have an interest in science and technology? Was it a hard decision to leave after 12 years and what did you do after leaving the programme?

“The first part of this question is answered above. My degree had elements of science and technology in it and I was familiar with much of the language. TW was also my dad’s favourite programme growing up, so I knew it well.

“After 12 years I found myself repeating stories, I felt I had already done.  I had also ‘survived’ three changes in editor (the boss). In 1997, the pressure was on to transform the show as it approached the millennium. So it was the right time for me to leave and the BBC wanted a fresh presenter line-up in any case.

“After TW, I worked for the BBC natural history unit on TV and radio and hosted a wonderful Sunday live TV show with Cheryl Baker called The Eleventh Hour.  I presented a Channel 4 TV show called Extremes, in which I traveled the world visiting the hottest/coldest wettest/driest and other extremes!”

What was it like being asked back to help co-present the TW special in 2018?

“Wonderful!  Exec Producer Jackie Smith and I had worked together when she was a fresh out of Oxford, fluent Russian speaking assistant producer on the TW Siberia Special.

“We traipsed across Siberia together. She invited me to co-host with Maggie, who has always remained a great friend. We talk all the time on social media.

“I was worried that a 90-minute special would be too much to learn with very little time to prepare, but Jackie had our back.

“We invited the scientists in to talk about their work which we never used to do on TW.

“Judith also appeared along with Peter Snow who replaced me in 1997. We all had a great time. We used the BBC Glasgow studios for the show and former TW producers in London came up to join in.

“If only they would do more!!”

When did you move to the States and what are you doing now?

“I moved to the States in 1999. I first of all worked for the Denver NBC news station covering technology for them. Now I work in Leadership Development working closely with an organisation called The Center for Creative Leadership.”

Finally, do you have any memories/anecdotes from your time working at CBBC?

“At some point I will write a memoir full of anecdotes.

“I will say my days doing Jigsaw with Adrian Hedley and Julia Binsted were some of the funniest working days of my life. I used to come home aching from laughing so much with Adrian and the crew.

“I was the voice of Biggum, Gregory Growlong the Gardener, one of the singing Alphabetties, other characters and of course the voice of Jig for a couple of seasons. What a life!!

“Clive (Doig) was fundamental to my career. Not just Jigsaw, but he wrote Puzzle Trail and Beat the Teacher. I am immensely grateful to him for trusting me with his creations.”

 

Personal information

Clips of Howard on The TV Room

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