Hall, Deborah

Deborah Hall launched her broadcasting career with the BBC in November 1985.

Hall worked for twelve years as a presenter, appearing on regional news programmes including London Plus (BBC One, 1987 – 1989) and Newsroom South East (BBC One, 1989 – 1992).

She also fronted Business Breakfast (BBC One, 1990).

Deborah transitioned to freelance work and became a presenter with Anglia TV, where her credits include Help, a Tuesday evening infotainment series (January 1992 – December 1994).

Deborah anchored news programming on BBC World for six years until December 1997.

In addition to news broadcasting, she appeared as a newsreader in the critically acclaimed BBC One drama State of Play and in Screen One: The Accountant (1989). She portrayed a reporter in Troublemakers (1990) and Comics (1993).

From April 1986, Deborah worked as a business presenter for the Unipart Group. Her presenting portfolio also encompassed work on Vision and GSTV for BT (1993 – 2011).

Since 1995, Deborah has established herself as a presentation and media skills trainer and conference facilitator.

Correspondence

Paul R. Jackson corresponded with Deborah in April 2022 and asked about her career.

“The BBC was a terrific springboard for me – I went straight in from school on a secretarial course after A-levels, and worked my way up and through the corporation, using the attachment system.

“So that was a wonderful grounding. I worked with some very talented directors in Schools Radio, BBC Radio Drama and in TV – I use all the tips I gleaned in the courses I run now.

“Incidentally, I began my broadcasting career as the presenter of the South East News on BBC Breakfast.

“My first bulletin was 5th November 1985!

“Frank Bough was the main presenter and he was genuinely very kind. On my first day he told me to act like a swan – i.e., be calm and graceful on the surface, while paddling like crazy underneath.

“He advised me to be sure not to let the paddling show! I’ve never forgotten his advice, nor his support on that scary first morning.”

What have you been doing since leaving TV?

“I now present TV programmes for businesses and I am a very experienced conference chair, having presided over 100 conferences, mainly for legal firms and the insurance market.

“When the pandemic struck, I moved all my coaching online as there was an ideal opportunity to teach people how to have presence on camera on their Zoom and Teams calls. I can see that continuing indefinitely, alongside the courses I run in person.

“I’m still presenting corporate programmes now – in fact I’ve been the anchor on Grapevine, a monthly news update for Unipart, since April 1986!

“The key clients are Durham Business School and London Business School, for whom I’ve been running training programmes in Personal Impact for some years.

“I am also the media consultant on the scientific side of the WHO/Gates Foundation programme to vaccinate the world’s poor, training over 1,200 delegates from 92 countries since 2000, with particular emphasis on addressing vaccine hesitancy post-Covid.”

Personal information

Clips of Deborah on The TV Room

Deborah 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):

Rewind | Clean Feed

Online presence

Acknowledgements