Reg joined the BBC in January 1988, working at BBC Radio Stoke on Trent. He moved to London to take up a job as a BBC TV network announcer in November 1989. He voiced his first junction – on BBC Two – on 13th November.
He was the first announcer to regularly play a BBC Two ident (minus voiceover) after the clock at closedown.
Reg was on duty in NC1 Con on 7th March 1993 when Noel’s House Party was cancelled due to a bomb scare at BBC Television Centre.
He vacated the announcer’s chair so that Noel Edmonds could introduce a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Many younger viewers would’ve been familiar with the sight of NC1 Con, as it was the main base for weekday CBBC programme links (and referred to by the CBBC presenters as the Broom Cupboard).
Reg left the announcing team in 1997 and moved to a new role within Presentation, as a promo producer (1997 – 2000). He went on a BBC drama directing course and spent a year on attachment to BBC News 24.
He produced the early UK Style team for a while as well as directing TV promos for BBC Creative Services. He then went on a two-year attachment to the US as a promotions producer/director, where he produced a small team of promo-makers for BBC America (1998 – 2001).
He returned to the UK in the summer of 2001 and relocated to the BBC in Manchester, where he headed up their creative team until summer 2006. He was an RTS-nominated director at BBC Manchester.
Other roles:
- Mentoring and training APs in production value, grammar and narrative storytelling in film (2007);
- Freelance TV director and RTA award-winner (2006 – 2009);
- Viral writer/director, Hungry Wolf Films (2006 – 2010).
He left to go freelance – writing, directing and producing commercials, TV promos, corporate films and ‘viral films’ for the internet.
- Commercials director, The Mob Film Company (2009 – 2010);
- 3D director/stereographer (2009);
- 3D director/stereographer, Sky creative (2011);
- Session tutor, Ravensbourne (2012 – 2013);
- Lecturer at Confetti Media Group (2013 – 2015);
- National communications manager for AO Logistics in Crewe (October 2013 – present).
Correspondence
Paul R. Jackson spoke to Reg in April 2020.
How did you get the job at BBC Presentation?
“I was working at BBC Stoke and my first radio show was Input 946.
“In 1988, I went and did a newsreading audition at Pebble Mill – BBC Midlands Today with Sue Beardsmore. They wanted journalists at that time but it wasn’t a definite no thanks.

“I then saw an advert in The Guardian and later found out they had 4,000 people who applied. I put my audition tape together with the help of producer Mark Stewart and then promptly sent it off addressed to the wrong person and wrong address, but somehow, it landed on the desk of the right person.
“I had a six-month wait with three interviews, voice tests and two boards with Richard Straker (senior continuity announcer) on it, before finally landing the job. I then found myself sitting in Con 2 next to Cathy Stewart, who was Mark’s sister. I later trained Mark Chapman, who is now a BBC Sports presenter.
“I had six weeks training at Grafton House on elocution, before they let me loose on BBC Two – with all those posh dudes! I was too northern.
“Alan Yentob took over BBC Two in 1987 and wanted hard ‘A’s, short vowels and no glottal stops!
“Myself, Manju Malhi and Andy Taylor were the groundbreaking trio of our time. I asked if we could do more adlib closedowns on BBC Two, like messing about with the clock and becoming more stylised. I also used music from films being shown, like Apocalypse Now.”
In May 2020, after some Twitter banter between Reg and Duncan Newmarch, Reg got back in touch with former colleagues, with Paul R. Jackson’s help.
He produced a seven-minute video, featuring announcers past and present:
Interview
In March 2022 Paul spoke with Reg over a Skype call about his memories of TV Centre.
“I was renting a flat in Frithville Street, a few minutes’ walk at the back of BBC TV Centre. After one shift, Andy Taylor said why don’t I come back to his Brighton flat and have a night out.
“When we drove back the next day, we were queuing at the multi-story car park in Wood Lane and in front of his battered old Peugot was a gleaming red Jaguar. Andy momentarily nudged forward into this car but didn’t damage their car but scratched his.
“The pin-striped chap got out and said ‘don’t you know where we are and what this place is? The British Broadcasting Corporation.’ Andy quickly replied: ‘Yes – and we are ‘the broadcasters’, so who the f**k are you?’ The pin-striped accountant type meekly got back into his big Jag and drove off without another word!
“I was always nice to the commissionaires, including the famous one-armed one on the main gate. If I was on an early shift opening up Breakfast Time on BBC One or the Open University on BBC Two, they would let me park in the horseshoe and I would move it after my shift at lunchtime.
“I once found Yentob’s gold credit card in the horseshoe car park and thought I’d deliver it to him on the 6th floor. I spoke to his formidable PA and told her I had something to give him.
“I said ‘I’m one of his announcers on BBC Two’ – but she stonewalled saying leave it with her. But I thought I should hand it over personally, which I did.
“No thank you note was sent through afterwards!”
“Margaret Rushton was my Pres editor and sometimes when things went wrong, the senior engineer Reg would say matter of fact ‘shall I put the kettle on?’ as they had one in their area.”
“We always referred to the BBC Club as VT99!”
What are your memories of announcer colleagues?
“Roger Maude had a nickname (among only some of the announcers) of Private Godfrey. He was very gentle, so smooth and reminiscent of the 1970s.
“When Def II began, its editor Janet Street-Porter wanted more funky announcements. One week, when Colin Ward-Lewis was directing, the line from Manchester went down and Roger picked up a cart which when played was test card-like music and totally inappropriate.
“The following week, the production team sent down a ‘grams’ record – if a problem occurred again. It was It Takes Two by Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock – a more disco commercial track.
“There was another breakdown, and Roger put it on the turntable and started the track and I heard it in Con 1 and realised it was being played at the wrong speed and told the control room. As it was a large record, Roger thought it was a 33 speed but it was a 12″ 45 rpm record!”
“David Allan was brilliant and the consummate professional. He could switch from a chat to an announcement and back to chatting, without missing a beat.
“One shift I was taking over from him for the evening shift on BBC Two in Con 2. We were chatting when the live feed for the Leeds International Piano Festival went down and David, who was not even in the chair, leaned over to the microphone and apologised effortlessly, then carried on with our conversation.”
“Peter Bolgar – I recall there was a special VE Day concert featuring Vera Lynn from France. The satellite went down and Peter had to apologise profusely and played in the stand-by film which was a feature on racoons!
“After that incident, there was a big enquiry and the ‘stand-by’ material was carefully looked at and updated. (On that occasion it was the satellite feed that had failed – nothing to do with the BBC!)”
“Malcolm Eynon – he dealt brilliantly when the Royal Festival of Remembrance ended about ten minutes early on BBC One. He started with the rundown menu for BBC One and BBC Two, which we always had in case of breakdowns. He then went through the rest of the week with highlights from the Radio Times for every day. What a legend! He could ‘fill’ for England!”
“Richard Straker was a very English version of Ken Bruce. He loved his links and taking viewers on a journey. He really helped mentor me in the early days.
“I was on shift when Mandela was released and we had to pull out of The Antiques Roadshow (Sunday 11th February 1990). Richard was sat with me in Con 1 as I was still on my six-month probation period, but had popped back to the office.
“The next day, I was with my elderly mother helping her pay some money into the bank and she proudly announced to the queue – ‘this is my son, he stopped last night’s Antiques Roadshow‘.
“I was nearly mugged. Evil stares from queuing pensioners.”
“My favourite announcement of all time was written by Andy Taylor for Richard Straker into the last ever episode of Dallas, which was the biggest thing on UK TV at the time: ‘Now on BBC One – oil’s well that ends well.'”
“Mark Develin was this amazing South African guy that had a cut glass RP accent – with an edge of deejay – loved the guy – bit sweary off air. He was great fun to work with and so smooth on air. I used to call him ‘Slick’. He taught me how to get through the Presentation read-through – unscathed.”
“Colin Ward-Lewis was a network director in my time. He was the nicest guy and sounded like a cross between Leslie Phillips and John Le Mesurier! He would comment: ‘I say old man – can you give me 15 seconds into the 9 (news).'”
“Nick Spilman, I worked with in promotions, who knew everyone. I worked with Noel Edmonds doing his trails for Noel’s House Party and Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge. I was at a BBC party and Sir David Frost had a load of people round him and then he saw Nick and greeted him warmly. Nick introduced me as the person who produced his trails for Frost on Sunday.”
Reg talks about the regions
“You would get cue dots and a count from 30 to the opt. I liked the network directors with their loose ’10’. And counting to the opt-in: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 and 1 and cut and opt!
“‘underbirds on BBC Two now. Here on BBC One the Six o’Clock News with Michael Buerk’ or ‘ar Trek on BBC Two now. Here on BBC One the news with Richard Baker.'”
Were there any unusual nights in continuity? Any funny stories?
“On New Year’s Eve 1991, I closed down BBC Two, with the aid of a party popper. I had to have the popper checked by a firearms expert and signed off by BBC Health and Safety due to explosives in a studio environment.”
“In the con suites, there were normally two copies of certain items like the National Anthem. After a time, the carts got worn out and needed replacing. A man came to pick them up and replace them with a new version.
“One night I was in Con 1 and went to get the cart and it wasn’t there, so I popped over to Con 2 to get their copy but none was there either.
“After much discussion with the control room, I checked the grams and found a copy on vinyl. So rather relieved put it on only to find it was the long version (2 minutes 53 seconds) used for overseas ceremonials. I couldn’t pull it so had to let it play out.”

“Andy Taylor and I got on well. One evening he was on BBC One and I was on BBC Two and we decided to have some fun as he closed down about ten minutes before me.
“We had the Michael Caine film Educating Rita on the following night, so we decided that Andy would ask ‘what is Michael Caine’s real name?’ He stressed it was purely for fun and there were no prizes and that I would give the answer in ten minutes, when I closed down BBC Two.
“Unbeknownst to me, he actually asked ‘what is Cliff Richard’s real name?’ but I gave the answer ‘Maurice Micklewhite’.
“From walking from Con 2 to the Pres office, all 80 lines into TV Centre, plus all the lines from the regions, were jammed from viewers saying it was the wrong answer. Both Andy and I were sat in front of Pam Masters (head of Pres) and told off.”
“Early one morning I was self-operating BBC One and BBC Two OU and I accidently put on the wrong episode of an OU arts programme on.
“After 10 minutes, I realised it wasn’t what the title said it was about and was actually the following week’s programme. I then stopped it on air and said it was a preview of next week and showed the correct programme.



“I thought I would get into trouble, but a senior manager from the OU was watching and said he found it so funny and that I had recovered so well by saying it was a preview of the next week’s programme, that I was forgiven for my lapse in checking the correct tape.”
“When World Service Television began in 1991, we were sent to do announcements including closedowns with the National Anthem. Once I foolishly was adlibbing and suggested viewers write in with ideas – and once again I was called up to see Pam Masters.
“In her office were 18 mail sacks with around 2,500 letters/postcards. As a public service broadcaster, the BBC was duty bound to reply to each letter! I offered to pay for the replies, but they employed someone to reply and I was told not to make such a suggestion again.”
“Favourite programmes included:
- Star Trek;
- Def II;
- The Late Show;
- Arena;
- Newsnight;
- Noel’s House Party;
- The Generation Game;
- One o’Clock News with Philip Hayton;
- Nine o’Clock News;
- CBBC from Studio A and the Broom Cupboard;
- The New Adventures of Superman on BBC One Saturday evening;
- Daytime on BBC One – Open Air;
- BBC Breakfast – after Ceefax!
“We had no Dr Who for a while (the bad years).”
“I took redundancy from the BBC in 2006.”
“I look back on my days in BBC Pres with great fondness, it was an amazing era – pre-digital and Sky had only just launched. So there were only 5 national networks at the time, and we had millions of viewers to broadcast to with all the responsibility of being part of a world class standard of broadcasters. It was an honour – not just a job!”
Personal information
Clips of Reg on The TV Room
Reg 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
PICTURED: Reg Sanders (2022). SUPPLIED BY: Reg Sanders. COPYRIGHT: Reg Sanders.
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