O’Hara, James

James was a graduate of Manchester and Aberdeen universities. He joined BBC Scotland as a radio/TV announcer in 1977, having spent a number of years at Grampian TV as a presenter/announcer.

He perhaps holds a little place in presentation history for two reasons:

• he was the first BBC Scotland announcer to use the COW (Computer-Originated World) globe in 1985 – as a result, he started his shift in the early evening calling the channel “BBC Scotland” but changed the name back to “BBC 1 Scotland” when the new ident appeared at 7pm;
• he’s also quite possibly the last BBC announcer to have uttered the phrase “trade test transmission” – this was on a Saturday afternoon in 1987 when BBC Two Scotland closed down between the Open University and coverage of a Scottish party conference.

James worked in BBC Presentation during the period where announcers also presented the TV news in-vision.

James left BBC Scotland Presentation in 1989. He went freelance and moved to Leeds. He worked for BBC North East and BBC West Yorkshire FM (now known as BBC Radio Leeds).

In 1994, he was one of three audio describers in a television trial called Audetel. This provided audio description to blind and partially sighted viewers. The trial led to the inclusion of AD in the 1996 Broadcasting Act and the 2003 Communications Act.

From 1999, James was managing editor of the Deluxe’s audio description department and continued to work as an audio describer on television programmes and films.

He retired in 2016.

James passed away on 14th July 2024. His funeral mass took place at St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen on Friday 2nd August 2024.

Personal information

Clips of James on The TV Room

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Online presence

Acknowledgements