Colin Bower was born in Cheltenham Spa, and took his first steps in broadcasting as a disc jockey with radio stations in Africa before embarking on a television career that would span decades.
He served as a continuity announcer for TWW (Television Wales and the West) from 1958 to 1959, before joining Anglia Television at its launch in 1959 as one of the fledgling station’s first announcers and newsreaders.
During his years at the Norwich-based broadcaster, he broadened his on-screen presence to encompass interviewing for news programmes and work as a quizmaster.
Departing Anglia TV in 1964, Bower took his talents further afield, joining the overseas service of the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) as an announcer and newsreader.
Later that same year he returned to British television, moving to Tyne Tees TV in Newcastle in the role of continuity announcer and newscaster.
From 1967 to 1975, he operated as a freelance newsreader, announcer, presenter and quizmaster, lending his voice and presence to several ITV stations – among them Westward Television, Grampian TV (in the late 1960s) and Border TV – as well as to BBC outlets in Bristol and Southampton.
It was in 1975 that Bower returned to radio, playing a key role in the launch of Plymouth Sound, one of Britain’s new commercial radio stations, where he presented the breakfast programme The Sunrise Sound for eighteen months.
By 1979 he had moved to Radio Trent in Nottingham, where his duties included the nightly A Little Night Music and the Sunday afternoon Colin’s Corner.
Between 1989 and 1996, he produced and presented The Golden Years on BBC Radio Nottingham, a listener request programme devoted to the music of the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
Alongside his broadcasting work, Bower maintained a parallel career as a freelance actor, voiceover artist, narrator and public speaker.
His television acting credits include:
- The Onedin Line (BBC One);
- Warship (BBC One);
- Nanny (BBC One);
- Byker Grove (BBC One);
- Coronation Street (ITV/Granada TV, January 1988);
- Boon (ITV/Central TV);
- Emmerdale Farm (ITV/Yorkshire TV);
- Peak Practice (ITV/Central TV);
- The Tommy Cooper Show.
In 2000, he took on the role of Chesney Allen in the theatre production of The Flanagan and Allen Story.
In 2013 published his autobiography, Curtain Seldom Up – The Life and Times of An Unknown Actor, issued by My Spirit Books.
Bower lives in Nottingham with his wife, Judith, a former transmission loggist for Westward TV – the station where the couple first met.
Correspondence
Paul R. Jackson corresponded with Colin in December 2017 and asked him about the early years in Norwich.
“Anglia Television had been sold an idea that was supposed to save the company money by installing a machine known as TOPSIE (Tape Operated Precision Switching Indicating Equipment).
“The entire output of the station was placed on a reel of paper by a series of dots, by a secretary earning thirty bob a week.
“It was a disaster and drove the head of presentation quite round the bend.
“TOPSIE would roll the commercials, cut to them, cut to the announcer, then back to the programme. It had no fade control, so every new source was a blunt cut.
“If the announcer had not finished, he would be cut mid-sentence.
“One telecine operator nearly lost a finger because TOPSIE started the machine while he was lacing a reel of film.
“On one occasion Sunday Night at the London Palladium finished early, as the star singer sang only one song instead of two. The result: ten minutes of watching the back stage of the Palladium as the engineer had no control to go to another source.
“On another occasion Harry Secombe finished early in the show. Tom Marshall (Anglia chief engineer and architect of TOPSIE) just said Mr. Secombe should have sung slower!
“The whole idea of TOPSIE was to save money on control room staff. Unfortunately, TOPSIE required an extremely well-paid engineer to be on duty all the time Anglia was on the air.”
“The first person to read the news on Anglia was the head announcer, Drew Russell. A little tale about Newman Saunders.
“Sandy always had difficulty when closing the station. He would look at an imaginary clock on the studio wall and say, ‘The clock on the wall tells me…’
“Then he would ramble on only to say again looking at a different wall, ‘Now the clock on the studio wall…’
“At a civic function on one occasion, after a rather posh event, the Mayor of Norwich concluded his speech by saying, ‘The clock on the…'”
“My time with BBC Bristol, BBC Southampton, Westward Television, ATV and Grampian were when I was a freelance, usually covering holidays or sickness.
“My wife, Judith worked as a loggist and became known as Gus Honeybun’s mother. When asked, I always say when I met Judith for the first time, she had her hand up the backside of a rabbit.”
Personal information
Clips of Colin on The TV Room
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Online presence
Acknowledgements
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