British and Irish TV talent
ITV 1 - Meridian Presenters
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Former 'Central News' (South) reporter and presenter. Cathy also presented the news on the now defunct satellite broadcaster BSB in 1990. She currently presents and reports for 'Meridian Tonight'.
(Formerly Gytha Hutton). Gytha started off as a trainee journalist on the Surrey Herald Newspaper in 1984. She freelanced for the Sunday Express and Sunday Mirror before joining the Evening Post at Reading. She was later headhunted for County Sound radio in Guildford.
In 1990, Gytha moved on to Thames TV in London where she co-anchored 'Thames News' with Andrew Gardner, covering many major events such as the Marchioness disaster and IRA bombings.
When Thames lost it's franchise, she moved to Meridian Television in Newbury where she did presenting and reporting. She left at the end of 2000 to live in Brisbane, Australia, where she still does radio reports for a New Zealand radio programme and runs a photography business, covering real estate, weddings, portraits and business.
Hobbies: gym, tennis, TV, news and reading.
Image courtesy of Andrews Photography.
Ian presents the pan regional bulletins for Meridian within GMTV and the South opt-out bulletins late morning and at lunchtime.Felicity started in radio in 1991; in 1994, she went freelance as a journalist, offering her services to various TV and radio companies.
In 1996, she moved to Meridian TV, where she was a sports reporter and presenter, fronting the sports news on 'Meridian Tonight. She also presented the local football programme there - 'A406'.
In 1999, she moved to London and became a presenter and reporter with 'London Tonight'.
Felicity joined ITV News in June 2001, starting as a sports correspondent. She later became a regular sports news presenter. Felicity also presented on the ITV News Channel and fronted ITV News bulletins on an occasional basis.
From September 2006, Felicity has been an anchor on Al Jazeera International.
Paul is a sports presenter on 'Meridian Tonight'.
Sports reporter with Southern Television (1974 - 1981) who moved over to TVS. He became the main sportscaster on the station when previous incumbent Fred Dineage was elevated to main anchor of the South edition of 'Coast To Coast' around 1984. David is now a presenter with Sky Sports, which he joined in 1993 after a spell as a freelance presenter for ITN, Channel 4 and Meridian Broadcasting.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
Sports reporter/presenter Enda Brady joined Meridian in Newbury in March 1999, having previously been a BT Young Journalist Of The Year at the Yorkshire Evening Post in Leeds. Originally from County Wexford in the Republic of Ireland, he now lives in the Oxford area.
Nigel began his TV career with TVS in 1984, reporting and presenting news bulletins. He was the first TV reporter on the scene of the Hungerford massacre in 1987. Gunman Michael Ryan, who killed 16 people, was still firing shots as Nigel and his crew arrived in the town.
In 1993, when Meridian took over the franchise, Nigel began freelancing for them and later set up a production company. He now makes corporate films and still freelances for Sky, ITV and the BBC.
Website
Central TV news reader in the East Midlands who took over from Nick Owen when he left for TV-am in 1983. After a period presenting on national BBC daytime television, Andy moved to Meridian Broadcasting in 1993 to front the company's Thames Valley edition of 'Meridian Tonight'.
Andy started his broadcasting career with Metro Radio in Newcastle before moving to Tyne Tees Television in 1978 as a continuity announcer. He later joined the 'Northern Life' reporting and presenting team, before moving to Central.
Martyn has been an ITV national weather presenter since the early-1990s. Like most of the national presenters, he also provided local forecasts in the LWT and Carlton London region. As well as continuing to present national forecasts, Martyn now also provides weather bulletins for Meridian.Main presenter of 'Coast To Coast' (South edition) with Fred Dinenage from the late-1980s until the end of 1992. She moved to Meridian to front the Thames Valley edition of 'Meridian Tonight'. Mai, who started out on HTV Wales, has returned to the company to present the political series 'The Sharp End', and is also one of the mainstays of the 'Wales This Week' team.Presented the South East edition of 'Coast To Coast' until the end of 1992, but moved over to Meridian for a couple of years before retiring from television. Once broke down in tears live on air when dealing with a particularly harrowing news story, generating several national newspaper stories.
Veteran South of England broadcast legend with plenty of exposure to the national ITV network. Fred started out as a sports reporter and presenter on Southern, and filled the same role on TVS until he replaced Khalid Aziz as the main anchor on the South edition of 'Coast To Coast'. He was retained by Meridian, and still presents 'Meridian Tonight' to this day.
During his time with the three stations, Fred has presented several networked programmes, including wrestling for ITV Sport, 'Gambit' (Anglia), 'How' (Southern/TVS) and 'Vintage Quiz' (TVS). He also used to stand in for Dickie Davies on 'World Of Sport'.
Fred has also written a book about the Kray twins - they approached him to author it after watching him on the box and deciding that they liked the cut of his gib. Fred presented the final programme on TVS, 'Goodbye To All That' and has fronted several specials for successors, Meridian.
Sports anchor and reporter for TVS and now Meridian's main sports presenter. Gareth often hosts the Saturday afternoon news and sports bulletin.
Long time presenter of 'Scene South East', Southern's weekly news magazine for the South East part of its region, broadcast from the Dover studio. In 1977, the programme spawned a spin-off, 'Scene Midweek'.
Mike remained with TVS after the 1982 changeover, on the sports team, and with colleague Veronica Charlwood presented an equestrian series, 'Horses For Courses'. Currently, Mike is a freelance sports reporter for Meridian Broadcasting's South East region.
Image courtesy of Nic Ayling.
One of the main presenters of 'Meridian Tonight' in the South East, sitting in the chair vacated by Alison Holloway in the mid-1990s. Previously, Sandy was a reporter/presenter for TVS.Kate started her broadcasting career as a reporter with BBC Radio Oxford before moving to ITN as a trainee journalist in 1994. She then moved to 'Central News' as a production journalist, reporter and news presenter. In 1995, Kate joined Meridian Broadcasting, and spent two years as one of the main presenters of 'Meridian Tonight'. After leaving Meridian, she has presented for BBC News 24 and Sky News. She currently is a main presenter and news reader for GMTV.
David's journalistic career began in 1972 as a reporter with F. Johnston newspapers. In 1976, he moved into broadcasting, becoming a reporter and news reader with Radio Forth in Edinburgh. He moved to BBC Scotland in 1978, where he was a reporter and presenter. In 1981, he took up a similar position with Scottish Television.
In 1986, David moved to ITN as a reporter. The newly launched Sky News beckoned in 1989, where he was an anchorman and foreign correspondent. From 1996 until 1998 he worked as a freelance PR consultant/broadcaster. Since 1998, David has been working as a presenter/reporter with ITV Meridian.
Among his career highlights: covered the Tiananmen Square uprising; based in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for three months covering 'Desert Shield'; covered the fall of the Berlin Wall; based in New York and Washington covering AIDS-related stories; as an anchorman, he has covered countless 'live' breaking news stories from the studio - sometimes for hours on end.
Awards: Royal Television Society award for a series of reports on the spread of AIDS; TRICS award for an investigation into AIDS; Metropolis Prize (Paris) for best documentary (heroin addiction); Broadcast Journalist of the Year and Campaign of the Year - Shepherd Neame awards; BT award for regional journalism.
Other information: in 2008, David set up his own PR company - Glencorse Communications Ltd, based in London. He offers consultancy - including crisis management and media training - to a diverse range of clients.
David is married to Penny McDonald, managing director of Europe's biggest and most successful showbiz/music PR agency, the Outside Organisation.
Natalie's career started off in newspaper journalism with The Staines and Egham News and Surrey Herald. She then moved into broadcasting, joining County Sound in Guildford.
Television was next; Natalie was a news reporter at TVS and then Meridian. She went on to become a presenter on 'Meridian Tonight'.
Natalie is now a reporter with 'Anglia News' in the East of the region.
Alison Holloway started her television career amazingly young at the age of 17 as a continuity announcer and news reader at Westward Television. She was soon poached by HTV West in Bristol, at first joining the company as a reporter/presenter, but eventually graduating to co-anchor HTV News with veteran news reader Bruce Hockin.
Holloway remained with the station through most of the 1980s, combining her news duties with presenting many other local programmes for HTV West, including the 'Good Neighbour Show' and the networked 'Animal Express'. She left to join the newly-formed Sky News as one of its main presenters, but didn't stay for long, and for a while kept a low profile.
She re-emerged in 1993 as co-presenter of 'Meridian Tonight' from Maidstone, but after a short while left the company and the country for a new life in Los Angeles, where she still now lives. She was briefly married to comedian Jim Davidson, having met him whilst interviewing him for the entertainment slot on 'HTV News'. A whirlwind romance and wedding followed, but the marriage soon ended in acrimony, well documented by the tabloid press.
Gemma is an ITV regional weather presenter.
Natasha has an Oxford degree in English and after leaving university worked as part of Neil Kinnock's advisory team. She joined Meridian TV in 1997 and after a spell reading the breakfast bulletins for the South East, rapidly moved to a main presenter's role on 'Meridian Tonight', the station's evening news programme from Southampton.
In 1999 she joined LNN to present 'London Tonight' alongside Alastair Stewart. She also presented the daytime version of the programme 'London Today' as well as LWT's live Sunday morning current affairs programme 'Seven Days'.
In 2000, Natasha moved to Sky to host 'Live At Five' for Sky News. The BBC was the next stop in 2002, where she replaced Sophie Raworth on 'Breakfast'.
In 2004, Natasha took part in the BBC 'Strictly Come Dancing' programme. She and dancing partner Brendan Cole went on to win the competition. She co-hosted the second series of the programme with Bruce Forsyth.
March 2005 and Natasha is named Newcaster Of The Year at the TRIC awards (Television and Radio Industry). In August 2005 she married investment banker Justin Bower.
Natasha moved to the BBC 'Six O'Clock News' in Autumn 2005 replacing Sophie Raworth who had gone on maternity leave. In spring 2006, Natasha was confirmed as a permanent presenter on the programme, following the announcement that Sophie Raworth was to move to the 'One O'Clock News' on her return from maternity leave, taking over from Anna Ford who retired from news presenting in April 2006.
Reporter and news bulletin presenter for Meridian in Southampton, who joined the station from Westcountry Television.
A former naval man, Ron fronted the weather for Southern (1980 - 1981) and went on to become one of the most popular presenters on TVS in the South East. A placid, yet charismatic TV natural, Ron would often mention in forecasts his daytime visits to schools across Kent, East Sussex and Essex where he would talk to the young ones about, well what else, the weather.
According to the TVS book 'Coast To Coast', Ron was the first television weatherman in the UK to use the term 'celsius'. It was also Ron who coined the phrase 'chill factor' apparently.
During the summer he would often present forecasts well away from the studios, either at the beach or famous landmarks like Leeds Castle. During the early years of TVS he would present forecasts from his trusty 'toblerone' - a triangular shaped revolving board. In 1987 Ron was given the chromakey, high-tech treatment.
On 'Meridian Tonight' he would often present forecasts from the comfy seated area used more often for interviews. Like Brucie or Barrymore he had his own set phrases - 'bronzy, bronzy' for the summer months, while in the depths of winter viewers would be warned to 'throw another blanket on the bed'. For the summer equinox he would melancholically comment 'downhill all the way to Christmas'. Ron is now retired from TV.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
Since her broadcasting career started in the late-1980s, Sarah has worked for many national and local TV outlets in the UK. A lot of her work is done on a freelance basis.
Career highlights include: presenter/reporter, 'BBC Newsroom South East' (1991 - 2001); anchor, 'Meridian Tonight' (1998 - 2000); news reader, GMTV (2000/2001); anchor/business presenter/reporter, Sky News (2000/2002/2003/2006); business presenter/reporter, BBC News 24 (2001 - 2003).
A more detailed treatment of Sarah's career can be found at her website - link below.
Website
Saima studied politics at the University of Birmingham and also has a post-grad in Broadcast Journalism. She has worked for BBC Radio WM, BBC Greater Manchester Radio and the BBC World Service. Her TV credits include producer/reporter/presenter at Meridian TV, reporter for Sky News and Five News, and presenter with BBC 'Points West'.
Saima is currently working with ITV News as a presenter on the 'ITV Morning News'.
Kevin started his career as a traffic news broadcaster for AA Roadwatch in Cardiff, and was head-hunted by BBC TV Wales as a news presenter. He later moved to HTV Wales as one of several main presenters for the local news programme there.
After moving across the Severn to Bristol, he stayed with HTV West's 'HTV News' for five years, but the programme changed its presenter line-up in autumn 2001. He went on to become a regular presenter for HTV West's 'Out of Order' consumer programme, and also presented news bulletins on Sky News and Meridian, as well as hosting his own Saturday morning show on Somerset's Orchard FM.
In August 2002, Kevin Owen moved to Jersey based Channel Television as one of the main anchors of the nightly 'Channel Report' programme.
Kevin is currently a presenter with news channel Russia Today.
Career outline:
BBC 'Wales Today' - presenter (1988 -1995).
BBC Radio Wales - breakfast (1988 - 1995).
HTV 'Wales Tonight' - co-presenter (1995 - 1996).
Soundwave (Swansea) (1995 - 1996).
HTV 'West Tonight' - co-presenter (1996 - 2001).
Swansea Sound (1996 - 1997).
Orchard FM (Taunton) (1996 - 2001).
Sky News - presenter (2001 - 2002).
'Channel Report' - co-presenter (2002 - 2004).
Sky News - presenter (2003 - 2005).
BBC World Service 'World Briefing' (2004 - 2006).
RT (Moscow) - anchor (2005 - present).
Former TVS reporter and presenter in the South East who moved to Newbury, Berkshire, to become one of the main presenters of the Thames Valley edition of 'Meridian Tonight'. More recently, fronted the 'Lunchtime Live' edition of the programme with Andy Craig.Andy Steggall joined TVS in the mid-1980s as a Southampton based sports reporter and presenter, and later co-presented 'Ski Tips' with Liz Wickham.
Andy also worked for the 'Channel 4 Daily' and moved from TVS to GMTV as their sports presenter. He then moved on to Meridian in 1994. Andy now presents 'Meridian Tonight' sport, and anchors the main programme when Fred Dinenage is away. He has been a BT sports journalism award winner five times in seven years and was nominated for Royal Television Society awards in 2002 as a presenter and documentary maker.
Joined TSW as co-host of 'Today South West', presenting the very first programme with veteran anchorman Ken MacLeod. Kerry soon left the job, and her seat was filled by Merryn Longfoot. Kerry went on to newsread for TVS in Maidstone and Thames Television in London (1988/1989), and now presents for Meridian Broadcasting.
TVS announcer who later joined LWT just as in-vision announcing was being phased out in the early-1980s. Glen remained with LWT until October 2002. From 2002 to 2004, he was a freelance announcer at ITV 1. He has also presented for 'Meridian News' in the South East, Sky Television, and on several satellite travel and shopping channels.
Glen has worked at a number of radio stations: he was a member of the launch team at Severn Sound in Gloucester in 1980; GWR in Wiltshire; Mercia Sound in Coventry; host of the breakfast show on Kents Invicta FM during the late-1980s and early-1990s, gaining some of the highest audience figures in the stations history.
Glen runs his own audio production studio in Kent and produces work for a variety of independent companies and corporate clients.
Website
Presenter, BBC Southampton's 'South Today', 1984 - 1986. BBC TV News - home reporter, 1986 - 1987 and national news reader, March 1987 until February 1988.
Later she presented BBC TV's 'Songs Of Praise' and BBC Radio 4's 'You And Yours', 1988 - 1991.
Debbie's was the first face to be seen on Meridian on January 1 1993, when she hosted the station's inaugural programme, 'Meridian: The First Ten Minutes', standing in front of Winchester Cathedral just after midnight. She has also presented on BBC Radio 2, and currently co-hosts the Southampton edition of 'Meridian Tonight' with Fred Dinenage.
Replaced Trevor Baker as the TVS weatherman in the late-1980s and went on to forecast for Meridian Broadcasting's 'Meridian Tonight'.
Trevor retired from his weather presenting role at Meridian in summer 2002. He was replaced by Gemma Humphries.
Since January 2004, Jonathan has worked as a news presenter for the BBC World Service. He has regularly presented the 'BBC World News', 'The African News' and programmes such as 'From Our Own Correspondent'.
Jonathan started in television in the early-1990s, working for the PBS station in Seattle (KCTS Television), presenting programmes and documentaries; he was also the main promotional voice of the station. After training as a news writer at Worldwide Television News, Jonathan presented various WTN documentaries, including the environmental series 'Earthfile' and a five hour programme about Nigeria.
For c. six years, Jonathan worked for ITV. Most of his time there was spent at HTV West as a news presenter and announcer (1994 - 1998). He presented the channel's lunchtime news, morning bulletins and the popular late news programme at 10.30pm.
Jonathan presented the weather for Meridian (1992 - 1993); he was also an announcer there and at HTV Wales (1993). He also presented on the Sky News overnight service for a period.
Website
Tyne Tees Northern Life co-presenter who joined TVS as a continuity announcer and news reader in the late-1980s. Jane went on to present for Meridian in the south.
