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| British and Irish TV talent |
ITV 1 - TVS Presenters |
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 Keith was a news presenter with TVS. When Meridian took over the southern ITV franchise, he moved to 'Look North' at BBC North East in Newscastle.
Keith is currently a senior reporter for 'Look North'.
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 Anna-Maria Ashe was a continuity announcer at BBC Scotland, TVS and Grampian Television in the mid-1980s. She also presented lunchtime news bulletins in-vision during her time with BBC Scotland (1986). She later moved to the TVS nightly news magazine 'Coast To Coast' where she did a stint at presenting/news reading for the Southampton edition, before moving to the Maidstone programme.
Anna-Maria was replaced at Maidstone by Liz Wickham when she moved to LWT as the main anchor of 'LWT News' and 'LWT News Weekend'. She was one of the main presenters on the 'London Tonight' programme on ITV 1 until February 2004.
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 Khalid's broadcasting career began at the BBC; he was a producer at BBC Radio Leicester. He soon moved into TV and became the youngest presenter of the BBC's 'Look North' in Leeds, at the age of 24. Whilst at the BBC, he worked on various national current affairs programmes, such as 'Panorama'.
After twelve years with the BBC, he cross to TVS in 1982 to anchor TVS' 'Coast To Coast' from Southampton. He left the programme to produce documentaries in the mid-1980s, but still presented for TVS, fronting the business programme, 'Enterprise South'.
In the early days of TVS, 'Coast To Coast' viewers were treated to regular updates on this rather adorable puppy, named Coaster by viewers. He was Khalid's pet, and a regular guest in the studio, though his screen appearances ended when management decided that this sort of Blue Peter-esque escapade wasn't fitting for such a serious regional news programme.
He is currently Professor of business communications at Southampton University and also runs his own public affairs/media consultancy - The Aziz Corporation.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
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 Trevor, who worked for the Met Office from 1941 until 1962, was a veteran forecaster appearing for 30 years, briefly on BBC TV before his long association with the ITV Southern TV contractors - Southern (joined in 1962) and TVS. He retired in the late-1980s, handing over his duties to Carl Tyler. In 1981, Trevor's local popularity was acknowledged when Southern Television granted Trevor his own Saturday night spectacular, 'Trevor Baker's All Weather Show'.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
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 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.
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TVS news reporter and news reader in the South East of the region, who often stood in for Mike Debens as the anchor of 'Coast To Coast' from Maidstone.
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 Fern Britton got her first television job with Westward Television in Plymouth as an in-vision continuity announcer and news reader from 1980. In 1982 she was a presenter on BBC South West's 'Spotlight' and a year later she was a newscaster for BBC TV's 'Breakfast Time'.
She was headhunted by TVS in Southampton by new managing director Greg Dyke in 1985 and became main co-anchor of the nightly news magazine, 'Coast To Coast', with Fred Dinenage. Fern left the company in the early-1990s and was soon back on national television, standing in for Judy Finnigan on ITV's 'This Morning'. She is best known for her role as host of the hit cookery game show 'Ready, Steady, Cook', and is currently co-host with Philip Schofield of ITV's 'This Morning'.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
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 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.
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Reporter, newscaster and presenter for Southern Television (1977 - 1981) and its successor, TVS.
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Peter Clark was a hard news reporter for both Southern Television and its successor, TVS. He was also a regular news reader and made several award winning documentaries for the stations. He was also the creator, compiler and presenter of 'Complaints Box', Britain's first television consumer programme.
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Presenter/reporter for Southern's news magazines 'Scene South East' and 'Scene Midweek' who moved to TVS as a general presenter and journalist. Her work for the company included the excellent series of 'Country Ways' documentaries, 'A Full Life' and 'Afternoon Club'. Jill went on to write and present 'Country Ways' for Meridian Broadcasting.
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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.
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Long serving anchor for 'Central News' (South), who joined the station after a TV reporting/presenting career which included BBC TV South and TVS. During her time with Central and its successor Carlton, Anne has presented 'Central Post', regularly reported on 'Heart Of The Country' and presented 'Lifeline', broadcast to the whole Carlton Central region. Anne and her on-screen partner, Wes Smith, became the longest running anchor duo of any ITV region. She recently left the station to train as a teacher.
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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.
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 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.
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Reporter for TWW in Bristol and then Westward TV who moved to TVS as a news presenter and reporter, and then returned to TSW in the mid-1980s. Since then, John has popped up as a reporter and presenter on several ITV stations, including HTV West, Carlton Central South, and Carlton Westcountry. Sadly, John died in 2000.
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Sports anchor and reporter for TVS and now Meridian's main sports presenter. Gareth often hosts the Saturday afternoon news and sports bulletin.
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 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.
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 Southern and TVS reporter/presenter who left the company in the late-1980s to found Topical Television, which went on to produce 'TV Weekly' for TVS and has also produced programmes for successors Meridian Broadcasting.
Image courtesy of Nic Ayling.
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Reporter and news reader for Southern Television in the 1970s and 1980s and for its successor, TVS.
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 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.
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First presenter of the South East edition of 'Coast To Coast' starting out from Southern's old Dover studios while they waited for the completion of the Maidstone building. Vyvyan's tenure at TVS was short-lived. She married Dominic Lyle, of Tate & Lyle fame, and moved over to print journalism.
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Reporter/presenter for Southern Television (1970 - 1981) and then TVS. Often co-anchored 'Coast To Coast' and presented lunchtime and late regional news bulletins. For Southern, James introduced 'Happy News' to nightly news magazine 'Day By Day' in the 1970s. Later, he presented arts/entertainment strands for TVS, notably 'Music In Camera'.
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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.
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 Chris reported for 'About Anglia', 1968 - 1970, and then reported and presented for Southern Television's 'Day By Day' evening news magazine from 1970, and moved over to TVS in 1982, where he regularly co-hosted 'Coast To Coast' with a selection of presenters, including Khalid Aziz and Chrissie Pollard.
When TVS lost its franchise, Chris decided to move to London News Network from 1993, where he was a senior news reporter.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
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Chrissie joined TVS in 1982, fresh from local radio, as a co-anchor for 'Coast To Coast' in Southampton, with Khalid Aziz and Christopher Peacock. Since leaving TVS, she has remained in journalism, writing for local magazines; presenting on local radio and also working for TV and radio stations abroad. Chrissie has also chaired several conferences and trains young television hopefuls.
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 Southern Television (1976 - 1981) and TVS political reporter/editor, who went on to present the TVS weekly politics programme, 'Agenda'. After TVS lost its contract, Brian remained in the press gallery of the House of Commons, where he is still based today, covering politics. He now reports for the Capital Radio Network, covering radio stations mainly in the South and South East of England. They include Invicta Radio, Southern FM, and Ocean FM, among others.
Before joining Southern, Brian worked for Tyne Tees TV, where he first presented a weekly studio discussion called 'Youth Puts The Question'. He then moved on to front a half hour weekly children's programme, 'Three Rivers Club', with Australian presenter Don Spencer, who wrote and recorded the opening title music for the popular Fireball XL5 children's programme.
During the late-1960s, Brian covered politics for, and often presented, the nightly news magazine programme 'North East Roundabout' with co-hosts Roddy Griffiths and Charlotte Allan. He also chaired the weekly political programme, 'Front Page Debate' for TTTV.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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 Southern Television meteorologist, 1963 - 1981, and then TVS weatherman in the 1980s, who often stood in for Trevor Baker or, later Carl Tyler.
Image courtesy of Paul R Jackson.
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Reporter and newscaster for TSW, and before that, a journalist on Westward Television. Mike went on to work for TVS.
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Main presenter of 'Coast To Coast' (South East edition) with Mike Debens from the mid-1980s until the end of 1992. Liz later worked on 'London Tonight' along with former TVS colleagues Christopher Peacock and Anna-Maria Ashe.
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 Arnie Wilson was a reporter on 'Day By Day' and 'Scene South East' from the late-1960s until 1981. One of his early duties was writing links for Barry Westwood before becoming a fully fledged reporter on 'Day By Day'. By the mid-1970s he was the resident reporter at Southern's Maidstone office and became a reporter/presenter on TVS' 'Coast To Coast' (Maidstone edition) until the mid-1980s.
Today Arnie is the editor of 'Ski And Board' and is the Financial Times' Ski writer.
Image courtesy of Nic Ayling.
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Preston Witts began working as a reporter for Southern Television - having been a political correspondent in Parliament for various newspapers - at the end of November 1976. His work involved studio interviews - live and recorded - making films for the magazine programme 'Day By Day', co-presenting a local politics programme called 'People Rule' with - among others - Veronica Charlwood and Alastair Stewart, and reporting on documentaries for the 'Southern Report' series of regional half hour films.
When Southern lost the franchise and TVS began broadcasting on January 1 1982, he (with most of the other Southern people) joined the new TV station. He continued working as a reporter and interviewer for the new daily magazine programme, 'Coast To Coast', until July 1984, when he became part of TVS's new weekly political programme, 'Agenda'. The lead presenter was Llew Gardner, with Preston Witts and Brian Shallcross doing studio reports and films.
Preston Witts stayed with TVS until returning to London as a freelance from the beginning of 1990. He is now the press and public relations manager of the Institute Of Management in London.
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