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Alan Towers
Alan Towers (1934 – 24 May 2008) was a presenter of ''Midlands Today'', BBC Midlands' regional news programme. Career After stints as a newsreader with ITN and Granada Television in Manchester, Towers joined BBC Midlands in 1972 as a main presenter on ''Midlands Today'' and was also seen nationally as a presenter of features from the English Midlands on ''Nationwide''. His most famous item was the infamous "skateboarding duck" story. He regularly presented the programme with Kay Alexander. Following a heart attack during the late 1980s, Towers left his role as main presenter but continued on ''Midlands Today'' as a sports presenter and reporter. During this time, he also raised thousands of pounds for charity by walking the Great Wall of China and riding a motorbike across Canada. He appeared in a few episodes of the BBC's medical drama ''Dangerfield'' as a local TV news reporter. In 1997, Towers announced his resignation from the BBC on-air and left viewers with a disparagin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon and Victorian novelist George Eliot, (born Mary Ann Evans), at Nuneaton. Other significant towns include Rugby, Leamington Spa, Bedworth, Kenilworth and Atherstone. The county offers a mix of historic towns and large rural areas. It is a popular destination for international and domestic tourists to explore both medieval and more recent history. The county is divided into five districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon. The current county boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972. The historic county boundaries included Coventry, Sutton Coldfield and Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham and Tamworth. Geography Warwickshire is bordered by Leicestershire to the nort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
News Presenter
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. They may also be a working journalist, assisting in the collection of news material and may, in addition, provide commentary during the program. News presenters most often work from a television studio or radio studio, but may also present the news from remote locations in the field related to a particular major news event. History The role of the news presenter developed over time. Classically, the presenter would read the news from news "copy" which they may or may not have helped write with a news writer. This was often taken almost directly from wire services and then rewritten. Prior to the television era, radio-news broadcasts often mixed news with opinion and each presenter strove for a distinctive style. These presenters were r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Midlands Today
''Midlands Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the West Midlands. It was launched in 1964 and is presented by Mary Rhodes, Nick Owen, Elizabeth Glinka, Rebecca Wood and Shefali Oza. Overview ''Midlands Today'' is produced by BBC Midlands and broadcasts on BBC One seven days a week. The programme is produced and broadcast from the BBC studios in The Mailbox, Birmingham. Journalists are also based at newsrooms in Coventry, Shrewsbury, Stoke-on-Trent and Worcester. The programme began on 28 September 1964, broadcasting from a small room in the Birmingham Register Office before moving to the custom-built Pebble Mill broadcasting centre in Edgbaston on 10 November 1971. It remained there until the studios closed on 22 October 2004 when the BBC Birmingham operations were switched to the current studios at The Mailbox. Up until 1991, the programme also served the East Midlands, which has since received its own BBC regional news service. The programme's edito ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC West Midlands
BBC Midlands (known as the Midland Region from 1927 until c. 1974) is the BBC English Region producing local radio and web content for Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands, and Worcestershire. Although the region has been unofficially called BBC West Midlands since BBC East Midlands became a separate region in 1991, it retains the BBC Midlands name and brand, with its history dating from 1927, for public use. Services Television The BBC Midlands region carries a number of regional programmes today. The regular schedule consists of the flagship ''Midlands Today'' news programme, regional news bulletins, the weekly regional magazine programme '' Inside Out'' and a twenty-minute opt-out during ''Sunday Politics''. Radio The region is the controlling centre for BBC WM, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, BBC Hereford and Worcester, BBC Radio Stoke and BBC Radio Shropshire. Some of this programming is simulcast with the radio stations in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Granada Television
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was its weekend counterpart. Granada's parent company Granada plc later bought several other regional ITV stations and, in 2004, merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc. Granada Television was particularly noted by critics for the distinctive northern and "social realism" character of many of its network programmes, as well as the high quality of its drama and documentaries. In its prime as an independent franchisee, prior to its parent company merging with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc, it was the largest Independent Television producer in the UK, accounting for 25% of the total broadcasting output of the ITV network. Granada Television was founded by Sidney Bernstein at Granada Studios on Quay Street in Manchester and is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two cities and the surrounding towns form one of the United Kingdom's most populous conurbations, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, which has a population of 2.87 million. The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort ('' castra'') of ''Mamucium'' or ''Mancunium'', established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically part of Lancashire, areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated into Manchester in the 20th century, including Wythenshawe in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nationwide (TV Series)
} ''Nationwide'' was a BBC current affairs television programme which ran from 9 September 1969 until 5 August 1983. Originally broadcast on BBC 1 from Tuesday to Thursday, and then each weekday from 1972, it followed the early evening news, and included the regional opt-out news programmes. Outline It followed a magazine format, combining regional news, political analysis and discussion with consumer affairs, light entertainment and sports reporting. It began on 9 September 1969, running between Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00pm, before being extended to five days a week in 1972. From 1976 until 1981, the start time was 5:55pm. The final edition was broadcast on 5 August 1983 and, the following October, it was replaced by ''Sixty Minutes''. The long-running ''Watchdog'' programme began as a ''Nationwide'' feature. The light entertainment was quite similar in tone to ''That's Life!'', with eccentric stories such as a skateboarding duck and men who claimed that they could walk on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skateboarding Duck
Herbie the skateboarding duck (c.1976-83) was the subject of an item first broadcast on the ''Midlands Today'' insert to the BBC news magazine programme '' Nationwide'' on 24 May 1978. Herbie, an Aylesbury duck, was bought by Jacky and Paddy Randall of Croydon for their children Mikala and Colin. The film, presented by reporter Alan Towers, includes footage of Herbie waddling along the street, joining the family at breakfast and attacking the Randalls' terrier. Part of the film is a four-second shot of Herbie apparently skateboarding by himself on Colin's board. This image seemingly captured the public imagination, and the BBC received many requests for it to be shown again, which it frequently was. The clip also appeared on other TV stations around the world, many of which also produced their own variations on the theme. There was also renewed interest in the clip in 1983 after the death of Herbie was announced and it has been repeated many times since on other TV programmes. As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kay Alexander
Kay Alexander (born 4 June 1950) is a retired British regional BBC television newsreader, best known for presenting ''Midlands Today''. Early life Alexander was born and brought up in Aldershot in Hampshire. Her mother was a doctor and her father was an aeronautical engineer and she has two brothers. After attending the independent Frensham Heights School, Alexander read English at the University of Birmingham, gaining a degree in 1973. She started a PGCE course which she did not complete. Career Alexander initially worked for the BBC at Pebble Mill for BBC Radio 4 (where she worked on ''You and Yours'', ''Checkpoint'' and ''Woman's Hour''). She then worked on BBC ''Midlands Today'' from the 1970s onwards, at one time being a main anchor. In 1992 she left the evening slot, and mainly presented the breakfast and lunchtime bulletins, three days a week. Her regular co-presenters included Tom Coyne, Alan Towers, Sue Beardsmore and David Davies. In October 2003, the Royal Tel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Wall Of China
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic groups from the Eurasian Steppe. Several walls were built from as early as the 7th century BC, with selective stretches later joined by Qin Shi Huang (220–206 BC), the first emperor of China. Little of the Qin wall remains. Later on, many successive dynasties built and maintained multiple stretches of border walls. The best-known sections of the wall were built by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Apart from defense, other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service maintains 50 foreign news bureaus with more than 250 correspondents around the world. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England and national news c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dangerfield (TV Series)
''Dangerfield'' is a British television medical drama series, first broadcast on BBC One, which described the activities of small-town doctor and police surgeon Paul Dangerfield, played by Nigel Le Vaillant. The series places particular emphasis on Dangerfield's constant struggle to manage the conflicting demands of his two jobs, to come to terms with the death of his wife Celia in a car accident a few years earlier, and to bring up his two initially teenaged, but later grown up, children, Alison and Marty. Six series of the programme were produced, broadcasting from 27 January 1995 until 19 November 1999. After Le Vaillant left the role in 1997, Dr. Jonathan Paige, played by Nigel Havers, became the new central character, after previously appearing in the final two episodes of Le Vaillant's tenure. The BBC decided to end the series in November 1999 when Havers announced his decision to quit. The BBC felt viewers would not find the series credible if the main character was change ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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