John Mountford (born 14 February 1949 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is a British television executive and former broadcaster. His father, Arnold Mountford, was an acclaimed international expert in

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

. Mountford studied English literature at Queen's University Belfast. In 1973 he enrolled on a studio manager's training scheme at BBC World Service in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, soon progressing to producing and presenting programmes on the international

radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass media, mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio (Duplex (telecomm ...

. In the 1970s he worked on

BBC East BBC East is one of BBC's English Regions covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, northern Buckinghamshire, and the majority of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. It is headquartered in The Forum, Norwich since 2003. It wa ...

's daily morning radio programme '' Roundabout East Anglia'', a regional opt-out from the ''Today'' programme on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. In a gradual move to

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

, he became a researcher on '' The Book Programme'' and ''

Sixty Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique sty ...

''. In 1983 Mountford was amongst the line up of presenters on the BBC's first breakfast television show, '' Breakfast Time''. He was also a reporter for

Esther Rantzen Dame Esther Louise Rantzen (born 22 June 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, who presented the BBC television series ''That's Life!'' for 21 years, from 1973 until 1994. She works with various charitable causes, and fou ...

's ''That's Family Life''. Mountford was the inaugural voice to air at the launch of

BBC Radio Norfolk BBC Radio Norfolk is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Norfolk. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Forum in Norwich. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

in 1980 where he continued to have a regular show for several years alongside co-hosting

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

's Friday night magazine show, ''Weekend''; famously 'baring all' on a nudist beach in the opening title sequence of the programme. He began to scale down his broadcasting commitments during the late 1980s. Mountford is currently

chief executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of a production company in Norwich making television advertising and branded video content for social media applications.

References

External links

The JMS Group
1948 births Living people People from Stoke-on-Trent Alumni of Queen's University Belfast BBC people {{UK-tv-bio-stub