Vera McKechnie (born 1927) is a retired British presenter who was one of the first presenters at the start of BBC Children's Television in the early 1950s.

Television career

McKechnie began her career when the BBC resumed TV broadcasts after the Second World War. On BBC Children’s Television she narrated the earliest live editions of ''

Andy Pandy ''Andy Pandy'' is a British children's television series that first appeared on BBC Television in summer 1950. Originally live, a series of 26 filmed programmes was shown until 1970, when a new series of 13 episodes was made. A revival of the s ...

'' from 1950, in which she told a story as it was acted out by string puppets. The programme was aimed at very young children under primary school starting age of five years at the time. The programme was broadcast during the school day and part of a series of five known as ''

Watch with Mother ''Watch with Mother'' was a cycle of children's programmes created by Freda Lingstrom and Maria Bird. Broadcast by BBC Television from 1952 until 1975, it was the first BBC television series aimed specifically at pre-school children, a developmen ...

'',Watch With Mother on BBC Children’s TV
/ref> one of which one was broadcast each weekday. When the broadcasts began, the main BBC transmitters only covered London and the southeast from

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Origi ...

, Birmingham and the Midlands from

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, known locally as Sutton ( ), is a town and civil parish in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south ...

, and Manchester and the northwest from

Holme Moss Holme Moss ( a.s.l.) is high moorland on the border between the Holme Valley district of Kirklees in West Yorkshire and the High Peak district of Derbyshire in England. Historically on the boundary between the West Riding of Yorkshire and Che ...

. She was a TV in-vision announcer from 1955 until 1960, and later worked for BBC Children's Television as presenter of ''For Deaf Children'', 1956. Other TV work was ''Focus'', 1958 to 1960; ''

Picture Book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

'', 1963 to 1965; narrator, ''Andy Pandy'', 1970. From 1955 to about 1958 she was the main presenter of ''Studio E'', a magazine programme for older children aged around 9–14. ''Studio E'' lasted around 55 minutes and came from the studio of the same name at the BBC's west London studios in Lime Grove,

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, i ...

, since demolished.

Personal life

After television she became a teacher, spending 15 years at

Roedean School Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sus ...

and then in

Broadstairs Broadstairs is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 of ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

then

St Margaret's School, Bushey St Margaret's School is an independent boarding and day school co-educational aged 2–18 in Bushey, Hertfordshire. As well as day places, the school offers boarding options for pupils from year 7 (age 11) and is situated in of countryside ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McKechnie, Vera 1927 births Living people British television presenters Educational broadcasting in the United Kingdom