Leonard Parkin
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Leonard Parkin (2 June 1929 – 20 September 1993) was a British television
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
and
newscaster 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. ...
who worked for both the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and ITN. Born in
Thurnscoe Thurnscoe is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, metropolitan borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. The village falls within the Dearne North ward of the Barnsley MBC. Historic counties of England, Historically within ...
,
West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
, he was educated at
Hemsworth Grammar School Outwood Academy Hemsworth, known previously as Hemsworth Arts and Community Academy and Hemsworth Arts and Community College, is a mixed secondary school and sixth form located in Hemsworth in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. T ...
, Yorkshire. He worked as a reporter on the BBC's ''
Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...
'' for many years before joining ITN, initially as a reporter but later as a newscaster for
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
's main early evening bulletins in the 1970s. In November 1963, he was deputy correspondent for the BBC in Washington and his Radio Newsreel report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy is a historic recording. Between 1976 and 1987 he was, along with
Peter Sissons Peter George Sissons (17 July 1942 – 1 October 2019) was an English journalist and broadcaster. He was a newscaster for ITN, providing bulletins on ITV and Channel 4, before becoming the presenter of the BBC's ''Question Time'' between 1989 ...
, one of the main presenters for ITN's '' News at One'', and often hosted the '' News at 5:45'' in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He regularly presented '' News at Ten'' from October 1967, shortly after its launch, until January 1976. Parkin was one of the most popular newsreaders ever to work for ITN, and, like his former co-host of the ''News at 5:45''
Michael Nicholson Michael Nicholson (9 January 1937 – 11 December 2016) was an English journalist, specializing in war reporting, and a newscaster. He was ITN's Senior Foreign Correspondent. Early life Nicholson was born in Romford, Essex, on 9 January 193 ...
, he became renowned for his cheerful and friendly disposition. He always began the ''News at One'' by saying "hello, good afternoon.." then reading the headlines. During school holidays, he would also make a point of welcoming younger viewers at the start of the ''News at One''. When he presented ''News at 5:45'' on 24 October 1979, he was the first ITN newscaster to be seen on ITV following the conclusion of the ITV strike of August–October 1979. During the Falklands War of 1982, Parkin temporarily replaced Michael Nicholson as main presenter of the ''News at 5:45'', and broke to the UK the news that the ''General Belgrano'' had been sunk in a controversial incident during the
Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...
. He and Nicholson provided a detailed report of this incident. He left ITN in 1987, returning to his native Yorkshire to make a series of documentaries about the county for
Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
, entitled ''Pieces of Parkin''. A
Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
, he was a member of a Lodge which met at
The Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights, Manhattan, Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art ...
in
Letchworth Garden City Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249. Letchworth ...
. Parkin died of cancer of the spine, in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
, on 20 September 1993.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkin, Leonard 1929 births 1993 deaths British male journalists Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England ITN newsreaders and journalists People from Thurnscoe Television personalities from South Yorkshire Deaths from cancer in England Neurological disease deaths in England Deaths from spinal cancer