Haha yes, I used to love Lyse's throw to the business/sport sting back in the day: "You're wotching BBC Wuuurrld" And Stephen Cole's rather lazy approach: "You're watching World"
By the way, while we're being nostalgic, I couldn't believe it when I realised recently that it's 14 years later this year since Philip Hayton last presented on BBC World. Where has that time gone?? I remember he was still on World in September 2001 when the 9/11 attacks happened, but I think by Christmas Mishal Husain had taken over his evening shift and he'd moved exclusively to News 24. It's also about 10 years or more since other stalwarts of the channel moved on, e.g. Adrian Finighan, Keshini Navaratnam, Lindsey Brancher et al. It's crazy where the time disappears to!
I've got a satellite dish which receives the channel from two different satellites - the channel on Hotbird changed its name to BBC World News straight away in 2008 - however, the channel on Astra has remained as BBC World until the present day. It's strange how its never been updated.
That said, I do prefer the BBC World name. Maybe that's just because I was used to it for so many years before the change.
AFAIK on UPC Ireland the channel name is still BBC World, and indeed BBC News is still BBC News 24! However on the Horizon EPG, which can display channel logos, the proper logos are used.
Haha yes, I used to love Lyse's throw to the business/sport sting back in the day: "You're wotching BBC Wuuurrld" And Stephen Cole's rather lazy approach: "You're watching World"
By the way, while we're being nostalgic, I couldn't believe it when I realised recently that it's 14 years later this year since Philip Hayton last presented on BBC World. Where has that time gone?? I remember he was still on World in September 2001 when the 9/11 attacks happened, but I think by Christmas Mishal Husain had taken over his evening shift and he'd moved exclusively to News 24. It's also about 10 years or more since other stalwarts of the channel moved on, e.g. Adrian Finighan, Keshini Navaratnam, Lindsey Brancher et al. It's crazy where the time disappears to!
Blimey! You're right. It is ten years since they appeared. Time really does fly.
Yet, after 24 years at World, Dobs is still going strong!
Yet, after 24 years at World, Dobs is still going strong!
Was he not *technically* with BBC News (24) before? Still, no mean feat. Have any of the others been around that long? I know Maxine Mawhinney was also with World in the nineties, and has made the opposite transition (World>Domestic).
Peter started off at World in 1991, if I'm not mistaken, when it was called World News Television. He did spend some years at N24 before returning to World.
Peter was definitely with World during its World Service Television News (or WSTV for short) era. I'm not sure when he jumped over to News 24 - he was definitely there in the late 90s / early 2000s before moving back to World.
Yes, Maxine has been with News 24 since it started ISTR and was with World before that if I'm not mistaken. There are clips of her being involved with the overnight coverage of Diana's car crash in August 1997. She's been presenting News 24 in one way or another as long as I've been watching, which is probably from about 2000 onwards. And she's presented at lots of different times and days throughout her career, both weekdays and weekends.
Matthew Amroliwala has also been with both channels for a long time. He was a reporter for BBC News in the mid-90s before taking up presenting with News 24 from launch in 1997. He stayed there until he recently jumped over to World.
The only other continuously serving rolling news presenter I can think of is Jane Hill, who's been with News 24 since launch ISTR. Gavin Esler kind of doesn't make the cut as he spent a while away from rolling news when he was with Newsnight. Martine Croxall has been with News 24 for a long time, although not since launch. She presented UK Today in the early 2000s before moving to News 24 overnights opposite Heather McCarthy. That was after Clarence Mitchell and Rageh Omaar left and before Alastair Yates re-joined. Mike Embley has been around a long time; like Peter Dobbie, he started during the WSTV era but had a long stint at Newsroom South East before returning to World and News 24 in 2001.
I'd love to know what some of the long forgotten relief presenters are up to these days. For instance, Brenda Paterson, Peter Coe, Stefanie Callister, Gwenan Edwards, George Eykyn, David Jessel. I was always pleased when I saw David Jessel presenting World. He had a stint of being their go-to relief presenter for a couple of years and popped up literally all over the schedule. He even had a short stint on the TWT shift as I recall. I always thought he was a shouty version of Nik Gowing!
I don't know if it's just the rose-tinted spectacles, but I think a lot of the former World presenters had their own catchphrases that you don't really see on the channel today. Remember Nisha Pillai with her "Join us after the break, won't you?"? Adrian Finighan's "That's all from the newsroom. In London, I'm Adrian Finighan. We'll see you again - bye bye". John Terret's "two for the price of one on this programme" on WBR. I think the most charismatic presenters now are Rico Hizon, Aaron Helsehurst and Alice Baxter.
On a related note, I was watching Channel 4 News the other night and was surprised to see that John Nicolson has become an SNP MP! I remember him presenting News 24 with Valerie Sanderson when the September 11th attacks happened and before rolling news he had a stint at Breakfast News.
I was thinking about David Jessel the other day - during his television career he particularly focused on documentaries relating to justice and miscarriages of justice, which led to a stint on the Criminal Cases Review Commission from 2000-2010, alongside his freelancing for the BBC. Now, according to his Linkedin profile, he's a media trainer (I hope this isn't seen as too stalky )
I do miss Nisha Pillai - she was a class act and had warm & friendly down to a tee. I'm not sure that Rico, Aaron and Alice's "charisma" quite matches that of the old guard. I find particularly Rico very shouty - but nonetheless friendly - "thanks for investing your time with us" and feel Aaron is just trying to be a match for Richard Quest. Saying that, I prefer Aaron.
Edit: Actually, LinkedIn is a useful tool for tracking down ex-presenters: Brenda Paterson (a PR consultant), Peter Coe (another media trainer), George Eykyn (a communications boss... I spot a theme).
Last edited by The SNT Three on 16 August 2015 10:36pm
I was thinking about David Jessel the other day - during his television career he particularly focused on documentaries relating to justice and miscarriages of justice, which led to a stint on the Criminal Cases Review Commission from 2000-2010, alongside his freelancing for the BBC. Now, according to his Linkedin profile, he's a media trainer (I hope this isn't seen as too stalky )
Thanks! It's interesting to see he still lists himself as being a presenter on BBC News. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn't presented a shift for years. Unless it's just an oversight, I guess he must still have some sort of freelance relationship with them.
And Stephen Cole's rather lazy approach: "You're watching World" 