Ben post_id=46465 time= user_id=49 Wrote:Markymark post_id=46448 time= user_id=1078 Wrote:Ben post_id=46431 time= user_id=49 Wrote:Not many presenters who can front a regional news magazine, front crime programmes and feature on a children's TV programme at the same time.
Genuinely shocked because I felt he would keep going until he dropped but glad he's going to make the most of his time.
He'd also commentate on football matches during Southern's era. And was Dickie Davies's main stand in on World of Sport for a few years.
...and he was the biographer for the Krays, a gameshow host, a newspaper journalist and failed would-be footballer.
Yes, I gather he worked on Brighton's local newspaper in the early 60s with Anne Nightingale, and it was Anne that put him forward for a gig with Southern TV
BBC reports:
Quote:Broadcaster Fred Dinenage is to step down as main presenter of a regional TV news programme after nearly 38 years.
The broadcaster, who made his name presenting the children's programme How from 1966, will leave ITV News Meridian at Christmas.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ha...e-58884049
Always nice to see Fred, when I was on holiday down south after growing up with him on How 2.
Lucy Meacock must be about 32 years on Granada Reports now?
How long has Paul Clark been hosting the UTV News?
These are my best estimations as to what some of the longest terms of service are for currently serving regional presenters. I am counting it from the point I believe they may have started presenting the regional news (i.e. not Sport bulletins etc.). Whereas I am counting different ITV franchises as consecutive service, I’m not counting going from the BBC to ITV in the case of Paul Clark.
Bob Warman (Yorkshire, ATV, Central): 1976 (45 years - Possibly longer but unsure if Bob presented ATV Today between 1973-1976)
Fred Dinenage (Southern, TVS, Meridian): 1983 (38 years)
David Garmston (BBC West): 1985 (36 years)
Sally Taylor (BBC South): 1987 (34 years)
Lucy Meacock (Granada): 1988 (33 years)
Paul Clark (UTV): 1989 (32 years)
RDJ post_id=46835 time= user_id=831 Wrote:These are my best estimations as to what some of the longest terms of service are for currently serving regional presenters. I am counting it from the point I believe they may have started presenting the regional news (i.e. not Sport bulletins etc.). Whereas I am counting different ITV franchises as consecutive service, I’m not counting going from the BBC to ITV in the case of Paul Clark.
Bob Warman (Yorkshire, ATV, Central): 1976 (45 years - Possibly longer but unsure if Bob presented ATV Today between 1973-1976)
Fred Dinenage (Southern, TVS, Meridian): 1983 (38 years)
David Garmston (BBC West): 1985 (36 years)
Sally Taylor (BBC South): 1987 (34 years)
Lucy Meacock (Granada): 1988 (33 years)
Paul Clark (UTV): 1989 (32 years)
It’ll certainly be an occasion when Bob Warman retires. I remember when Llewela Bailey announced she was leaving Central at the end of 2008, it was the main headline on the front of the Birmingham Mail. I think Joanne Malin’s departure might have been front page news, too, but I cannot recall at this point in time.
(As an aside, I still find it weird to see Joanne on Midlands Today, seeing as she was such a big face on Central for so many years).
EDIT: Found the article about Bailey leaving Central:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/lo...r-20-71099
RDJ post_id=46835 time= user_id=831 Wrote:These are my best estimations as to what some of the longest terms of service are for currently serving regional presenters. I am counting it from the point I believe they may have started presenting the regional news (i.e. not Sport bulletins etc.). Whereas I am counting different ITV franchises as consecutive service, I’m not counting going from the BBC to ITV in the case of Paul Clark.
Bob Warman (Yorkshire, ATV, Central): 1976 (45 years - Possibly longer but unsure if Bob presented ATV Today between 1973-1976)
Fred Dinenage (Southern, TVS, Meridian): 1983 (38 years)
David Garmston (BBC West): 1985 (36 years)
Sally Taylor (BBC South): 1987 (34 years)
Lucy Meacock (Granada): 1988 (33 years)
Paul Clark (UTV): 1989 (32 years)
We should include Norman Macleod (Grampian, STV): 1990 (
31 years) - although he started working at Grampian in 1987, he first presented North Tonight in 1990.
Fred having been a *constant* presence on the regional news for nigh-on 40 years is only fully true in the current "South Coast" sub-region, surely?
So, the on-air reference to his longevity mentioned in all iterations of the programme recently might have seemed odd to viewers in the South East and Thames Valley (who variously either literally had never had him pre-2009, or hadn't had him between 1981/1992 (or whatever) and 2009).
Stanley Matravers post_id=47135 time= user_id=1435 Wrote:Fred having been a *constant* presence on the regional news for nigh-on 40 years is only fully true in the current "South Coast" sub-region, surely?
So, the on-air reference to his longevity mentioned in all iterations of the programme recently might have seemed odd to viewers in the South East and Thames Valley (who variously either literally had never had him pre-2009, or hadn't had him between 1981/1992 (or whatever) and 2009).
I lived in the Meridian East sub-opt in the 90s when the bulletins were from Maidstone and Fred didn't feature. Ironically I did see him on TVS in the late 80s, early 90s presenting Coast to Coast which I was able to get in London and on Meridian Tonight.
Jackie Bird fronted the BBC Scotland news for 30 years.
Fred is a legend. Will be sorely missed.
Stanley Matravers post_id=47135 time= user_id=1435 Wrote:Fred having been a *constant* presence on the regional news for nigh-on 40 years is only fully true in the current "South Coast" sub-region, surely?
So, the on-air reference to his longevity mentioned in all iterations of the programme recently might have seemed odd to viewers in the South East and Thames Valley (who variously either literally had never had him pre-2009, or hadn't had him between 1981/1992 (or whatever) and 2009).
Although he would be a familiar face having appeared on many regional programmes down the years.
Of course he has been involved in regional news for more than 38 years having been sports presenter beforehand.
Ben post_id=47197 time= user_id=49 Wrote:Stanley Matravers post_id=47135 time= user_id=1435 Wrote:Fred having been a *constant* presence on the regional news for nigh-on 40 years is only fully true in the current "South Coast" sub-region, surely?
So, the on-air reference to his longevity mentioned in all iterations of the programme recently might have seemed odd to viewers in the South East and Thames Valley (who variously either literally had never had him pre-2009, or hadn't had him between 1981/1992 (or whatever) and 2009).
Although he would be a familiar face having appeared on many regional programmes down the years.
Of course he has been involved in regional news for more than 38 years having been sports presenter beforehand.
Yes. In the 60s and 70s he was the Sports reporter for Day by Day, and also appeared on free-standing sports programming, both regionally and nationally. Was also quiz master on Anglia's partially (fully ?) networked show Gambit, and then of course there was How.
There was a mini mutiny in 1993, when Meridian split off the Thames Valley as a third region, and he did vanish, to be effectively replaced by Andy Craig, in fact the whole Thames Valley region thing backfired on Meridian, as they hadn't seriously considered how far south Hannington was used. They ended up building three relays to restore the South Coast region for the most affected areas, which the local press spun as 'Transmitters to bring Fred back !'
I had forgotten all about Gambit - there's a blast from the past!
He is obviously a great all round broadcaster from sport, to childrens' TV, news, gameshow host - and there aren't many able to do that.
Those that can are generally nice people to work alongside, and that's how they are able to do so much in the different areas, as well as being able to build a relationship with the viewers.
commseng post_id=48090 time= user_id=1125 Wrote:I had forgotten all about Gambit - there's a blast from the past!
It was a sort of thinking man's Play Your Cards Right !
I hope that for Fred's last 6pm edition they have everything including the weather forecast finished by e.g. 18:25, so that Fred's farewell can be done just once pan-regionally and live.
If not, then it might make sense for the South East edition to do a more low-key farewell. Fred wasn't the news anchor there between 1982 and 2009, so any reference to his 38-year stint won't ring true there. (They can't do much about the fact that it also won't ring true in the Thames Valley parts of the current West sub-region)