About Anglia

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About Anglia, first broadcast in 1960, was the flagship television news magazine for Anglia Television. Its original presenter was Dick Joice.

The programme was transmitted across the Anglia region which comprised Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire and south and east Yorkshire. From January 1, 1974, Lincolnshire and parts of Yorkshire and North Norfolk were transferred to Yorkshire Television.

About Anglia was given a new modern look in the spring of 1988 when Anglia Television abandoned its original ident, a small silver statue of a knight on horseback.

Four years later, About Anglia was replaced by Anglia News - a dual news service which transmitted two separate programmes, Anglia East for East Anglia viewers and Anglia West for the remainder of the region. When Anglia became part of ITV plc in 2004, Anglia Television's existence as a separate brand ended and the local news programme was re-named Anglia Tonight.

[edit] Former presenters

Many About Anglia personalities moved on to make their fame and fortune elsewhere.

Judy Finnegan came to Anglia in the mid-1970s from Granada Television. She married and settled in Norwich, making her name in 1977 when she gave birth to twin sons and, the following day, proudly showed off the babies on About Anglia. Judy and her second husband, Richard Madeley are widely known simply as Richard and Judy – the two became one of the best known husband-and-wife presenting teams in British television from the 1990s.

Bob Wellings, who had a flare for the quirky offbeat story, went on to national TV prominence in 1971 as a presenter of Nationwide, BBC Television’s current affairs series.

Alastair Yates joined About Anglia in 1987, but left two years later to become the first presenter on Sky News in Britain. In 1995 he joined the BBC to present BBC World and BBC News 24.

Other presenters and journalists who appeared regularly on the programme during its thirty-year life were:

Tony Adams, Patrick Anthony, Rebecca Atherstone, John Bacon, Greg Barnes, Paul Barnes, Surrey Beddows, Graham Bell, Malcolm Brabant, Vic Birtles, Lindsay Brooke, Griselda Cann, Stephen Chambers, Stephen Cole, Geoff Druett, David Geary, Anne Gregg, Gerry Harrison, David Henshaw, Stuart Jarrold, David Jennings, Chris Kelly, John Kiddy, Alison Leigh, Peter Lugg, Helen McDermott, Guy Michelmore, Jeremy Payne, Jane Probyn, Caroline Raison, Pam Rhodes, Steve Rider, Owen Spencer-Thomas, Christine Webber, and Chris Young.