Julia Somerville

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Julia Mary Fownes Somerville (b. July 14, 1947) is a TV news anchor and reporter, who has worked for BBC News and ITN.

1 Biography
2 Personal life
- 2.1 Stalkers
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Julia Somerville was educated at the Headington School, a girls' independent school in Oxford. After graduating from Sussex University with a BA degree in English, Somerville joined IPC, working on: Homes and Gardens magazine, a Women's Journal, the PR section of Women's Own; and finally two years as editor of a computer group's house magazine.

Somerville joined the BBC in 1973 as a radio production journalist, and then became a reporter in 1978. Five years later in 1984, she had become one of the most recognised faces on television, co-presenting the BBC Nine o'clock News.

Somerville was lured to ITN in 1987, where she co-presented the Lunchtime News and also deputised as presenter of News at Ten. In addition she presented 3D, a weekly ITV current affairs programme. She had a brain tumour in 1993 and had to undergo neurosurgery, but recovered well and was a member of the News at Ten team until it ended a 32-year run in 1999. She remained at ITN until October 2001, presenting the ITV Lunchtime News and shows on the ITN News Channel.

Somerville presented the daily LBC radio show "London Life" between 1999 and 2001, a two-hour program devoted to interviews with artists from all areas of the arts. Somerville has a life long interest in art, and she was a member of the judging panel for the National Portrait Gallery's BP Portrait of the Year in 2001, and served as a judge for several years on the RIBA Annual Architecture Award Panels. On 18 September 2003, Somerville was appointed Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Government Art Collection ^[1].

As part of ITN'S "Famous Five", with Gordon Honeycombe, Martyn Lewis, Selina Scott and Anna Ford; she was brought back to our screens for one week in September 2005 for ITN's 50th Anniversary ^[2]

[edit] Personal life

Somerville has been married three times: Stephen Band, 1970 - 1975, no children; Ray Gowdridge, 1984 - 1992, 2 children.

Somerville currently lives in North London with her two children from her second marriage, and her third husband architect Sir Jeremy Dixon. Somerville and Dixon were interviewed by police in 1996, when Boots staff raised concerns about family snaps they'd sent to be developed which showed their seven-year-old child in the bath. No caution or charges followed the investigation^[3]

She is a patron of the Different Strokes charity.

[edit] Stalkers

In August 2001, 47 year old David Hughes of north London was convicted of harassment after sending 390 obscene letters and specifically moving close to Somerville over a 12year period. Somerville left court after a 10-minute appearance in the witness box. Hughes was found guilty of one charge under Section 2 of the Harassment Act, and the judge made a hospital order under the Mental Health Act 1983. Hughes told the court he believed he had not been harassing Ms Somerville because she had never told him to stop sending her letters, but he admitted he had been cautioned by Greater Manchester Police over his letter writing campaign in 1995. The letters began in 1990, and until 1999 came with a postmark in north Cheshire. Hughes then moved to the same Muswell Hill area as Somerville, claiming it was a coincidence. It was also revealed that in 1995, Somerville took out a court injunction to stop sound engineer Geoffrey Brewis contacting her: he had visited her home, followed her and made nuisance phone calls.