Julian Simmons

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Julian Simmons (b. Belfast)[1] is a Northern Irish television presenter, best known as a continuity announcer on UTV. He mainly appears on the station on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.[2]

Julian usually introduces programmes on the station in-vision, and is mainly associated with his links into what he has described as his favourite programme[3], Coronation Street, on Friday evenings, where he puts on an exaggerated Belfast accent and refers to recent story developments on the programme. When talking about his Coronation Street introductions, he comments that he is "...imitating what I [hear] people say on trains and on buses... people talk about the soaps as if it's happening to real people."[4]

In addition to announcing the following programmes, he also introduces competitions under the Watch to Win banner.[5] He can sometimes be seen presenting UTV weather forecasts.[6]

As a young boy, Julian attended Belmont Primary School and Methodist College, and spent his holidays in his parents' native Kent.[7] He had an interest in drama at a young age and held puppet shows at his home.[8][9]

Julian's career in broadcasting began when he appeared in amateur drama productions in Belfast while working for Air Canada in their Belfast offices.[10] In the Julian documentary, he observed: "Somebody saw me in a Belfast comedy, and said that 'You should be on TV, I know somebody who you should speak to'. So I set my letter in, and duly arrived up at Havelock House, with amateur tapes that I had made of comedy sketches that I was performing in my kitchen, and bathroom, and bedroom... and I presented those and they listened to them and said, 'Yes, those are quite funny, but there's no opening for that sort of thing here at the moment. Here's a news bulletin, let's hear you read that.'"[11]

When he started working at UTV, Julian's job involved reading news and sports bulletins as well as introducing the channel's programmes, but he felt uneasy with having to perform the latter task. "I didn't know what I was talking about... My main worry when I was reading the news was... you are worried about making a mistake, but I was also worried I was going to laugh. I have this thing if I'm hearing bad news, or someone goes to tell me something grave... it must be a nervous thing, I feel myself starting to smirk. So I was always terrifed that when I was reading the news that I was going to laugh."[12] Since the early 1990s, Julian has not typically presented news and sports bulletins on UTV; however, he has done both tasks in recent times.<[13]

In the 2005 Julian documentary, Julian describes how his continuity duties eventually changed: "Continuity was very straight... and then one Christmas, I was in for four or five days over the Christmas period, all done up like a dog's dinner and a dickie bow... no news to read, so I started introducing these programmes and acting 'a bit of the lig' in between the programmes. And it went down very well, apparently. They decided I would do permanently weekends: Friday/Saturday/Sunday primetime, where the programmes are all entertainment; nothing hard or heavy."[14]

Since October 2006, Julian has appeared on UTV Live and UTV Life to talk about upcoming storyline on Coronation Street and Emmerdale, the two main soap operas shown on UTV.[15] In 2007, he was the host of a series, UTV Rewind, looking at archive clips from Ulster Television.[16][17]

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] UTV People: Julian Simmons' profile; accessed 3 March 2008
  2. ^ [2] Google Video: Julian; uploaded 29 September 2006, accessed 3 March 2006
  3. ^ [3] Belfast Telegraph: "My kind of things"; published 22 April 2000, accessed 3 March 2008
  4. ^ [4] Google Video: Julian; uploaded 29 September 2006, accessed 3 March 2006
  5. ^ [5] UTV Today: Watch To Win, 2007-Present; accessed 3 March 2008
  6. ^ [6] UTV Today: In-Vision Weather Forecasts; accessed 3 March 2006
  7. ^ [7] Belfast Telegraph: "Ten things you didn't know about..."; published 2 March 2002, accessed 3 March 2008
  8. ^ [8] Belfast Telegraph: "Ten things you didn't know about..."; published 2 March 2002, accessed 3 March 2008
  9. ^ [9] Google Video: Julian; uploaded 29 September 2006, accessed 3 March 2006
  10. ^ [10] Google Video: Julian; uploaded 29 September 2006, accessed 3 March 2006
  11. ^ [11] Google Video: Julian; uploaded 29 September 2006, accessed 3 March 2006
  12. ^ [12] Google Video: Julian; uploaded 29 September 2006, accessed 3 March 2006
  13. ^ [13] UTV Today: Sports Presenters and Reporters; accessed 3 March 2006
  14. ^ [14] Google Video: Julian; uploaded 29 September 2006, accessed 3 March 2006
  15. ^ [15] UTV Press Office: Julian's in a lather as he joins UTV Live; published 6 October 2006, accessed 3 March 2008
  16. ^ [16] UTV Press Office: UTV rewinds with Julian on Friday evenings; published 27 July 2007, accessed 3 March 2008
  17. ^ [17] UTV Press Office: UTV lines up a feast of festive programmes; published 12 December 2007; accessed 3 March 2008

[edit] External links

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