| Mike Neville | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michael Neville 17 October 1936 Willington Quay, North Tyneside, England |
Mike Neville, MBE (born 17 October 1936, Willington Quay, North Tyneside) is a retired British television presenter who worked mainly on regional news programmes in North East England. Over 40 years with the BBC and ITV franchisee Tyne Tees Television, he became an iconic figure in the region and is remembered for his solid presentational style and witty banter. In 1990, Neville was awarded the MBE for services to broadcasting. He lives in Whickham with his wife of 40 years, Pam.
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Mike Neville's roots lay in North East theatre, but the launch of Tyne Tees Television in 1959 offered a new opportunity. Neville began work as young reporter on the fledgling station.
He later switched to the rival BBC news programme Look North and was the main presenter for 32 years. He also regularly presented the BBC's Nationwide programme during the 80s, but turned down offers to move to London, preferring to stay in the North East of England.
Mike Neville and George House, as co-presenters of Look North, in the 1960s and 1970s incorporated Geordie into the show, usually in comedy pieces pointing up the gulf between ordinary Geordies and officials speaking Standard English. They were also responsible for a series of recordings, beginning with Larn Yersel' Geordie, which attempted, not always seriously, to bring the Geordie dialect to the rest of England.
In 1996, Neville was approached by Tyne Tees Television and offered a chance to return to the commercial station. Tyne Tees offered him his own hour long news programme: North East Tonight with Mike Neville, the local ITV news programme for the North East of England.
Neville made the switch back to Tyne Tees, which coincided with a short-lived rebrand from Tyne Tees to Channel 3 North East. He was the anchor of the show until late 2005 when he underwent an operation to remove a blood clot from his leg. On 5 June 2006, Neville announced that he would be retiring from the show after 40 years presenting news in the North East. [2] After he left the programme switched back to two separate editions.
Mike Neville is the subject of the song "Mike Neville Said It" written by Jez Lowe and recorded on his 1993 CD "Bede Weeps".[1]