Frances Donovan
Frances Donovan is one of the UK’s premier broadcasters. She has hosted a number of major events including the Rugby World Cup, the Commonwealth Games, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee[1] and the BAFTAs.
Early life
Frances was born in Cardiff, Wales, where she attended university and obtained a degree in English, Literature and Creative writing. She went on to obtain a postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism. Her career in broadcasting started as a radio presenter at 210FM in Reading and Severn Sound in Gloucester. She then joined HTV West before working for Meridian TV, ITN and Sky News. This landed her a job at Sky Sports and News 24 Sport.
Career
TV and Broadcasting
Frances is a respected anchor of sports programming and live broadcasting, including BBC Sports News for BBC Breakfast, the BBC News Channel and BBC World. She has reported for Match of the Day and Football Focus as well as 'The Open Championship'. She has also hosted Wales on Saturday, Sports Personality of the Year, International Snooker, 'Bowls' and 'Boxing' all for BBC television.[2] Frances has been the familiar face of the BBC's golf coverage in Wales for many years and has anchored the BBC Wales' iconic rugby Scrum TV as well as ITV Wales coverage of the Rugby World Cup.[3] On all networks, she has interviewed the big names in Welsh and international sport but with her easy going style, has also brought the best out of many less well-known faces. Away from sport, Frances is also an authoritative news presenter, having presented both 'Wales Tonight' and 'The West Tonight' for ITV and also recently showed she can tackle the business world too in 'The Secrets of My Success' for ITV 1 Wales. She had the chance to indulge her love of history and adventure in the BBC series 'History Hunters' and was one of the faces of the BBC's coverage of the Royal Welsh Show for four years. Frances presented ITV 1’s popular art, entertainment and culture programme The Wales Show for a number of years, interviewing Ricky Gervais, Catherine Zeta Jones and Rhys Ifans amongst others. Frances is a calm and skilled host of live events. She presented Children in Need for BBC Wales for seven years and also anchored a seven hour OB for the BBC series 'Tune Team' at Cardiff Castle. She is currently one of the presenters on 'Premier League News', covering the Premier League for overseas rights holders and also anchors ‘In Touch’ a new sporting chat show from ITV Wales, talking to leading figures of the Welsh sports scene in a series of insightful and interesting conversations.
Radio
On radio, she anchored a nightly three hour Olympics show through the summer of 2012 and hosted phone-ins to mark Wales' Six Nations success, Swansea City's League Cup triumph and Cardiff City's arrival in the Premier League. She is the lively and quick witted host of the sports quiz 'Extra Time' for BBC Radio Wales and has also reported from the Welsh stage of the World Rally Championship for Five Live. She is the regular guest presenter on the afternoon magazine show that airs daily on BBC Radio Wales.
Host
Frances has presented a number of dinners and conferences for HSBC and for NCR across Wales and throughout the world. She has been the regular host of conferences for the Wales Tourism Alliance and has been the Master of Ceremonies at the testimonial dinners of several rugby and cricket internationals. Frances has also hosted events for the Cardiff Blues and a number of corporate dinners during the Rugby World Cup. She is the regular host of the Welsh Football Trust's annual awards dinner.
Charity involvement
Frances is an ambassador for the Welsh Football Trust as well as St John Cymru. She is also actively involved with a number of animal welfare charities, an issue she is very passionate about.