Anne Leuchars

Anne Leuchars
Born (1953-08-02) 2 August 1953
Kampala, Uganda
OccupationsFormer news reader, journalist and broadcaster

Anne Leuchars (born 2 August 1953) is an English former broadcaster, journalist and news reader who has worked for the BBC and ITN. A graduate of the University of Liverpool, she began her journalistic career at the Coventry Evening Telegraph and Bristol Evening Post newspapers. Leuchars then worked on regional television news/magazine programmes and then spent ten years at ITN as a newsreader and reporter. She went on to work at Northumberland National Park in Hexham as its information officer.

Early life

Leuchars was born in Kampala, Uganda on 2 August 1953.[1] She is the daughter of a tropical forester who was working for the Forestry Commission in Uganda at the time of her birth.[2][3] Leuchars was brought up in Uganda until she and her family moved to England when she was nine.[4][5] She was educated at Farnham Girls' Grammar School and graduated from the University of Liverpool with a Bachelor of Arts honours degree in geography.[1]

Career

Following university, she worked at the Coventry Evening Telegraph newspaper as a member of the reporting staff for four years,[4][6] and later at the Bristol Evening Post newspaper as a reporter and specialist in theatre drama criticism from July 1978 until 1979.[2][3][7] Leuchars reported on events such as terrorist bombings in Coventry, the 1980 St Pauls riot in Bristol and at an army camp on Salisbury Plain.[3]

She went on to work in television, firstly on the regional news/magazine programme BBC Points West for BBC Bristol for 11 months,[1][2][4] after she was interviewed by a BBC film reporter about women on picket lines during a Bristol Evening Post provincial newspaper strike in 1978 and she was offered employment in the corporation by a producer.[3][4][5] Leuchars was at HTV West on its programmes Report West and Report Extra in Bristol for 12 months.[1] She went on to work as a presenter-reporter for Border Television on its news/magazine programme Lookaround in Carlisle from 1 December 1980.[6][8] Leuchars also worked at Central Television in Nottingham because she wanted an area that produced more news and was the presenter of Mary Chipperfield and Friends.[1][4]

She also spent 10 years in London with ITN as a newsreader and reporter from June 1983.[2][9] Leuchars read her first news bulletin for ITN in August 1983 as her colleague Norman Rees was on assignment abroad,[10] and the last bulletin she read was broadcast on 11 October 1992.[11] She covered royal events such as the visit of Princess Anne to The Gambia and Upper Volta in 1984,[12] the 1986 wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson from the village of Dummer, Hampshire,[13] and the four-day visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Hungary in 1990.[14] Leuchars also reported on the 1984 United States presidential election, The Troubles, the Hungerford massacre, Pan Am Flight 103, bombing raids in Africa and on the Contras in Nicaragua.[5][15]

Leuchars went freelance and began a two-year part-time conservation course at the University of Oxford.[15] She was on programmes such as co-presenting Pieces of Parkin alongside former newsreader Leonard Parkin,[16] the six-part series Big Business on Yorkshire Television,[17] the Anglia Television countryside programme Countrywide,[18] and the eight-week Granada Television environmental series The Big Green Boat Show during the 1990s.[5][19] Becoming interested in the environment,[5] she then spent five years as information officer with Northumberland National Park in Hexham from November 1992, promoting the park and liaising with bodies such as the Forestry Commission and the English Tourist Board.[11][15] Leuchars rejoined the BBC with its BBC North East and Cumbria team in Newcastle.[20][21] Leuchars returned to television, stepping in for Carol Malia on BBC Look North for three months in late 1998.[21] She presented the afternoon news programme alongside Jon Harle on BBC Radio Newcastle until 2016.[22] In 2015, Leuchars released a walking book on hiking with her friend Debby Waldron called You Take the High Road; Northumbrian Walks.[23]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hayward, Anthony, ed. (1990). "Leuchars, Anne". Who's Who on Television (Fifth ed.). London, England: Boxtree Ltd. and Independent Television Publications Ltd. p. 118. ISBN 1-85283-105-7 – via Internet Archive. Curthoys, Alan; Struthers, Anne; Doyle, John, eds. (1982). "Leuchars, Anne". Who's who on television : A Fully Illustrated Guide to 1000 Best Known Faces on British Television. London, England: Independent Television Books. p. 147. ISBN 0-900727-96-9 – via Internet Archive.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Thomas, Alson (28 July 1983). "Good news for Anne". Bristol Evening Post. p. 6. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Brotherwood, Clare (1 December 1980). "Look out Anna – Border TV's new girl has her sights set on the top". News and Star. p. 6. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Buckton, Janet (22 November 1982). "After a day on camera it's off to the hills". Coventry Evening Telegraph. p. 10. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Dufton, Keith (8 November 1992). "Call of the Wild". Sunday Sun. pp. 18–19. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 "Presenter". The Westmorland Gazette. 5 December 1980. p. 10. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Flowery thanks". Bristol Evening Post. 17 July 1978. p. 1. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "(Untitled)". News and Star. 23 October 1980. p. 11. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "TV Whirl - ITN News". TV Whirl. 11 March 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
  10. ↑ "Anne's debut". Western Daily Press. 13 August 1983. p. 2. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. 1 2 "Anne to quit ITN for North". News and Star. 13 October 1992. p. 20. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Barber, John (3 March 1984). "Lapping it up with two fast ladies". Bristol Evening Post. p. 9. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ Macdonald, Keith (22 July 1986). "Watching on TV?". Manchester Evening News. p. 19. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Gibbs, Neil (12 May 1990). "A Royal salute to freedom". Eastern Daily Press. p. 1. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. 1 2 3 Wilson, Jennifer (27 July 1994). "Natural beauty that lured Anne from ITN". The Journal. p. 9. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Wild boar, pink fir - and Parkin". Gazette & Herald. 20 December 1990. p. 8. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Tuning in to Yorkshire business". The Press. 13 November 1990. p. 4. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ James, Derek (10 April 1992). "Newts featured in new Anglia series". Norwich Evening News. p. 6. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "New series". The Stage. 25 March 1993. p. 21. Retrieved 13 June 2026 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  20. ↑ "BBC - Jon and Anne". BBC. 11 March 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
  21. 1 2 "Anne's big chance". The Cumberland News. 11 September 1998. p. 11. Retrieved 12 June 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ "BBC - Anne Leuchars". BBC. 11 March 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
  23. ↑ Henderson, Tony (14 August 2015). "Northumberland friends release walking book for 'tortoise and hare' hikers". Evening Chronicle. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
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