Nan Winton
Nan Winton is a British broadcaster, best known for being the first female national newsreader on BBC television.
She was a BBC TV continuity announcer from 1958–61 and also an experienced journalist who had worked on Panorama and Town and Around.[1] She was given the job to read the 6pm news and weekend bulletins on Sunday evenings, due to pressure from rivals ITN, who had had a female newscaster, Barbara Mandell, since its launch in 1955.
She began on 19 June 1960, but BBC Audience research concluded that viewers thought a woman reading the late news was "not acceptable"[1] and she was removed from the role in March 1961.[2] She remained the only woman to have read the national news on BBC TV until 1975, when Angela Rippon began a much longer spell as a newsreader.
After stepping down from reading the news, Winton remained a TV and radio news reporter and interviewer. She was also a regular panelist on the radio panel game Treble Chance. She was formerly married to actor Charles Stapley who had appeared as Ted Hope in Crossroads.[3]
See also
- Geraldine McInerney, RTÉ's first female newsreader in 1975
References
External links
- Kearney, Martha (3 February 2005). "Women in news or 'news tarts'?". Newsnight25. London: BBC Online. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
In Italy and Spain they have women newsreaders who are beautiful and sexy too. We're afraid of that here.
- Bruce, Fiona (2 July 2004). "Women on the news". News Update. London: BBC Online. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
…Fiona Bruce still regards it as the best job going, and celebrates the formidable women who have gone before her.
- "Nan Winton - First female newsreader on the BBC". Birth of Television Archive. 1 January 1960. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
- Nan Winton biodata[dead link]