Televison and Radio
Click to view Diane’s exciting show reels.
Diane the Broadcaster & TV Presenter
As early as I can remember, radio has always featured in my life. As a child in my parents home there was always a radio on and I even received my first ever radio from my much loved aunt at the age of 5. My father contributed to BBC Radio and TV as its resident astronomer for 35 years, so I would often watch him plan and write his broadcasts and then enjoy listening to them.
A number of years later my first ever interview on radio was at the age of 9 after winning the North of England Junior Championships and gaining a place in the British Gymnastics Squad. Following on a number of years later my actual radio presenting career began........…
In my early twenties I was followed out of the studio at Broadcasting House, Portland Place by a producer. She had heard me being interviewed about Gladiators and my fitness teaching and asked if I would be interested in doing more.
I then trained in basic presentation and broadcasting skills at Portland Place and went on to do a regular early Sunday morning slot which incorporated fitness on BBC Radio 5. I was also working as a cover for Michaela Strachan’s radio shows and it was also known for me to occasionally do the show’s handover from Danny Baker (to those of you who may remember him in the 1990’s). As BBC Radio 5 changed in to what is now known as Radio 5 Live, I was then asked to do a series of programmes called ‘Hot Pursuits’. This was me trying out adventure sports that took me from the mountains of Wales for white water rafting to disastrous hot air ballooning in York. I even found myself in Egypt product testing an enclosed sports training village. Metro FM soon followed this with me co-presenting their breakfast show and doing some late night shifts where I first learned to run a Radio studio from a technical aspect.
TV
During the same time, more and more TV presenting work had accumulated which was taking me away from Radio for a period of time. My TV presenting career had me working for BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, with shows ranging from You Bet, Out and About, Games World, Ouch, Finders Keepers, Children In need, various award ceremonies and many many more. To this day my Television presenting career continues with contributing items to predominant BBC based programmes in news, current affairs and history. I am now back on radio in the North East daily with the mid-morning show ‘The Neil and Diane show’ which looks at breaking news, local interest and breaking stories.