31 January 2024 , 00:01
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These sunny faces have been beamed in to the nation’s living rooms giving us the good or bad news about everyone’s favourite talking point... the weather.
Royal Mail is releasing some special stamps to mark the 170th anniversary of the Met Office. They include the trailblazer Barbara Edwards, the first British female weather presenter on telly, way back in January 1974, paving the way for the likes of Wincey Willis and Ulrika Jonsson.
Met Office chief executive, Prof Penny Endersby, says: “As an island, we are often at the mercy of the weather and our role is to help people stay safe.” Here Karen Bryans and Sanjeeta Bains remember the iconic stars who have brightened up the day or rained on our parades for generations...
Wincey Willis
When the magnificently blonde-mulleted Wincey joined the revamped TV-am in May 1983, she became ITV ’s first female weather presenter and it was sunshine all the way. She famously adjudicated Anneka Rice on Treasure Hunt too. Wincey, from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, is now 75 and a lifelong animal lover and passionate animal welfare supporter who once shared her home with 50 other critters!
Barbara Edwards
Barbara Edwards (BBC)The original and best TV weather girl. Barbara, now 84, faced flak for her clothes after her debut in 1974. But she shook off the storm, also faced by today’s forecasters, when she moved to BBC Radio in 1978. No clothing criticism there.
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Darren Bett
Darren Bett (BBC)BBC Darren, 55, made viewers smile with a tribute to Strictly’s Len Goodman after he died last year by emphasising a “sev-uhn” when revealing the temperatures.
Laura Tobin
Laura TobinTwin Laura was the first member of the public to ride Alton Towers’ The Smiler. The Good Morning Britain star, 42, is from North-ampton and wrote Everyday Ways to Save Our Planet, on climate change.
Clare Nasir
Clare Nasir (Met Office)Channel 5’s Clare, 53, had to contend with unflattering pics of herself in a bikini being published back in the noughties. But she saw a silver lining and capitalised by slimming down and cashing in with a fitness DVD in 2010.
John Kettley
John Kettley (BBC)The Yorkshireman, 71, was a fixture on tellies through the 80s but his fame went a step further. He was immortalised in 1988 pop song John Kettley Is a Weatherman by Sunderland band A Tribe of Toffs. It was a catchy tune but peaked at No21.
Ulrika Jonsson
Ulrika Jonsson (Pictures in Mind / Scope Features)Ulrika, 56, lit up dreary UK mornings with her stint on Good Morning Britain. The Swede also presented the original Gladiators, now enjoying a Saturday night revival. But it was her love life that grabbed the headlines. There was an affair with England manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson. Lance Gerrard-Wright, appearing on Ulrika’s dating show Mr Right, married Ulrika instead of one of the contestants. She also dated Gladiator Hunter, James Crossley.
Alex Beresford
Alex Beresford (SWNS)What does it take to prick the hot air balloon ego of Piers Morgan? GMB’s Alex, 43. He’s a weather whizz but his biggest claim to fame is standing up to Piers over how he spoke about the Duchess of Sussex. Piers stormed off.
Ian McCaskill
Ian McCaskill (BBC)Ian’s soft Glaswegian burr was an impersonator’s dream. In the RAF, he joked, he had to choose catering or meteorology. He didn’t know what meteorology was, he claimed, but couldn’t cook so picked the other option. He died at 78 in 2016.
Carol Kirkwood
Sunshine in a bottle, Carol, 61, is a mainstay on BBC Breakfast with her glorious smile. She floated like a cloud into the top 10 of the 13th series of Strictly Come Dancing back in 2015.
Michael Fish
Michael Fish (BBC)“A woman said she heard there was a hurricane on the way,” Michael, now 79, told the nation in 1987. “Don’t worry, there isn’t!” He was technically correct, there wasn’t a hurricane – but The Great Storm killed 18 people. In 30 years on the BBC, he got plenty right...
Sian Lloyd
Sian Lloyd (ExpressStar)Sian, 65, from Maesteg, South Wales, was the longest-serving female forecaster, with a spell of 24 years. A doomed romance with MP Lembit Opik brought her to wider attention.
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Tomasz Schafernaker
Puppy-cute BBC meteorologist Tomasz is a favourite by royal decree. Not only is the 45-year-old popular in our columnist Paul Routledge’s house, where his wife can’t get enough of him, but Tomasz was also adored by our late Queen. A source said: “It was a bit of a crush. She always liked to see his forecasts.”
Owain Wyn Evans
Owain, 39, is the beating heart of the weather new guard, a snazzily-dressing, brooch bedecked, whirlwind of a weatherman from Carmarthenshire. He did a 24-hour drumathon for Children in Need in November 2021. He is patron of the LGBT Foundation.
Suzanne Charlton
Suzanne Charlton (Barry Phillips/Evening Standard/REX/Shutterstock)Lancashire lass Suzanne, 62, was as a forecaster for the RAF in Germany before becoming a TV regular in the early nineties. The daughter of footballing legend Bobby, who died last year aged 86, her last bulletin was back in 2007.
Lucy Verasamy
Lucy Verasamy (ITV)If the weather met Succession, you’d get Lucy delivering the forecast in pencil skirts and heels… just as she did it on Sky News. Lucy, 43, is now the face of ITV weather and has dated fellow forecaster Tomasz Schafernaker.
Francis Wilson
Francis Wilson (PA)While men had Ulrika to pep up their brekkies, for gals it was flirtatious Francis, now 75. The Scot livened up BBC reports from 1993 to 2010. It’s him reading the shipping forecast on 1979 Jethro Tull album Stormwatch.
Stav Danaos
Stav Danaos (DAILY MIRROR)Last year viewers appreciated Stav, 45, rocking the Countryfile look while hosting a weather bulletin on the BBC show in a check shirt and jeans. But just months later he incurred the wrath of BBC Breakfast star Naga Munchetty by telling her co-host Stayt “See you later, Charlie,” and ignoring her. He apologised.
Bill Giles
Bill Giles (BBC)Bill, 84, from Devon, led the BBC’s Met Office forecasting team from 1983 to 2000, and more than 30 years ago predicted the mess we find ourselves in today.
Philip Avery
Philip Avery (Internet Unknown)On the Beeb since 1998, Philip, 64, also clears up litter in Maidenhead, Berks. Worried about discarded booze bottles, the local resident said: ”I didn’t want my kids thinking it is OK to be p*ssed out of your head.”