SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

This was sparked by reading the Radio Leeds thread. We never listened to Radio Leeds in our house, my Dad would only ever have Radio 4, but Look North was his favorite because it covered the North and West Yorkshire [while the rubbish that was Calendar, on YTV, reported the east, south and Lincolnshire.The first newsreader I can remember was Barry Chambers; all smart suits and sideburns.Also, John Thirlwell; I remember from him doing a piece at Barnbow and getting paint on his blue velvet jacket. I seem to think that he went "down South" and made a few appearances on the Six O'Clock News.Ken Cooper; poor old Ken seemed just to fade away......Mostly though, 'Look North' seemed to be dominated by Harry Gration; looking at this website [http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbc_yorkshire/news.html] he seems only to have been the anchor man since the '80s. I thought that he'd been there longer than God!

I've met Ken Cooper and Harry Gration. When I was at college in 1977, I was doing some research on Oakdale Manor, an old derelict house in Harrogate, which was due for demolition. The second day I arrived at the house, Ken was there with a film crew doing a piece about it for Look North. We swapped notes and he seemed a nice chap. I think he's still involved in television - I've occasionally seen his name in various programmes' end credits as producer, or something similar.Years later (1990ish,) I helped make a film about the proposed York Road tramway, and we employed Harry as the presenter. He was very professional, but seemed rather quiet - almost shy. I remember we were filming him with a long lens and trying to shout directions to him over the traffic noise while he was standing on the footbridge near The Shaftsbury. It was a low budget production!

liits wrote: Ken Cooper; poor old Ken seemed just to fade away......Mostly though, 'Look North' seemed to be dominated by Harry Gration; looking at this website [http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbc_yorkshire/news.html] At least one notable absentee on there.Khalid Aziz did a fair stint as a main presenter.

liits wrote: This was sparked by reading the Radio Leeds thread. We never listened to Radio Leeds in our house, my Dad would only ever have Radio 4, but Look North was his favorite because it covered the North and West Yorkshire [while the rubbish that was Calendar, on YTV, reported the east, south and Lincolnshire.The first newsreader I can remember was Barry Chambers; all smart suits and sideburns.Also, John Thirlwell; I remember from him doing a piece at Barnbow and getting paint on his blue velvet jacket. I seem to think that he went "down South" and made a few appearances on the Six O'Clock News.Ken Cooper; poor old Ken seemed just to fade away......Mostly though, 'Look North' seemed to be dominated by Harry Gration; looking at this website [http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbc_yorkshire/news.html] he seems only to have been the anchor man since the '80s. I thought that he'd been there longer than God! Harry Gration was the anchor on Look North in the late eighties and then was recruited by the RFL as PRO, but it didn't work out for him (don't think I could have worked with Maurice Lindsay either) and he returned to the Beeb only worked down South, I can't remember when he returned to Leeds.When Look North first started there was (as posted earlier) Barry Chambers, but also a South Yorkshire lad called David Seymour, they were replaced by another Sheffielder Michael Cooke - who sin of sins after a RL cup draw called Wakefield Trinity Wakefield Town!!!

Michael Cook and Khalid Aziz were regular anchors when I were a nipper. My Nana used to fancy Khalid.

Trojan wrote: liits wrote: This was sparked by reading the Radio Leeds thread. We never listened to Radio Leeds in our house, my Dad would only ever have Radio 4, but Look North was his favorite because it covered the North and West Yorkshire [while the rubbish that was Calendar, on YTV, reported the east, south and Lincolnshire.The first newsreader I can remember was Barry Chambers; all smart suits and sideburns.Also, John Thirlwell; I remember from him doing a piece at Barnbow and getting paint on his blue velvet jacket. I seem to think that he went "down South" and made a few appearances on the Six O'Clock News.Ken Cooper; poor old Ken seemed just to fade away......Mostly though, 'Look North' seemed to be dominated by Harry Gration; looking at this website [http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbc_yorkshire/news.html] he seems only to have been the anchor man since the '80s. I thought that he'd been there longer than God! Harry Gration was the anchor on Look North in the late eighties and then was recruited by the RFL as PRO, but it didn't work out for him (don't think I could have worked with Maurice Lindsay either) and he returned to the Beeb only worked down South, I can't remember when he returned to Leeds.When Look North first started there was (as posted earlier) Barry Chambers, but also a South Yorkshire lad called David Seymour, they were replaced by another Sheffielder Michael Cooke - who sin of sins after a RL cup draw called Wakefield Trinity Wakefield Town!!! Thanks for that, Trojan. I now recall David Seymour and Michael Cooke. Mr Cooke I remember as being quite a round faced chap with glasses. Mr Seymour, with the exception of his name, is a blank to me.