Annie St John (born Ann Florence Heywood; 8 September 1954 – 10 December 1990) was a British television broadcaster. Originally from Blackpool,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, she attended Blackpool Collegiate Grammar School for Girls and the Rose Bruford Drama School. She worked as a

mahout A mahout is an elephant rider, trainer, or keeper. Mahouts were used since antiquity for both civilian and military use. Traditionally, mahouts came from ethnic groups with generations of elephant keeping experience, with a mahout retaining h ...

at the Blackpool Tower Circus and in repertory theatre in Bolton, Salisbury and the Young Vic in London. St John first made her name on television in 1978 as a hostess on the first two series of the networked YTV game show ''

3-2-1 ''3–2–1'' was a British game show that was made by Yorkshire Television for ITV. It ran for ten years, from 29 July 1978 to 24 December 1988, with Ted Rogers as the host. It was based on a Spanish gameshow called '' Un, dos, tres... res ...

'', before joining

HTV West ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales ...

in 1981 as a continuity announcer and newsreader. Her popularity in the Westcountry was as such that viewers launched a ''Save Our Annie'' campaign when she left the station in 1983 to join

Tyne Tees Television ITV Tyne Tees, previously known as Tyne Tees, Channel 3 North East and Tyne Tees Television, is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from studios at a converte ...

in Newcastle. During her time at Tyne Tees, St John continued to freelance for HTV West and also for

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

. She returned to HTV permanently in 1987. As well as announcing duties, St. John presented various regional programmes including ''Ask Oscar'', a weekly ''What's On'' programme, ''It's Nearly Saturday'' and the advice series ''Problems''. By the late 1980s, St John had become one of the main anchors of the nightly regional news programme, ''HTV News'', alongside Bruce Hockin and Richard Wyatt, while continuing her continuity role. She also presented a request show for the independent local radio station Radio West.

Death

On Saturday 3 November 1990, St John took a lethal overdose of champagne and drugs at her flat in Baltic Wharf, Bristol. She was found semi-conscious and naked on a bed by HTV director of programming Derek Clark and a staff rigger following concern from colleagues when St John failed to turn up for work. On Monday 10 December 1990 – 38 days after the overdose - St John died in hospital at the age of 36. She had been married to an HTV colleague, actor Michael St John, for 14 years. The inquest into her death recorded a verdict of suicide.'Watergate-like stink about TV woman's suicide'
Daily Telegraph report

References

External links

* Radio and television announcers 1954 births 1990 deaths People educated at Blackpool Collegiate School for Girls Drug-related suicides in England 1990 suicides Suicides in Bristol {{UK-tv-bio-stub