John Harry Robert Timpson, (2 July 1928 – 19 November 2005) was a British journalist, best known as a radio presenter.

Early life

Born at Ridgeholme, 53 The Ridgeway, Kenton,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, a boys'

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

Northwood, London Northwood is an area in the London Borough of Hillingdon, North West London, located northwest of Charing Cross. Northwood was part of the ancient parish of Ruislip, Middlesex. The area was situated on the historic Middlesex boundary with Hert ...

Career

On leaving school he went straight into employment at the ''Wembley News'' as a sixteen-year-old cub reporter. After five years there and two years of national service in the

Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and do ...

, he married his wife Patricia née Whale in 1951Michael Leapman (21 November 2005)
"Obituary: John Timpson"
''The Independent''. London. and moved to

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. He then worked for the ''

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to ...

'' until, in 1959, he started to work for

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

as reporter, becoming deputy court correspondent in 1962 covering overseas royal visits. He remained in this post until 1967. From 1964, he presented ''

Newsroom A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editing, editors, and Television producer, producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournalists, videojournalists, associate editor, residence editor, visu ...

'' on BBC 2, the first British television news programme to make the switch to

colour Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorp ...

on 1 July 1967. He later presented the BBC's late evening ''

Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...

'' programme. Timpson co-presented the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

programme '' Today'' from 1970 to 1976 and again from 1978 to 1986, working on ''Tonight'' during the gap. Initially appointed to steady a programme affected by the erratic Jack de Manio, he later presented in tandem with Robert Robinson and Brian Redhead among others, forming a popular partnership with the latter. Timpson became known as the more humorous of the two men with jocular asides like "Insulation – Britain lags behind" or "Crash course for learner drivers"."Obituary: John Timpson"
''The Daily Telegraph''. London. 21 November 2005. From 1984 to 1987, he also presented the popular weekly radio show ''

Any Questions? ''Any Questions?'' is a British topical discussion programme "in which a panel of personalities from the worlds of politics, media, and elsewhere are posed questions by the audience". It is typically broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Fridays at 20: ...

''. He was generally perceived as something of a small-c conservative traditionalist and probably politically to the right of his colleague Brian Redhead. His experiences in broadcasting provided Timpson with material for several books: ''Today and Yesterday'' (1976), ''The Lighter Side of Today'' (1983) and ''The Early Morning Book'' (1986). After his retirement from the BBC he returned to Norfolk and continued writing, especially about England and

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

in particular. These included a novel ''Paper Trail'' (1989) and two works on the quirks and oddities of English life – ''Timpson's England'' (1987) and ''Timpson's Towns'' (1989). Subsequent books included ''Timpson’s English Eccentrics'' (1991), ''Timpson’s English Villages'' (1992), ''Timpson’s Other England'' (1993), ''Timpson’s English Country Inns'' (1995) and ''Timpson on the Verge'' (2002). The station building at County School in central Norfolk was formally opened as a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

centre by John Timpson on 15 June 1990, who was brought into the station for the occasion on a short train composed of a Ruston diesel locomotive and LMS brake van. In 1986 he was awarded a Sony Gold Award for outstanding services to radio, and the following year he was awarded an OBE for his services to broadcasting.

Death

John Timpson died in

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

, Norfolk, on 19 November 2005 and was buried at his parish church of St Peter's Weasenham. He was survived by his wife and son, although his second son Nick had predeceased him by only five weeks. A memorial service was held on 22 February 2006, when family, friends and colleagues gathered at

Norwich Cathedral Norwich Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Norwich, Norfolk, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Norwich and the mother church of the dioc ...

to celebrate his long and productive life and career. The speakers included the Director of

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Radio and Music, Jenny Abramsky.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Timpson, John 1928 births 2005 deaths Alumni of the University of Nottingham BBC newsreaders and journalists British male journalists British radio personalities British radio people People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Kenton, London Royal Army Service Corps soldiers 20th-century British Army personnel