Nick Owen
Encyclopedia
Nicholas "Nick" Corbishley Owen
(born 1 November 1947) is an English
television presenter and newsreader
, best known for presenting the breakfast television programme TV-am
and the BBC
's local news show Midlands Today
since 1997. He is also the current chairman of Luton Town Football Club.
, Hertfordshire
, to father Bertie, a headmaster and Dunkirk veteran, and mother Esme (née Burton), a music teacher, he attended Kingsland Grange prep school, an independent boarding school in Shrewsbury, between the ages of 7-13, then Shrewsbury School
between the ages of 13-18. While at Kingsland Grange, Owen borrowed a Cliff Richard
record from Bob Warman
, who later went on to become the longest serving regional news presenter on ATV
and later Central
in the Midlands. Owen completed his education at the University of Leeds
where he obtained a BA (Hons) degree in Classics
in 1969.
among other duties. He started working for the BBC
's local radio station Radio Birmingham in 1973, as a news producer and later as Sports Editor. His first live broadcast was an early morning news bulletin during the Les Ross show.
in 1978. He later became a presenter at Central TV
, teaming up with Anne Diamond
. He went on to present Good Morning Britain
on TV-am
in 1983, co-presenting it with Anne Diamond until 1986. He hosted a TV game show "Hitman" in the late 80s. He then became a presenter for ITV Sport
after leaving TV-am until 1993 presenting Midweek Sports Special and also presented ITV's coverage of Euro 88 and the 1990 World Cup
as well as the game show Sporting Triangles
. From 1992 to 1996 he co-presented Good Morning with Anne and Nick
on BBC One
.
He is currently the main presenter on Midlands Today
with Suzanne Virdee
, the BBC regional television news programme for the West Midlands
. He is well known for his awful jokes and puns, usually connected to light hearted stories. In the fictional world of Alan Partridge
, he is friends with the chat show host.
newspaper, that Nick and Jill have separated after 32 years of marriage, with Nick moving out of the family home. The reason for the separation was given as the couple just drifting apart.
helped launch an official MySpace
page for Owen in an attempt to make a mark on the world's largest blogging community. During that evening's bulletin when the page was featured, Owen's page received over 200 friend requests and a deluge of comments for the TV presenter. During the experiment, Owen received thousands of friend requests, emails and comments through the site, which closed in March 2007.
on 13 April 2009. However, Luton did win the Football League Trophy
that year in front of 42,000 Luton fans at Wembley, despite being the lowest placed team in the competition for the whole season.
He was also named National Speaker of the Year 2010 by the Association of Speakers Clubs, following such figures as Peter Ustinov, Terry Waite, Betty Boothroyd and Esther Rantzen.
Nick also triumphed on Celebrity Weakest Link in 2004, winning money for his chosen charity, St. Mary's Hospice, Birmingham.
(born 1 November 1947) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
television presenter and newsreader
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...
, best known for presenting the breakfast television programme TV-am
TV-am
TV-am was a breakfast television station that broadcast to the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 to 31 December 1992. It made history by being the first national operator of a commercial television franchise at breakfast-time , and broadcast every day of the week for most or all of the period...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's local news show Midlands Today
Midlands Today
Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for the West Midlands region, which covers the north of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands county...
since 1997. He is also the current chairman of Luton Town Football Club.
Early life and education
Born in BerkhamstedBerkhamsted
-Climate:Berkhamsted experiences an oceanic climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.-Castle:...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, to father Bertie, a headmaster and Dunkirk veteran, and mother Esme (née Burton), a music teacher, he attended Kingsland Grange prep school, an independent boarding school in Shrewsbury, between the ages of 7-13, then Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...
between the ages of 13-18. While at Kingsland Grange, Owen borrowed a Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
record from Bob Warman
Bob Warman
Bob Warman is a British television presenter, born in Walsall, West Midlands .Between the ages of 13 and 18, Warman attended Wrekin College in Wellington, Shropshire. He has spent most of his television career at ATV and Central, presenting regional news programmes.He was also a regional presenter...
, who later went on to become the longest serving regional news presenter on ATV
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
and later Central
Central Independent Television
Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...
in the Midlands. Owen completed his education at the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
where he obtained a BA (Hons) degree in Classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
in 1969.
Early career
Owen's first job was as a graduate trainee on the Doncaster Evening Post. After two years Owen moved to a job at the Birmingham Post, where he covered local football, including the 1982 World CupFIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
among other duties. He started working for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's local radio station Radio Birmingham in 1973, as a news producer and later as Sports Editor. His first live broadcast was an early morning news bulletin during the Les Ross show.
Television career
He joined ATVAssociated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
in 1978. He later became a presenter at Central TV
Central Independent Television
Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...
, teaming up with Anne Diamond
Anne Diamond
Anne Margaret Diamond is an English radio and television presenter and journalist. She hosted Good Morning Britain for TV-am and the similarly titled Good Morning... with Anne and Nick for BBC1, both with Nick Owen as her co-presenter...
. He went on to present Good Morning Britain
Good Morning Britain
Good Morning Britain was TV-am's flagship breakfast television show throughout TV-am's time on air, broadcasting five days a week, initially from 7am until 9am. By 1985 the programme started at the earlier time of 6.15am and by 1988 the programme started at 6am. It had many different presenters...
on TV-am
TV-am
TV-am was a breakfast television station that broadcast to the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 to 31 December 1992. It made history by being the first national operator of a commercial television franchise at breakfast-time , and broadcast every day of the week for most or all of the period...
in 1983, co-presenting it with Anne Diamond until 1986. He hosted a TV game show "Hitman" in the late 80s. He then became a presenter for ITV Sport
ITV Sport
ITV Sport is a sport producer and brand name owned by ITV plc. It was formed from the amalgamation of Granada Sport, Carlton's sports department and ISN, the sports division of London News Network. The company produces Champions League and FA Cup Football, along with coverage of England's national...
after leaving TV-am until 1993 presenting Midweek Sports Special and also presented ITV's coverage of Euro 88 and the 1990 World Cup
1990 FIFA World Cup
The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event twice. Teams representing 116 national football associations from all six populated...
as well as the game show Sporting Triangles
Sporting Triangles
Sporting Triangles was a quiz programme, devised by Matthew Davies and Robert Lawrence, which tested the sporting superstars knowledge of sport. The programme was produced by Central Television and aired on the ITV network for four series from 1987 until 1990...
. From 1992 to 1996 he co-presented Good Morning with Anne and Nick
Good Morning with Anne and Nick
Good Morning with Anne and Nick was a BBC1 daytime television show presented by Anne Diamond and Nick Owen, from October 1992 to May 1996. The pair had previously presented TV-am on ITV, but now directly competed with ITV's This Morning....
on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
.
He is currently the main presenter on Midlands Today
Midlands Today
Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for the West Midlands region, which covers the north of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands county...
with Suzanne Virdee
Suzanne Virdee
Suzanne Virdee is a British television newsreader known in the Midlands area. She is one of the presenters of Midlands Today on BBC One and has appeared on BBC Breakfast as the programme's newsreader, until a change of studio and format in March 2006.-Career:Virdee became a journalist at the age...
, the BBC regional television news programme for the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
. He is well known for his awful jokes and puns, usually connected to light hearted stories. In the fictional world of Alan Partridge
Alan Partridge
Alan Gordon Partridge is a fictional radio and television presenter portrayed by English comedian Steve Coogan and invented by Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring for the BBC Radio 4 programme On The Hour...
, he is friends with the chat show host.
Personal life
Owen married Jill Lavery in 1977 in Birmingham. The couple had four children together: Andy, Tim, Chris (born November 1986) and Jenny (born September 1988) and lived together in Birmingham until August 2009, when it was reported in the News of the WorldNews of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
newspaper, that Nick and Jill have separated after 32 years of marriage, with Nick moving out of the family home. The reason for the separation was given as the couple just drifting apart.
MySpace
On 17 October 2006, Midlands Todays science and environment correspondent David GregoryDavid Gregory (BBC)
Dr. David Gregory is a news correspondent for BBC Midlands Today, the regional news programme broadcast in the Midlands of England. He is the Science and Environmental Correspondent....
helped launch an official MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page for Owen in an attempt to make a mark on the world's largest blogging community. During that evening's bulletin when the page was featured, Owen's page received over 200 friend requests and a deluge of comments for the TV presenter. During the experiment, Owen received thousands of friend requests, emails and comments through the site, which closed in March 2007.
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
He was elected to serve as the President for a two year period between 2007 and 2009.Luton Town
Nick Owen, a lifelong fan, became the Club Chairman when the Luton Town Football Club 2020 consortium purchased the club in 2008 following a period in administration. The club began the 2008/09 season with a thirty point deficit, and were consequently relegated from the Football League to the Conference NationalConference National
Conference National is the top division of the Football Conference in England. It is the highest level of the National League System and fifth highest of the overall English football league system...
on 13 April 2009. However, Luton did win the Football League Trophy
Football League Trophy
The Football League Trophy, currently known as the Johnstone's Paint Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football knock-out competition open to the 48 clubs in Football League One and Football League Two, the bottom two divisions in the four fully professional top...
that year in front of 42,000 Luton fans at Wembley, despite being the lowest placed team in the competition for the whole season.
Awards
In 2006, he was awarded the Baird Medal by the Royal Television Society, Midlands, for lifelong achievement in television.He was also named National Speaker of the Year 2010 by the Association of Speakers Clubs, following such figures as Peter Ustinov, Terry Waite, Betty Boothroyd and Esther Rantzen.
Nick also triumphed on Celebrity Weakest Link in 2004, winning money for his chosen charity, St. Mary's Hospice, Birmingham.