Sue provided the current affairs accompaniment to the beans on toast for nearly two decades on the Beeb. After an apprenticeship ligging around the regional news magazines ("Would you like to try this new sun cream? It's made from stinging nettles!"), she was poached to co-present on the embryonic NATIONWIDE, and thus began a career introducing men who claimed they could walk on eggs. Pretty soon she was second banana on the 'wide, but in 1975 editor Michael Bunce left to relaunch the late night current affairs strand TONIGHT, and took Sue with him. She stayed on the graveyard shift for two years, but teatime was always her spiritual home, and when Michael Barratt quit in 1977, Sue returned to the 'wide to become Frank's second banana. She then stayed there right to the bitter end, even through the rotten David Dimbleby era, and was in charge for both the Diana Gould moment, and the Daily Mirror Rock and Pop Awards, discussing The Police with Kid Jensen. Meanwhile her role on the Beeb's 1979 Election coverage was to co-anchor the BREAKFAST SPECIAL slot between 7am and 9am - basically sitting next to David Dimbleby and getting Bob McKenzie to explain how the swingometer worked for the audience of housewives and children who were watching then.

After the 'wide, Sue moved on to read the main news bulletins, mostly the NINE O'CLOCK NEWS after John Simpson had been dropped for being crap. Then in 1984, after SIXTY MINUTES was axed, she returned to her spiritual home and became the first presenter of THE SIX O'CLOCK NEWS. In the RT interview to promote the show, she exclaimed how good it was to have the news on at six, and not at 5.40 "where you were always checking your watch and then realising you'd missed it" - so presumably Sue never watched THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT. Her finest hour was, of course, the day the studio was invaded in 1988, getting on the cover of the Daily Star the next day with the fantastic headline "Good old Sue!". That year she decided to give up newsreading, although she was in charge of the Beeb's various mock-up wartime newscasts from NEWS 39 to NEWS 45 (all of which had exactly the same people involved, as if they recorded them all in 1989 and showed them over six years).

Instead, her regular stints standing in for WOGAN (she was in charge on the night the audience roared with laughter at the latest Vivienne Westwood collection) led to her own chat show, SATURDAY MATTERS. It was billed as the first time on British TV a woman had her own chat show, but it didn't last long, with Sue later claiming she didn't have the LE credentials to hold that sort of show together. Then she was poached by Granada to front a series of high-profile one-on-one interviews. However after John Major was the first subject (ridiculously screened at 7pm on Easter Monday), the following guests were not quite so great (episode two - Queen Noor of Jordan), and the show ended due to lack of interest. Instead she was given a few documentaries, and returned to the Beeb for a bit to front HERE AND NOW, but mostly she's concentrated on the radio in recent years. She never mentions Dudley much anymore though, does she?

A contemporary of Sue, Jan provided the glamour element on the Beeb newsdesk throughout the 1970s and 80s. A few off-peak shows were a breeding ground for her big break in the late 70s, fronting PEBBLE MILL AT ONE during the curious period when it was simply called PEBBLE MILL. But it was reading the news where she became most recognisable, and after some duty shifts, found her most regular gig was reading the news at the weekend and on bank holidays - always clad in a succession of enormous spangly frocks, which often managed to distract from the stories. During one bulletin in 1982, a BBC lightbulb (as Jan carefully denoted) exploded over her head and got her in out-take shows for years to come. A few years later, however, while walking through the NEWSROUND studio (God alone knows why), she chanced upon an intruder and had ammonia sprayed in her face. Interviewed a few days later, she expressed concern about what the country was coming to these days, and this editorialising meant that her days at the Beeb were numbered. She left in 1987, and since then has tended to fade from view - occasionally resurfacing in the tabloids after remarrying yet again, and also the odd bits of duty newsreading on THE BIG BREAKFAST (which she was rubbish at). Presumably her wardrobe allowance is too high.

Another newsreader! Dunno how this happened. In any case, Martyn started off in his native Wales (and also had a stint at BBC Northern Ireland) before coming to national prominence at ITN, where he read most of the bulletins and was one of the last arrivals in the days of the 'Non Stop' theme music - so called because they used it non-stop for 27 years. He soon established himself as a smooth, clean-cut figure behind the desk, and as such was poached by the Beeb in 1986 to become the housewives' choice on the newly-launched ONE O'CLOCK NEWS, where he replaced Richard Whitmore and thus we don't like him. He moved over to the nine o'clock bulletin in 1988, then the six in 1994, although he's perhaps most famous for publishing books about cats and dogs in the news. He was on duty while a number of big stories broke, announcing the start of the (first) Gulf War in January 1991 (interrupting the film VILLAIN!, starring Ian McShane, fact fans) and then the death of Diana in August 1997 (interrupting some western or other, fact fans). Extra-cirricular work included the Daytime UK staple HEALTH UK, the dreary CRIME BEAT, and the endless teatime quiz TODAY'S THE DAY, He left the Beeb in 1999 for 'other projects', although, like Richard Whitmore, this tended to involve pretending being a newsreader - fronting ITV's NEWS 40 (not at all a rip-off of the Beeb's NEWS 40), BETHLEHEM YEAR ZERO and DATELING JERUSALEM. He now fronts late-night religious talking shops on ITV, and if the presenting work dries up, could always get a job as a professional Sven Goran Eriksson lookalike.

Famously Des started off as a radio man, first at Radio Brighton and then at the network sports department. Realising where his talents lay, he went on to anchor most of the major sporting events on the wireless - specialising in boxing - and then television came knocking. His first gig was fronting cricket, much to Des' chagrin because he knew little about it, but he made enough of a success of it to get more work on the box, regularly fronting SPORTSWIDE, the Friday teatime bulletin on NATIONWIDE. Then in October 1979, while both Bough and Coleman were "ill... or drunk!", he filled in on GRANDSTAND, and it was here that he first showed off his completely unflappable nature and ability to flannel through everything. Fairly soon he was one of the regular hosts ("If I wasn't sitting here I'd be right there with you!"), and on his spare Saturdays he did a bit of football commentary. He was also the launch presenter of SUNDAY GRANDSTAND, which he hosted from a leather armchair, where on the first show virtually everything was rained off and he had to interview John Sherwood the weatherman about it. The turning point in his career was probably the 1980 Olympics, where he managed to save the Beeb's reputation by convincing them not to run a story about the Russians cheating which turned out to be untrue, and also benefited from Frank Bough's 'breakdown' - all of which meant that four years later, he was in charge.

He was the Beeb's senior sports presenter throughout the 80s and 90s, anchoring all the big events, and his filling powers at Wimbledon became legendary, with the man even interviewing his dog on one occasion (although why you'd bring your dog to work with you is a moot point). Catchphrases were a problem, though, with an aborted attempt to launch "It's been our business doing pleasure with you!" being a rare misfire. He did a bit of non-sporting work too, although he failed to be as successful with this as his day job - he presented HOLIDAY 89, but gave it up because he was never able to fit the filming in, and HOW DO THEY DO THAT? wasn't much cop either. In 1991 he gave up Grandstand full-time (although he'd return for the Grand National and the like) and concentrated on the more glamorous programmes, which from 1992 included the return of MATCH OF THE DAY. There he stayed until 1999 when, in a move that took everyone by surprise, he decided to quit the corporation and move to ITV.

Unfortunately, on the commercial channel he's mostly been rubbish, thanks to ITV trying to turn his programmes into The Wry Self-Depricating Wit Of Desmond Lynam, Plus Some Football Too If We've Got Time. He's also been lumbered with a succession of useless pundits (even the greatest presenter would struggle sitting next to John Gregory) and stupid ideas (ah, ProZone). It's been pretty sad seeing him roped into saying stuff like "There you see the group table, and in ten minutes it's drama in Coronation Street", and his most memorable moment so far on ITV has been referring to ITV2 as BBC2. It's also not helped by the fact he's whinged about the Beeb showing Match of the Day too late, seemingly not noticing the number of times ITV shows football at 11.30. Still, for his Beeb work, Des deserves some respect - even Morecambe and Wise cocked up when they swapped channels.