Vera McKechnie
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Vera McKechnie(born c. July 1927)[1]is a British retired television presenter who was one of the first presenters at the start of BBC Children's Television in the early 1950s.
Television career[edit]
McKechnie began her career when the BBC resumed TV broadcasts after the Second World War. On BBC Children's Television she narrated the earliest live editions ofAndy Pandyfrom 1950, in which she told a story as it was acted out by string puppets. The programme was aimed at very young children under primary school starting age of five years at the time. The programme was broadcast during the school day and part of a series of five known asWatch with Mother,[2]one of which one was broadcast each weekday. When the broadcasts began, the main BBC transmitters only covered London and the southeast fromAlexandra Palace,Birmingham and the Midlands fromSutton Coldfield,and Manchester and the northwest fromHolme Moss.
McKechnie was a television in-vision announcer from 1955 until 1960, and later worked for BBC Children's Television as presenter ofFor Deaf Children,1956. Other TV work wasFocus,1958 to 1960;Picture Book,1963 to 1965; narrator,Andy Pandy,1970.
From 1955 to about 1958 she was the main presenter ofStudio E,a magazine programme for older children aged around 9–14.Studio Elasted around 55 minutes and came from the studio of the same name at the BBC's west London studios inLime Grove,Shepherd's Bush,since demolished.
Personal life[edit]
After television she became a teacher, spending 15 years atRoedean Schooland then inBroadstairs,KentthenSt Margaret's School, Bushey.
References[edit]
- ^"Index birth entry".FreeBMD.ONS.Retrieved19 July2021.
- ^Watch With Mother on BBC Children’s TV