BBC South Today’s First Presenter, Martin Muncaster Dies Aged 89
The presenter of the first BBC regional television programme for the south of England has passed away at the age of 89.
Martin Muncaster presented the nightly news programme South Today, which used to be known as South at Six, between 1961 and 1964.
Mr Muncaster died at his home in Steep, near Petersfield.
With a broadcasting career spanning three decades, Mr Muncaster presented for a range of broadcasting networks including ITN and LBC with programmes including the BBC’s Come Dancing and Songs of Praise.
He had his own video production company and was a regular contributor to the BBC Radio 4 Waterlines series.
He even painted several commissions for the Royal Family in the 1940s, including a landscape for King George VI which now hangs at Balmoral.
In one of his final television interviews, Mr Muncaster said that being the face of BBC news in the south had brought him “a terrific feeling of starting something new”.
“We were really pioneering, everything was new, and we were extremely young,” he said.
“That’s why I got noticed in the street, because I was the best known face in the south of England.
“It was quite exciting to go out there into the New Forest or Brighton, or somewhere, and create a story from probably nothing.”
He moved to BBC South from ITV’s Southern Television, which had started broadcasting in 1958.
“I’d been there two-and-a-half years, and therefore the BBC thought that was a bit of a catch,” he said.
After nearly five years at South Today, Mr Muncaster moved to BBC Radio in London and went on to have a varied career as a presenter and filmmaker.
But he had fond memories of his time presenting South at Six, describing it as “one of the happiest times of my whole career”.
