A VERY BRITISH OBSESSION

Some viewers tune in to the BBC every day for one thing - the weather forecast. They want to see if the weather presenter can get the forecast right and to hear if they will be able to put the washing out or go on their planned day trip. In days gone by, viewers would even have tuned in purely to see what jumper Michael Fish was wearing or if Bill Giles might end the forecast with his customary wink to camera.

BBC weather presenters are employed by the Meteorological Office, which is part of the Ministry of Defence, and are paid an allowance for broadcasting although they can supplement this through regular guest appearances on panel and quiz programmes and with after-dinner speaking engagements. They are chosen for their friendly manner and their ability to relay highly technical information in a way the public can easily understand. Weather presenters in Britain, like their counterparts in other parts of the world, most notably America, have become household names over the past forty years through their daily appearances on television.

Weathermen are similar to news readers, in that the public are reassured by seeing the same faces daily on their television screens. Research has been carried out by psychologist Peter Aten, from East Anglia Polytechnic on the public's great obsession with weather forecasts. It is interesting to note that although many people claim they actually watch the weather, over 70% of viewers cannot remember what was actually said.

THE EARLY YEARS

The main difference between the BBC and ITV's weather presentation is that ITV's forecasts are sponsored both nationally and regionally and many of the ITV regional presenters are either amateur forecasters, naval trained, or ex-Met Office employees. The BBC regions in the early days rarely used on-screen weather presenters, relying usually on out-of-vision presentation announcers or regional programme presenters to read the weather over a chart.

From 1992, BBC Newsroom South East started using BBC TV's weather team and several regions have employed their own weathermen. Spotlight (BBC Plymouth) has used Craig Rich since 1978 and Look East (BBC Norwich) has used local forecasters, including Graham Parker.

Television forecasters date back to the earliest days of television, although not in a format that would be easily recognisable to viewers today. The first weather chart seen by viewers was shown from the BBC's Alexandra Palace studios on the 3rd November 1936, although an anonymous hand drew isobars onto the map whilst a disembodied voice read the forecast. After three years the whole television service had to close because of the Second World War, and even if it had remained open, the public would have been deprived of any weather information because all details concerning this were classified during war-time.

It was several years before the first regular daily weather forecast was shown on BBC TV when in June 1949 maps and captions were introduced to viewers, although still lacking any explanation to the uninitiated viewer. On Sunday 10 January in 1954 BBC TV announcer Mary Malcolm introduced Dr Sutton of the Meteorological Office who informed the small amount of viewers watching about a new style of presentation of weather charts that was being introduced. The "Radio Times" recorded this event as follows: "From Monday onwards the television weather report and forecast will be presented by a Meteorological Office forecaster who will explain and comment on the charts shown. The change is designed to stress the continuity of the reports provided; the forecaster will show, for example, how the weather expected tomorrow is conditioned by the weather experienced today. Two Forecast Officers will for the time being share the job. They are: George Cowling, a thirty-two-year old Yorkshire man, married and father of a five-year old son; and T.H.Clifton, a forty-two-year old Londoner, married and father of four girls and one boy."

TELEVISION'S FIRST WEATHERMEN

And so, at 7.55pm on Monday 11 January 1954, George Cowling became the first in a long line of Meteorological Office forecasters to appear in-vision providing viewers with a daily summary of the weather. The early forecasts were very stuffy and formal and lacked the personalised touch that later made forecasters like Ian McCaskill and Michael Fish such well-known personalities.

George Cowling remembers that he had five minutes (more than the forecasters receive now) and that he was able to tell viewers that the next day would be a good day for hanging out the washing, which was picked up by the press as something like this had never been said on British TV before. He also recalls a visit by HRH Princess Margaret when he accidentally left black foot prints all along the red carpet and when introduced, HRH said: "Oh! I always switch off when you come on - but mother likes you and switches back on." Cowling told her that a severe frost was coming and HRH commented that it was good news as she loved cold weather and Cowling replied: "Perhaps Ma'am, you don't suffer from frozen pipes like the rest of us."

The forecasts, compared to today's high tech standards, would appear terribly dull and static as all charts were hand drawn. Cowling was based at the London Weather Centre and had to transport a large bundle of rolled up weather charts across London from Kingsway in Central London to the BBC's Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush, West London. In fact it wasn't until the late-1960s that the well known Atlantic and British Isles charts were introduced. With the advent of colour TV in late-1967, the BBC brought in a new range of weather symbols, which after discussion with the Met Office, were based on international standards - triangles for showers and round dots for rain along with the famous black metallic strips used for the isobars. A regular feature included within BBC TV's presentation over the years has been the weekly forecast for 'Farmers and Growers', on a Sunday lunchtime, which although designed mostly with farmers and gardeners in mind, gives viewers the opportunity to see a long range forecast covering the week ahead.

POPULAR FAVOURITES

Graham Parker and Bert Foord became the popular mainstays of the BBC TV team from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s and they later were replaced by new favourites - Jack Scott, Michael Fish and Bill Giles in the mid to late-1970s. In 1974, the BBC introduced a female to the team - Barbara Edwards - who had been broadcasting on BBC Radio since 1970 and had a spell as a BBC Radio 4 announcer during 1972. Barbara remembers most viewers tuning in to see what she was wearing, rather than to listening to the forecast.

From 1954 to 1979 there had been a total of 25 forecasters, which was apt as in January 1979, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of personalised weather forecasts on BBC TV, seventeen former weathermen (absent were: Armstrong, Davies, Pollard and Luce) joined the present team of four, for a grand reunion and photo call on the roof of Television Centre, each armed with an umbrella in case of rain! There was also an interview, conducted by Bob Wellings, on BBC TV's Nationwide, with a cake cut by George Cowling and Ian McCaskill.

During 1979, satellite pictures were introduced by BBC Television to help give viewers a better understanding of weather patterns.

In 1983, Francis Wilson joined from Thames TV, as weather presenter on the BBC's first breakfast programme - Breakfast Time. It was to his early morning audience that he introduced new weather terms like 'mizzle' (mist and drizzle) and thorms (thunder storms). In January 1992 he left to join satellite broadcaster Sky Television.

The first series concentrating purely on the weather was Under The Weather televised by BBC TV and presented by Jack Scott in 1981. Another behind the scenes look at the weather was shown in the series Weatherwatch transmitted by BBC TV in 1992.

THE COMPUTER AGE

On 18 February 1985, the BBC introduced new computer graphics to replace the old charts which had used metallic strips and symbols.

Probably the most famous weather forecast was by Michael Fish on BBC TV in October 1987 when he said he had received a letter from a lady asking if there would be any storms and he replied that there wouldn't be any. He was proved horribly wrong when most of Southern England was hit by severe hurricanes which caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage.

From 30 May 1988, another major development in weather graphics occurred when a colourful new batch of displays, including the strength and direction of both wind and rainfall, were introduced. In October 1988 the BBC received hundreds of letters of protest when the Nine O'Clock News was re-launched giving less time to the weather forecast that followed. The weathermen made an on-screen protest by rushing through the broadcast so quickly that viewers couldn't understand what was being said. After several months and hundreds of complaints to the Duty Office and Points Of View, the BBC capitulated in December and re-instated the full weather forecast much to the delight of the viewers.

In March 1989 the BBC began providing a dedicated weather service for British Forces overseas and it was at this time that BBC TV introduced daily reports during the mornings giving viewers a European outlook of the weather. BBC Television and BBC Radio weather teams were bought together within a newly built complex at BBC Television Centre in November 1991 and it was upgraded by the Meteorological Office to become a full Weather Centre.

Due to the increased demand for broadcasts to BBC World Service Television and SSVC, the team was enlarged by two (Peter Cockroft and Rob McElwee) which bought the total to eight forecasters. Senior forecaster Bill Giles oversaw the introduction of the new on-screen graphics in September 1996 as well as the increased broadcasts on BBC digital channels, BBC Prime, BBC World and BBC News 24.

On 11 January 1994 the BBC Weather team celebrated its 40th anniversary. To date there had been 37 forecasters, and 26 of the remaining 29 that were still alive attended the reunion at BBC TV Centre. They all made an appearance on the daytime show Good Morning With Anne And Nick. There was also a documentary broadcast on BBC One, entitled Sunny Spells - 40 Years Of The Weather.

In March 2000, following a review, five forecasters (Young, Lang, Wilmshurst, Willetts & Braine) were chosen to appear after the main news programmes on BBC One which meant more established faces were disappearing. One of the last remaining faces from the 1970s - Michael Fish - retired from his radio and TV role in October 2004.

The latest relaunch of BBC Weather came in May 2005, with the introduction of a new graphics system designed specifically for the BBC. The new package makes extensive use of 3D graphics and virtual reality technology, allowing real time forecasting. The much-loved weather symbols introduced in the 1970s were consigned to TV history. Cloud cover is now represented by darker shading on the map; rain and snow is animated more realistically. These features combine with an array of new graphics to present the forecast more clearly.