DANNY
BIRD
But Nan Winton faces prejudice
took place in June in history
When Nancy Wigginton – better known by her professional name, Nan Winton – appeared on the nation’s television sets on 20 June 1960, she became the first woman to present the national news on the BBC.
The corporation’s executives had been prompted to conduct this ‘experiment’ (as it was termed) in response to commercial competition from ITN, where Barbara Mandell had become the UK’s first female newscaster in 1955.
Mandell was valued for her personality and individuality, and was seen by the network as the right fit for the family-friendly Midday News. In contrast, Winton was deemed suitable for the evening news by her BBC editors thanks to her perceived ‘seriousness’. An experienced journalist, she had joined the corporation in the 1950s and had worked on Panorama and Town and Around. On her first day in the new job, Winton read three news summaries.
A survey conducted at the time by BBC Audience Research about the perception of female news presenters found that most television audiences considered them to be “not acceptable”. While the 1960s has gained a reputation as a decade that challenged social conventions, at this point a prevailing attitude held that women were far too frivolous to be entrust- ed with the sober task of presenting the day’s top news stories.