Second Picture: Cliff and Jean Metcalf
Third Picture: The Holiday programme
Forth Picture: Book by Cliff and Jean
Clifford Michelmore , known as Cliff) was born on 11th December 1919 and died on 16th March 2016.
He is best known for the BBC television programme Tonight, which he presented from 1957 to 1965. He also hosted the BBC's television coverage of the Apollo Moon landings, the Aberfan disaster, the 1966 and 1970 UK general elections, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1969.
He was born in Cowes, the youngest of six children of insurance agent and former prison officer, police constable, and groom servant (Albert) Herbert Michelmore and Ellen, daughter of labourer Richard Alford. The Michelmores had moved to the Isle of Wight in hopes of relieving his father's tuberculosis. His father died when Michelmore was two years old, and he was raised by his mother in a terraced house near the Cowes boatyards until being sent to live with his sister and her husband, a farmer. His mother was unable to afford the fares to the grammar school in Newport, so he attended Cowes Secondary School where he was head boy and captain of Cricket Loughborough College, and Leicester College of Technology and Art. He was a member of the 32nd entry of the Aircraft Apprentice Scheme at No. 1 School of Technical Training RAF which was located at RAF Halton. He was a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and began broadcasting on British Forces Network radio.
After the war he worked for BBC Radio and television as a freelance sports commentator, then as a news reporter and as a producer of children's programmes, including All Your Own.
From 1955 to 1957 he presented the BBC TV programme Highlight, a current affairs show with a reputation for uncompromising interviews. On 18 February 1957 he became anchor for BBC Television's new topical weekday magazine show Tonight, which ran for eight years and attracted eight million viewers at its peak. This made him probably the most frequently appearing person on television at the time. He was named BAFTA Television Personality of the Year in 1958, he was on air when the news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy broke in 1963. Arguably his most poignant commentary was in October 1966 on the Aberfan disaster, where 116 children and 28 adults died.
When Tonight finished in 1965, he hosted a BBC One series called 24 Hours until 1968He. He presented coverage of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969 and when the BBC closed its Lime Grove Studios in 1991, he presented the last broadcast from Lime Grove.
After leaving full-time television work, he became head of EMI's new video division. He was a regular presenter on BBC1's Holiday programme from 1969 to 1986, and presented other shows for BBC TV, ITV and BBC Radio.
He had married a nurse during the Second World War but they divorced in 1949.On 4 March 1950 he married Jean Metcalfe, a BBC Light Programme announcer, who presented Family Favourites in London while he was presenting the Hamburg link in the programme for the British Forces Broadcasting Service. The two did not meet face to face for six months, but after meeting they were quickly engaged and married. The marriage produced a daughter, actress Jenny Michelmore, and a son, broadcaster and composer Guy Michelmore
Cliff Michelmore during his later life lived in the West Sussex village of South Harting. He died at Petersfield Hospital and was buried in the graveyard of Saint Mary & Saint Gabriel Church in South Harting.
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