Christine Talbot to leave ITV News Calendar
After almost thirty years as one of the most familiar and trusted figures on television in the region, the multi-award-winning main presenter, Christine Talbot is to leave ITV News Calendar in the summer. Christine started her career as a journalist in local papers, then worked for the BBC before joining Yorkshire Television in 1993 as a reporter on Calendar. She was soon presenting Calendar Sunday alongside John Shires and standing in as a presenter on the weekday programme with Richard Whiteley and Geoff Druett. She also hosted the monthly Crimestoppers half-hour specials for YTV. In 1996 she was chosen to anchor a new teatime magazine show, Tonight, which ran for four years, featuring the people and places of the region. During this time, she also travelled the world meeting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire ex-pats who had built new lives abroad for a spin-off programme Christine’s Big Trip, which included a week in the heart of a remote Aborigine village in Australia, journeying deep into the Fijian jungle by canoe, and a trip to one of LA’s most glamorous celebrity hotels where a Leeds lad was now the general manager.
Christine has also hosted numerous regional programmes, including Live Lunch, Magic Moments in which she interviewed the region’s famous faces about their lives and the investigative series Xposed. In 2000 she became one of the pioneer faces on the early health and beauty digital channel Wellbeing, which was produced at Yorkshire Television.
Christine became the main presenter of Calendar in 2001 and was joined by Duncan Wood two years later, making the pair one of the longest-serving partnerships in ITV regional news, with Jon Mitchell making it a trio.
In the last twenty years, she has covered many of the region's major stories, including in 2014 Yorkshire's 'Grand Depart', which saw the region host a stage of the Tour de France. In 2018 Christine presented a special programme on the closure of the last deep coal mine at Kellingley Colliery, and last year fronted a special tribute programme from Elland Road, following the death of Leeds United legend Jack Charlton.
In 2017, a Calendar investigation into whether the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe had ever killed men as well as women, led to Christine receiving a letter from the notorious killer in which he denied the claims.
Her role on Calendar gave her the chance to meet many amazing people, one of her favourites being the iconic Dales woman Hannah Hauxwell, who Christine first interviewed on her 85th birthday, leading to a friendship that lasted until Hannah’s death three years ago.
Christine's work has been recognised with a number of awards. In 2016, she was named Journalist of the Year by the Royal Television Society in Yorkshire, and Television Journalist of the Year at the region's O2 Media Awards. In the same year she was named the Yorkshire Choice Media Personality of the Year, and before that in 2015 was named the Yorkshire Society Media Personality of the Year. She was also named Yorkshirewoman of the year in 2018 by the Dalesman magazine.Christine also supports several charities as a Patron and Ambassador across the region, which she will continue to do.Christine said: "It has been a huge privilege to present Calendar for so long and to be part of the lives of our wonderful viewers. For the last twenty years, I’ve been lucky enough to have a ringside seat to witness the events of this region and to tell the stories of the amazing people who live here. Calendar and the other regional programmes I’ve presented and worked on have given me the opportunity to see and do things that I would never otherwise have done, and I’m so grateful for that.I work with the best team in the business and will miss every single one of my close-knit Calendar family. I will also miss our viewers who have always been fantastic and supportive to us and the incredible people I’ve met and interviewed, many of whom have become friends along the way.But it feels that the time is right to hand over the baton and explore new adventures, both workwise and personally. I’m not disappearing yet, but when the day comes it will be very hard to say goodbye. This has been a long and incredibly difficult decision but it is time to begin a new chapter and let someone else keep Duncan and Jon in line!"
The Head of News at ITV News Calendar, Mark Hayman paid tribute to the part Christine has played during almost three decades at ITV.He said: "Christine's contribution to television in the region has been immense. She has told the region's most notable stories with great authority, and her warmth and easy-going nature have established her as a favourite with viewers. We are very sad that she has decided that it's time to leave us and all of us at ITV will miss her, but we wish her the very best of luck in the future."