Blog: Jonathan Wills on his move to ITV Channel TV
"Write a blog… tell people about yourself"... It might seem strange for a journalist (even more so, a presenter!!) but asking questions comes a lot easier than answering them or putting down in writing a story all about… well… you! See I’m even procrastinating now to avoid doing it… if this was a report for Channel my editor would already have put a line through my superfluous mutterings.
But let’s give it a go and I promise to try and keep it brief!
Firstly, I am passionate about local news. I was fortunate enough to experience life in a national newsroom (more on that in a bit) but growing up in Arundel in West Sussex watching the timeless and peerless Fred Dineage when I got back from school, set me on the path to where I am today.
Don’t worry I wasn’t so precocious to know ‘I wanted to be the next Fred’ which was lucky seeing as he is still doing the business for ITV Meridian every night at 6. I mean that it triggered in me the feelings that millions of ITV regional news viewers have each night of warmth, identity and stability in a world that, sadly, is anything but.
Getting here was slightly convoluted. As I said, growing up watching Fred, my main ambitions were the three s’s of eating sweets, playing or watching sport and if I wasn’t doing either of those, I was pretty good at sitting doing nothing… usually with my mate Matt.
Fast forward to University, my passion for sport remained, hence a degree in Sports Studies, but thankfully my association with the other two had lessened, a little. However, it soon became abundantly clear that any ambition to follow in my father’s cricketing footsteps and step out onto the hallowed turf with the martlets of Sussex firmly emblazoned on my chest, at Hove, would not become a reality. While I played across the youth teams I didn’t need to be told my idiosyncratic bowling action would forever best be suited to club rather than county and so, accepting that if a career playing the game was beyond me, I decided the next best thing would be to talk about it instead.
A post graduate diploma in Radio Journalism followed at ‘The London College of Printing’ in The Elephant and Castle in south London where, as well as cutting my teeth in the dark arts of broadcast, I also discovered, from the hefty teeth marks in my recording equipment case, that rats could climb to the lecture room on the 13th floor of a tower block…
Armed with my qualification I did what any aspiring John Motson would do… got a job as a travel reporter for the newly formed BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey. I’m guessing curiosity got the better of my boss when I suggested broadcasting from cricket matches throughout the summer but it wasn’t long before the listeners were getting vital updates along the lines of…”watch out for an oil spill on the A3 southbound towards Guildford.. And here comes Sylvester Clarke pounding in from the pavilion end…”.
Thankfully, for those wanting football free travel reports, I was able to leave the roads, rail and airports behind and make my way back to the capital as TV Sports Presenter on BBC London before swapping sides to ITV and in time merging regional with national, becoming a Sports Correspondent at ITN.
I was lucky enough to cover everything from Wimbledon Championships to Champions League finals as well as the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
However it was two contrasting and consecutive days in July of 2005 that had the biggest impact on me.
On the 6th I was putting the finishing touches to a report announcing the inevitable decision that Paris had won the race to host the 2012 Olympics. There had been rumours that the intervention of Lord Sebastian Coe had helped London’s bid but it was always felt it was going to be a case of ‘close but no cigar’... until the moment it was announced. The newsroom erupted and there was the scene of journalists hugging each other in celebration before the realisation dawned that re-writes aplenty were going to be needed along with the predictable… “I always thought we had a chance..” type comments.
On the 7th July I was one of the first journos in at work when one of the Editors came out and asked me to head up to Kings Cross where there were reports that maybe an underground tube had been derailed and there might be some casualties. I was the first ITV reporter on the ground as the 7/7 bombings unfolded. The harrowing details will be retold at each dreadful anniversary and need no further reflection here but the scenes will stay with me forever.
After a brief sabbatical when I worked on a spectacular event requiring incredible flying skills as well as a strong stomach to survive the G-Forces that the Red Bull Air Race put its pilots through I returned to the ITV regional news family with ITV Anglia. If my time at the network had shown that I was something of a duck out of water, my 13 years in East Anglia had me splashing around like the merriest of Mallards, my enthusiasm and passion for this unique news format rekindled in the happiest of environments.
I count myself incredibly lucky to have been given the chance to join another wonderful team at ITV Channel. A combination of brilliant up and comers with household names and wonderful technical operators in islands I have such a strong connection with.
As a child I was lucky enough to holiday in Alderney where my father’s legacy is the ‘Reine Des Pres’ estate which he built and where my sister and I spent many years being let out in the morning and returning in the evening, bronzed and sometimes a little bruised from a days exploring. We had day trips to Guernsey where I proudly got my first bike, a particularly fetching sky blue Rayleigh number complete with floral box on the back, in which I regularly returned from Jeans Stores with broken eggs and a ready excuse of some kind, having failed to negotiate the railway sleepers with enough care.
A few years later Jersey became home for PA when he became Head of Department at Highlands College followed by a successful career in private practise and as I enjoyed my childhood in Alderney so my three daughters, Leo, Evie and Verity did the same in Jersey. Which brings everything pretty much up to date I think.
While certainly not afraid to call to account, as a journalist you will find me very much on the celebratory side of things. From being in awe of those who overcome adversity to wanting to herald the island’s heroes. ITV regional news has always been about the people behind the story and that’s a tradition I hope to be able to carry on for many years in my new home.