Nan Winton: First woman to read the national news on BBC television

At a time when women were not believed to have the gravitas to read the news, she made history at the Beeb

Winton made just six appearances in the role (Rex Features)

When Nan Winton joined the BBC news team in 1960, becoming as she did so the first woman to read the evening bulletin on BBC television, it looked like a victory for equality. However, while Winton may have knocked on the glass ceiling, it would be another decade and a half before someone else broke through.

Winton, who has died aged 93, was born Nancy Wigginton in Portsmouth, Hampshire. She began her career at the BBC in 1958 when she joined the corporation as a continuity announcer. She later worked as a journalist on Panorama and magazine show Town And Around and was regular on the radio panel game, Treble Chance.

On 20 June 1960,Winton made her BBC news debut. She was not, however, the first female British TV newsreader. That honour went to Barbara Mandell, who had been a regular presenter on ITN’s news since 1955. All the same, Winton’s appearance was referred to in-house as an “experiment”.

Indeed “Newsgirl Nan” was treated as a novelty all over the media, with her appearance garnering more headlines than the stories she presented. The Evening Standard complained: “Miss Winton usually hides herself behind a desk. Pity. She has a 36-25-37in figure.“

Winton’s tenure on the BBC evening bulletin did not last long. She was removed and reinstated three times before she was finally taken off screen after a total of only six appearances. It was claimed that BBC audience research found viewers still believed a woman did not have the gravitas to read the news.

Winton was unconvinced and in 1964 she told the Daily Mail: “I believe there is certainly discrimination against women in this country. There were times when I was doing the announcing when I wanted to shout aloud like Shylock ‘hath not woman eyes, ears, senses?’ In Italy and Spain they have women newsreaders who are beautiful and sexy too. We’re afraid of that here.”

Winton later blamed the sexist attitudes of BBC editorial staff for her sacking (PA)

Nearly 40 years later, Winton suggested that the problem didn’t in fact lie with the audience. In the 1997 BBC documentary A Night In With The Girls, she said: “I didn’t have any trouble from the press or the public. It was the editorial staff who were a bit dodgy.”

Speaking in the same documentary, BBC manager Stuart Hood, who had been behind Winton’s appointment, confirmed her suspicions, saying: “I thought it would be rather nice to have a woman newsreader on television… this was greeted with alarm and dismay and resistance by my editors. The thought that a woman could be a conveyor of truth and authority on the television screen was something they couldn’t imagine, couldn’t accept.”

After her shock sacking, Winton moved to ITV where she continued to work as a TV and radio presenter until her retirement. The BBC would not have another female newsreader on the national evening news until Angela Rippon joined the Nine O’Clock News team in 1975.

Winton was married to the actor Charles Stapley, who played Ted Hope in the soap opera Crossroads. They had two children. After their divorce in 1962, Stapley went on to marry Beatrice Mills, and in doing so became stepfather to Paul McCartney’s second wife Heather.

Winton spent her retirement in Bridport, Dorset. She is survived by her son and her daughter.

Nan Winton, broadcaster, born 6 November 1925, died 11 May 2019