Born: 11 February 1940, United Kingdom
Died: 5 September 2006
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Linde Lunney. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Gregg, Anne (Deirdre) (1940–2006), broadcaster and travel writer, was born 11 February 1940 in Dundonald, east Belfast. Her father was a civil servant employed in the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland and her mother was a dressmaker. She had one brother. Anne attended Strathearn Grammar School, and took part in amateur dramatics; a great uncle was the well-known Ulster actor Robert Hutchinson McCandless, one of the founding members of the Ulster Group Theatre in 1940. On leaving school she took a job as trainee bookkeeper in the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. In 1959 she was one of 8,000 people who applied for jobs in Ulster Television, the newly established commercial television station, and at the age of 19 she was among the hundred who began work there. She was one of the first six announcers, and was also a reporter and presenter on the first local news magazine programme, Roundabout. Attractive, with a good speaking voice, she was relaxed with the new medium; a review in the Irish Independent on 26 August 1961 grudgingly conceded that ‘Miss Gregg has shown that there is a place in television for the woman interviewer’.
She took a job in an English advertising agency in 1963, but soon moved to Anglia Television in Norwich as presenter of a current affairs programme. For a short time she was with the BBC in London as an announcer, but in 1966 she went into print journalism, as features editor and then deputy editor on Good Housekeeping. She then edited Woman’s Journal (1978–80). Her experience as a communicator, and a warm and unaffected style and personality, made her a natural success in her next role: presenter on the BBC Television’s hugely popular weekly Holiday programme. She presented reports from all over the world (1980–90), and became the main studio presenter (1990–91), until a new producer and executives sought to demote her to being a reporter. Gregg’s professionalism ensured that she responded with dignity, but she felt she had no choice but to resign. Many of the twelve million people who watched the show each week were upset; newspapers and the public felt that she had been ousted to bring in a much younger woman presenter, and that there was a ‘culture of youth’ agenda within the media. There were over 1,000 complaints to the BBC.
Gregg moved to ITV to present a series of programmes about religion in America, and another about religious pilgrimages. For five years she presented a travel show on ITV (1993–8), and made two series of programmes about places to visit in Northern Ireland, as well as presenting programmes from Chelsea Flower Show: a sweet pea was named for her. She made guest appearances on quiz shows and was travel editor of the Radio Times and other magazines. She jointly founded a magazine called The Traveller in France, which she edited from 1979 until her death, and she wrote on food and travel for other periodicals. She had a special affection for France, and was awarded the country’s Médaille d’Or du Tourisme in 2003.
Gregg also wrote several books. The perfect holiday appeared in 1989, and she was author of a series of regional guides to British heritage, as well as presenter of videos made for tourist boards. In 1991 she helped organise the launch of a Northern Ireland public health initiative to increase awareness of the dangers of over-exposure to the sun. Her last book, Tarragon and truffles: a guide to the best French markets, appeared in 2006, when she was already very ill. After several years of suffering from cancer, she died 5 September 2006 in the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. She was unmarried, survived by her mother and brother. In her honour, the British Guild of Travel Writers established an award for the best filmed travel report.