- Andrea Benfield
Andrea joined ITV Wales as co-anchor of Wales Tonight in January 2008. She started her broadcasting career in local radio in 1999 before becoming the news editor for a local TV station. In 2004 she moved to ITV Meridian where her series of reports on the RAF preparing for Afghanistan was nominated for an RTS award. During her time at Meridian, Andrea presented several special half-hour programmes including live coverage of the Queen’s 80th birthday from Windsor Castle. Her work on Wales Tonight has seen Andrea anchor the programme live from the Milford Haven waterway, outside Llanwern Steelworks in Newport and even from the top of Snowdon. In addition to presenting the news, since starting at ITV Wales she has fronted the popular series Tidal Wales - which travelled around the country’s estuaries meeting characters whose lives are influenced by the tide - and the weekly arts and entertainment programme The Wales Show. Andrea is currently presenting the weekly political programme Sharp End. Away from the studio Andrea is an ambassador for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and George Thomas Hospice Care.
- Jonathan Hill
For the last 15 years Jonathan has been the face of ITV Wales’ flagship news programme, Wales Tonight. Jonathan began his career as a journalist with HTV in 1993 after training at the Centre for Journalism Studies in Cardiff. During this time he’s covered a wide range of stories in the field – from peacekeeping in Bosnia to tracking down drug smugglers in Spain. In 2001 he was named BT Welsh Journalist of the Year and BT Welsh News Broadcaster of the Year. Jonathan also presented the popular series Crime Secrets and Helicops and has won two BAFTA Cymru Best Current Affairs awards working with the Wales This Week team. In 2009, Jonathan was appointed Associate Editor at ITV Wales, with editorial responsibility for English language programming, including the award-winning investigative series Wales This Week, Fishlock’s Wales and The Ferret. Jonathan is a patron of the George Thomas Hospice in Cardiff and also Crimestoppers Wales, and is ITV Wales’ representative on the BAFTA Cymru committee. He was born in Cardiff and now lives in the Vale of Glamorgan with his wife and two children.
- Andrew Jones
Andrew has an early start every weekday morning presenting the ITV Wales news bulletins for GMTV. He’s used to the hours having done similar work on local radio stations from Worcester to Cardiff. Andrew presents the 6.35am, 7.05am and 8.05am news bulletins as well as the lunchtime news at 1.55pm. His first job each morning is to call the emergency services to find out more about news stories that have happened overnight. Then he checks and re-writes the scripts so they all run for exactly 2 minutes and 50 seconds. The journalist and technical operator also on duty will check the pictures. While Andrew is on air, he relies on the “Tech Op” to play the pictures and graphics, but he’s in control of the microphone and the Autocue which is operated using a pedal.
- Ruth Wignall
Ruth started her working life in radio, recording celebrity interviews for a daily chat show. A degree in communications followed and ITV sponsored her on a post-graduate course for journalists at Cardiff University. Ruth trained as a news reporter and presenter and was highly commended as BT Welsh Young Journalist of the Year. She has also presented many other programmes, including The Ferret, Grassroots, Texaco Young Musician of Wales, Llangollen International Eisteddfod, and The Royal Welsh Show. A change of career beckoned when Ruth was asked to present the weather for ITV Wales. After some intense Met Office training, Ruth is to be found in front of a weather map, four days a week. She often broadcasts forecasts live from locations around Wales. Closer to home, Ruth is developing her own roof top garden here at the ITV Wales studios as part of her “Ruth on the Roof” features.
- Richard Morgan
Cardiff-born Richard has worked at ITV Wales since 2002. He started covering news as well as sport, before switching to sport full-time in 2005 - the year the Welsh rugby team won its first Grand Slam in 27 years. In the summer of 2005 Richard covered the British and Irish Lions Tour to New Zealand. Richard has also covered some real success stories over the years. He was at Wembley for Cardiff City’s first FA Cup Final appearance in 81 years and he followed Joe Calzaghe to Las Vegas and New York for what proved to be the boxer’s final two fights. After attending so many international events, he realises how important our sports stars are in putting Wales on the map.
- James Wright
After spending his University years in Cardiff doing Business Administration followed by a stint as a trainee manager at Marks and Spencer in Queen Street, James decided that a career in broadcasting was for him. His first taste of journalism came at BBC Radio Wales, which led on to Watchdog Healthcheck and then Electric Circus, the entertainment news programme on Live and Kicking. Before long he leapt in front of the camera by being one of the first people in the UK to interview an unknown American singer called Britney Spears. He laughs: “Well she was unknown then!” James was hooked on presenting and reporting.
“Getting into weather happened by accident”, he says. “I’ve always been fascinated by meteorology and this job lets me turn the science into something more understandable to viewers. When I’m let out of the studio for good behaviour I get to take Wales Tonight to parts of the country to report on stories that might otherwise not make it on air. From driving Monster Trucks to barbecuing on the beach in Beaumaris, I’ve probably got the jammiest job in telly!.”
- Chris Segar
Chris Segar has presented The Ferret, the first television programme to specialise in consumer affairs, since its inception in 1996. There have now been over 270 programmes. “The slogan ‘Watch out, there’s a Ferret about’ is a statement of truth”, he says. “Over the years there aren’t many places in Wales we haven’t been to”
He works from ITV Wales’s Cardiff base as part of a small but dedicated team. “We’re committed to trying to solve the problems that our viewers bring to us”, he says. “We like to report our successes, but we also include our failures, as those stories can be an awful warning about who not to trust. We know from our viewers’ reactions how much they value the achievements of the programme”. Chris is married and has a son, daughter and step-son, and six grandchildren who bring him increasing pleasure. He watches movies, bad and good, takes far too many photographs, reads a lot of history, and tries to spend as much time as possible in France, to the detriment of his allotment.