Tim Gudgin

Timothy Andrew Leonard Gudgin (25 November 1929 – 8 November 2017) was an English radio presenter and voiceover artist. He began working as a broadcaster for the British Forces Broadcasting Service before returning to the United Kingdom in 1952 to work as a studio manager and newsreader at the BBC European Service and did work introducing BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4 programmes. Following a three-year period as a public relations consultant to the government of the Isle of Man, Gudgin joined the BBC Saturday television sports programme Grandstand in 1976, reading the horse racing and rugby results in the Final Score segment. He became the second person to regularly read the classified football results after the death of Len Martin in 1995. Gudgin retired in November 2011.

Early life Gudgin was born in Croydon, Surrey on 25 November 1929, to a father who worked at an insurance company. Gudgin had a brother and a sister. He was first educated at Dorset during the Second World War, Gudgin told his masters that he wanted to pursue a career as a radio announcer but was told he would require a first-class degree. In August 1948, He was called up for National Service and was trained to be a tank driver-operator at Catterick Garrison before being sent to Germany to serve in the 5th Royal Tank Regiment. He read stories on the children's television programme Blue Peter, and was a continuity announcer. Gudgin did voice overs for clips broadcast on Sportsview (later Sportsnight) in the early 1960s after the presenter's job went to Frank Bough. In 1963, He announced that he would quit his staff job at the BBC to become a freelancer, introduced the teams in an edition of Come Dancing in January 1971, covered tennis, Gugdin continued in the role when Final Score became a separate programme from Grandstand in 2004. He later cited several reasons for his retirement including his age, the distance he would have to travel following BBC Sport's relocation to Salford and his granddaughter's wedding in Australia which he wanted to attend. He avoided gargling and warming up his vocal chords and later read the results on the same screen the viewers were watching after a spell reading a hard copy of the results.

Personal life Gudgin was married to World Service secretary Jennifer Daly from 1956 to her death in 2008. There were six children of the marriage.