Born in Leicestershire, Tony read Modern Languages at St.John’s College, Cambridge, graduating in l967. He began his journalistic career with the Leicester Mercury, where he was a contemporary of the BBC’s Nick Owen and David Welch (Daily Telegraph).

From there he joined the busy Leicester News Service running stories down the wire to London- good training for his next port of call, the BBC Midlands’ Newsroom at Pebble Mill. It was 1974 and Tony quickly established himself as the ultimate professional freelance, often filing as many as 17 reports a day for the region,National news, Radio 4 and the World Service. One of his most prolific periods was the hunt for the Black Panther, the man who kidnapped and murdered the young coach company heiress, Lesley Whittle. Tony’s coverage for the National news won him much acclaim.

He subsequently worked out of Pebble Mill for Nationwide and Pebble Mill at One as reporter and presenter. The next step was to join ITN as their Sports Correspondent, where he covered numerous events including the Seoul Olympics, test cricket in Australia and the West Indies and the World Cup hosted in Italy.

Ever happy to operate as a freelance, Tony returned to his Midlands homeland to work for ITV Sport as anchorman for the snooker coverage- and as presenter for the start of Central Football. This lead to presenting football for the network, as well as using his legendary writing skills for the Birmingham Post and as Football Correspondent for the Sunday Times.

After a brief stint at Thames Television,in 1988 Tony set up his own independent production company - combining producing and presenting the highly successful ‘ Heart of the Country’with his Central Sport work. Based in the East Midlands and latterly at Carlton’s Lenton Lane studios, he and his company have continued to produce some 26 countryside programmes a year for the Midlands’ region, making it the longest running regional independent programme of all time- and on that basis, the company is one of the region’s most successful indies.

‘ Heart of the Country’ has proved hugely popular and attracts a loyal viewing audience, many of whom regularly comment that ‘It’s the best thing on the tele.’ In l996 Tony was asked to replicate the programme for the Carlton London region, and ‘Carlton Country’ continues to this day, again proving a big success. ‘Heart of the Country Goes Wild’, a spin off series, is now enjoying its fourth run here in the Midlands.

Working with a very small team base of never more than six staff, Tony’s indefatigable enthusiasm has seen the company produce from it's Nottinghamshire base, numerous other shows:

‘Pieces of Parkin’- a long running countryside series for YTV with the late Leonard Parkin and
‘Northern Country’- as above for Tyne Tees
‘Wild about Food’- 2 series for the ITV Network
‘A-Z of Food’- for BBC2 and World Distribution
‘5 Steps to Heaven’- series of religious shorts for C4
‘Tales from the Pavilion’- series of cricket shorts for C4
Several BBC half hour documentaries including
‘Life through the Lens’
‘Survivors’- a human interest series for BBC Daytime (from Pebble Mill)

His sporting expertise has led to several programmes in the genre:

‘Brian Lara’- a 50-minute special for Central TV
‘Kalypso Kids’- a 50-minute documentary with Brian Lara & Dwight Yorke for Sky TV
‘Frankly Football’- 2001 series for Carlton TV
‘Salmon Run’- with Jack Charlton, for YTV&C4 currently airing on Discovery

As well as being a familiar TV face on ITV, Tony has managed to pen eight books over the 30 years he has been a broadcaster, including the biography of Brian Clough and the autobiography of Alex Higgins. After working a frequently 6-day week of filming and editing for the various countryside series- encompassing numerous 5am starts- every Saturday sees him travelling the length and breadth of the country, garnering material for his weekly football column in the Daily Telegraph.

Tony’s greatest strengths, other than boundless energy, are his undiminished curiosity, his love of the quirky, his insatiable thirst for knowledge and for asking the question ‘Why?’ His intelligent yet down to earth style has made him and his programmes a firm favourite with the viewers. He is undoubtedly a mainstay of Midlands’ broadcasting. And there is no sign of him letting up!

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