The Entertainers: JOHN KETTLEY

TV Weather man John Kettley has a confession to make - he left East Lancashire because it rained too much.

The man who shares breakfast, lunch and dinner times with millions of people on BBC TV comes from Todmorden, in West Yorkshire, but confesses that his heart lies just across the border in Burnley.

Born in 1952, he played cricket for Burnley during his childhood but the man who was later to regularly inform the nation of looming clouds and thunder decided to leave in search of brighter weather.

His connection with the area remains strong, however, and he often visits his parents in Littleborough or drops in on Valley Paddock, in Clitheroe, where he has a part share in two horses.

He worked at Manchester Airport Met office for two years before attending Coventry Polytechnic, where he met his future wife Lynn.

He then followed his degree in physics with four years research in meteorology before deciding that his future was in broadcasting.

After a year learning about the presentation of weather at Reading College, John got his first big break as a presenter on BBC Midlands in Nottingham in 1980.

It was there that he established his reputation and in 1985 he was given the chance to work with household names Bill Giles, Michael Fish and Ian McCaskill at BBC Television Centre.

He remembers how nerve-racking those first days were. "It was the start of the new computerised weather boards and I wasn't comfortable," he said. "The first week was terrible. I said to head of the team, Bill Giles, that I wanted to leave if things didn't improve within a month.

"Then one day Barry Took, who used to present Points of View, said to me that the twinkle was coming back into my eyes. He didn't even know me."

That turning point saw John begin to make his mark as a regular presenter, so much so that in 1988 a young, unknown band called Tribe Of Toffs hit the charts with the now-immortal pop tune John Kettley Is A Weather Man.

It came at a time when he was beginning to enjoy the limelight but John, who now lives in sleepy Hertfordshire, says that his editor was shocked by the single.

"The record was great," said John. "Four lads on a wet December afternoon, watching TV, decided to write a pop song."

These days being in the public eye is part of everyday life for the father-of-two, although he's thankful he looks "like every other bloke" and so isn't recognised as easily as other celebrities.

He said: "People tend to approach me when they hear my voice but they are not sure otherwise."

And he knows that being a weather man means you have to entertain. "The BBC's policy is to educate and entertain and the weather department is no exception," he said. "The weather in Britain can be boring if it rains for four days in a row so we always think of anecdotes - especially on the breakfast show, where there is often time to kill."

He's glad he has had a few one-liners to rely on during sticky situations.

On one occasion he had to present a lunchtime bulletin for BBC-1 and then switch over to BBC-2 seconds later by pressing a button which changed monitors.

But after broadcasting on BBC-1 John forgot about the second broadcast, put his feet up on a desk and started reading about his beloved racing, oblivious to the millions of viewers watching on TV.

He was also caught out by the Noel Edmonds House Party Gotcha! team when an advert he was asked to present was sabotaged by an irate customer dressed in an orang-utan suit - alias Edmonds. Thankfully, incidents like that don't happen too often, thanks largely to the expert guidance of his mentors Fish, Giles and McCaskill.

John said: "I used to think they were so slick but now I would consider myself to be as good, if not better, than them."

Having mastered the art of presenting, John has no plans to move from the nation's TV screens for a while, especially when he has two boys - Charlie, aged three and George, five - to look after.

"They're too young to think about the weather. George is more interested in gardening," he said.

Next week: IAN McSHANE

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