Legendary newsreader Cecil Taylor dies at 96

Legendary newsreader Cecil Taylor has died at the age of 96. He was the first TV reporter for BBC News NI after joining the corporation in 1955. Don Anderson a former colleague, who worked with him at the BBC, said Mr Taylor “used to say that when he arrived at the BBC the news from the Belfast newsroom sounded as it if it had been written in Stormont Castle and he did something to change that, which was highly important”.

Mr Taylor’s funeral took place today (January 24) at Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church in Bangor. He is survived by his wife Doreen, daughter Olwyn and grandson Matty. Before joining the BBC he began his career at the Irish Times and went on to become head of BBC NI programmes where he oversaw all TV and radio current affairs shows. 

When Mr Taylor was a reporter for the BBC, he helped cover the IRA’s border campaign of the 1950s and early 1960s. The BBC reported: “Mr Taylor eventually became head of BBC NI programmes, commissioning many dramas, including Graham Reid’s Billy Plays starring Kenneth Branagh.”

Mr Taylor retired in 1985 and told the BBC about the birth of the news operation. He recalled: “It is difficult to remember that television news bulletins in the United Kingdom didn’t start until 1955. I joined the BBC in Belfast that year to provide the infant television news in London with a service from Northern Ireland.”

He also said: “The first television news programme from and for the region started on September 30, 1956. It was called Today in Northern Ireland and lasted for five minutes.”