MBE for Nick Owen

The BBC Midlands Today host and former ATV Sport presenter has been honoured…

Nick Owen has been bestowed an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List for his services to charity and broadcasting.

“I’m absolutely delighted and I feel very honoured, I still can’t quite get my head around it,” Nick told the BBC, adding when he received the letter informing him of the gong it was a “real wow moment”

Owen, who is 76, has hosted many programmes for both ITV and the BBC over the years including in the late 70s and early 80s as a sports reporter for the TV ATV Today from Birmingham.

Good Morning with Anne and Nick was a daytime hit for BBC One

The sports theme carried on with a stint hosting ITV Sport programmes and at Tyne Tees with The Football Show. Nick has also hosted regional news programmes including North East Tonight for Tyne Tees and, since 1997, BBC Midlands Today.

Nationally Nick is known for sports quiz show Sporting Triangles (Central TV) as well as Good Morning Britain (TV-am/ITV) and Good Morning with Anne and Nick. The lifelong Luton Town fan spent nearly a decade as their chairman. Nick was awarded the Baird Medal by the Royal Television Society, Midlands, in 2006 for lifelong achievement in television. Owen has also previously worked at the Birmingham Post and what was BBC Radio Birmingham before joining ATV in 1979.

Last year Nick revealed he had undergone surgery for prostate cancer. Speaking at the time Owen noted:

“After 45 years in television, 54 years as a journalist, my goodness. I’m very lucky. I feel blessed…. I know I’m not the youngest. In fact, I think I’m probably the oldest regional TV presenter in the country, probably by a mile, but I love it,”

Nick returned to his hosting duties in September 2023. In the last 30 years, the original voiceover for ATV darts game show Bullseye, has been involved with charities including Edward’s Trust and Baby Lifeline along with Prostate Cancer UK.

Rose Ayling-Ellis as Frankie in EastEnders.

Others honoured in the latest royal gong offering include former Post Office Sub-postmaster Alan Bates who successfully campaigned to highlight the Post Office Horizon scandal. He has been knighted while actress Imelda Staunton, designer Anya Hindmarch and artist Tracey Emin are made Dames.

In entertainment following more than three decades on Channel 4’s Countdown as their dictionary corner lexicographer Susie Dent gets an MBE as does former EastEnders star Rose Ayling-Ellis and professional dancer Amy Dowden a regular of Strictly Come Dancing is also given an MBE.