Lucy Meacock announces departure from Granada Reports

As Lucy marks 40 years of working for ITV she has announced she’s leaving next month…

In 1984 Lucy began her television career with ITV at Tyne Tees Television in the North East on its Northern Life news show, later for Anglia Television in Norwich on About Anglia before heading to Manchester as host of Granada Reports in 1988 for Granada Television. Meacock has also hosted national news occasionally for ITN.

Lucy Meacock:

“This has been one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made.  But the time is right to move on now. For me it has always been the best job in the world, with the best people in the world, in the best region in the world!

“I am very grateful that I was given this job so many years ago. I have always tried my hardest to make a positive contribution and I hope I will be remembered with some fondness in the years ahead. It has been a complete honour and privilege to serve the people of this region and I will always have the interests of the North West at heart. A big ‘thank you’ to all the people who have appeared on the programme over the years, sometimes when they have been facing some very tough challenges.”

Joining ITV in the days when each region contributed significant programmes to the UK network output as well as major regional television Lucy hosted many local and some national output including  UpFront, The Late Debate, The Main Ingredient, Origin Unknown, Hearts and Minds and This Morning from Liverpool.  Before joining Granada Television in 1988 Lucy also had a brief stint with the BBC One London hosting London Plus. At the time she noted ‘The Thames is a bit busier than the Tyne‘ in reference to moving from TTTV.

Lucy Meacock host of London Plus / BBC 1987

It was the BBC in the North East where she broke into broadcast journalism on BBC Radio Newcastle, having begun her career as a newspaper reporter for The Chester Chronicle.

Being a journalist is something Lucy had wanted to be since a teenager. Speaking to the BBC in 1987 she recalled:

“Whist I was at school in Australia, [aged 14] I saw a really dreadful interview with Gough Whitlam on Australian TV. I thought to myself, I could do better than that, and decided then and there to become a journalist.”

Over the years Lucy has won two Royal Television Society awards and two BAFTAs. In 2009 she was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Central Lancashire and in 2022, Meacock was installed as Chancellor of the University of Salford.

Lucy was born in Belfast, her family later relocated to the North West of England where they lived in Chester before the family moved to Australia for a couple of years.

Lucy Meacock:

“I’d also like to say a heartfelt thank you to the wonderful people who I have worked with in more than 40 years in TV and thank you to our viewers who have been kind enough to invite us into their homes. We have really appreciated that. I have often been  overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of our viewers in difficult times, especially when we lost Tony Wilson and Tony Morris.

“What a joy it was to work with them both – I still hear both of them quoted often and I still have their numbers in my phone! I have certainly been lucky to work with the best of the best.”

Head of News for Granada Reports, Lucy West paid tribute noting, ‘It has been a great honour to work with Lucy Meacock who is a broadcasting icon. Her enthusiasm and commitment to the North West has never faltered and we will miss her hugely. As a team we all have enormous respect for Lucy who we admire for her formidable questioning, great judgement and wise advice. We’ve been through some very challenging times both on and off screen. Personally,  I will miss her honesty, integrity and determination to deliver the very best for our audiences and the team.’

Lucy Meacock’s final Granada Reports will be on Thursday 1st August 2024 on ITV1 North West at 6 pm.

Lucy with co-hosts: Top: Gamal Fahnbulleh and Lucy Meacock. Bottom: with Bob Greaves, Tony Wilson and Tony Morris / ITV Granada