Christine Talbot to leave ITV News Calendar

ITV and Christine Talbot today announced she is to leave Calendar at the end of June.

Christine started her career as a journalist in local papers, then worked for the BBC before joining Yorkshire Television in 1993 as a reporter on Calendar.

She was soon presenting Calendar Sunday alongside John Shires and standing in as a presenter on the weekday programme with Richard Whiteley and Geoff Druett.

In 1996 she was chosen to anchor a new teatime magazine show, Tonight, which ran for four years, featuring the people and places of the region.

Christine became the main presenter of Calendar in 2001 and was joined by Duncan Wood two years later, making the pair one of the longest-serving partnerships in ITV regional news, with Jon Mitchell making it a trio.

“It has been a huge privilege to present Calendar for so long and to be part of the lives of our wonderful viewers,” Christine said.

“For the last twenty years, I’ve been lucky enough to have a ringside seat to witness the events of this region and to tell the stories of the amazing people who live here. Calendar and the other regional programmes I’ve presented and worked on have given me the opportunity to see and do things that I would never otherwise have done, and I’m so grateful for that.

“I work with the best team in the business and will miss every single one of my close-knit Calendar family. I will also miss our viewers who have always been fantastic and supportive to us and the incredible people I’ve met and interviewed, many of whom have become friends along the way.

“But it feels that the time is right to hand over the baton and explore new adventures, both workwise and personally. I’m not disappearing yet, but when the day comes it will be very hard to say goodbye. This has been a long and incredibly difficult decision but it is time to begin a new chapter and let someone else keep Duncan and Jon in line!”

#BREAKING We’ve just told the wonderful @itvcalendar viewers that @christinetalbot – my screen wife, amazing #journo and great friend is to leave the show at the end of June. We’ve had an incredible 18 yrs together, a record in #ITV, and I’ll miss her desperately. ? pic.twitter.com/haJJ5NpwDb

— Duncan Wood (@duncanwoodtv) May 10, 2021