Television presenter
Born: August 13, 1967;
Died: January 10, 2019
DIANNE Oxberry, who has died aged 51, was a television and radio presenter who first came to prominence as a weather and traffic reporter on Radio 1. Later, she co-presented the Saturday morning children's series The 8.15 from Manchester before becoming one of the most popular faces on the BBC regional programme North West Tonight.
Born in Washington, Co Durham, Oxberry trained as a meteorologist at the Met Office College at Bracknell in Berkshire before joining the BBC as a personal assistant. She then started appearing on-air in the 1980s with Steve Wright on Radio 2 to read the weather and traffic bulletins and quickly established a warm, banterish relationship with him that was popular with listeners. Later, she also appeared on the Simon Mayo show.
By the early 1990s, there was one of the regular shake-ups that radio is subject to and Oxberry was cleared out by the new station controller so she moved from London to Manchester where she joined the Scottish presenter Ross King as a co-presenter of The 8.15 from Manchester. Made in the 1990s at the height of the Madchester music craze, the show ran for two series and featured a theme tune written by The Inspiral Carpets.
Oxberry then joined BBC North West in 1994 as a weather presenter and for 25 years became one of the most recognisable faces of regional television. In 2013, she also co-presented the north-west edition of Inside Out, the BBC's current affairs series. Between 2006 and 2008, she co-presented a lunchtime show on Radio Manchester.
Last year, she won a Royal Television Society award for her investigation on Inside Out into the risk to women from predatory taxi drivers. She also won a silver Sony radio radio for her work on the Simon Mayo show and was nominated as best regional presenter in the Royal Television Society awards.
Oxberry worked on North West Tonight until last December when she was diagnosed with cancer.
Oxberry's husband, Ian Hindle, a BBC cameraman, said: "Dianne was an amazing wife and mother who embraced life to the full. She was an inspiration to all who knew and loved her but also to the people who watched and welcomed her into their homes each night as if she were part of their family too.
"She will leave a massive void in our lives but, because of the remarkable person she was, she will forever live on in our hearts. The children and I will miss her more than anyone can imagine."
Roger Johnson, a presenter on North West Tonight, said: "We are heartbroken by Dianne's death. It is almost impossible to comprehend. Dianne was North West Tonight. It's hard to imagine the programme without her."
Annabel Tiffin, also a presenter North West Tonight, said: "This is an enormous shock for all of us. I can scarcely believe Dianne has died. She was loved by our viewers, by all of us at North West Tonight. Di was so talented, so beautiful, so funny and so full of life. On screen she was a star, radiating warmth and good humour. Off screen, she was a wonderful colleague, a loyal friend."
Dianne Oxberry is survived by her husband and their son and daughter.
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