Leonard Parkin

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name = Leonard Parkin


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birth_date = birth date|1929|6|2
birth_place = Thurnscoe, Yorkshire, England
death_date = 20 September1993 age 64
death_cause = spinal cancer
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nationality = British
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known_for = "News at Ten", "News at One", ""
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occupation = newsreader
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Leonard Parkin, (born June 2, 1929) in Thurnscoe, Yorkshire, England), was a British TV journalist and newscaster who worked for both the BBC and ITN.

He was educated at Hemsworth Grammar School, Yorkshire. He worked as a reporter on the BBC's "Panorama" for many years before joining ITN, initially as a reporter but later as a newscaster for ITV's main early evening bulletins in the 1970. In November 1963, he was deputy correspondent for the BBC in Washington and his Radio Newsreel report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy is a historic recording. Between 1976 and 1987 he was, along with Peter Sissons, one of the main presenters for ITN's "News at One", and often hosted the "" between 1979 and 1987. He occasionally presented "News at Ten".

Parkin was one of the most popular newsreaders ever to work for ITN, and, like his former co-host of the "" Michael Nicholson, he became renowned for his cheerful and friendly disposition. He always began the "News at One" by saying "Hello, Good Afternoon." then reading the headlines. When he presented "News At One" on October 24, 1979, he was the first ITN newscaster, after the ITV strike of 1979 from August-October of that year concluded, to be seen on ITV. During the Falklands War of 1982, Parkin temporarily replaced Michael Nicholson as main presenter of the "News at 5:45", and broke to the UK the news that the ARA General Belgrano had been sunk in a controversial incident during the Falklands War. He and Michael Nicholson (who was out in Argentina at the time) provided a detailed report of this incident. He left ITN in 1987, returning to his native Yorkshire to make a series of documentaries about the county for Yorkshire Television, entitled "Pieces of Parkin". Leonard Parkin died from cancer in 1993 at the age of sixty-four.