Jeanne Downs

Jeanne Downs is a former presenter of Children's ITV (CITV), which is the brand name used for the majority of children's television output on ITV in the United Kingdom. She is also a singer & voice over artist too.

Children's ITV

In early 1989, the contract to produce Children's ITV (CITV) was taken over by an independent production company, called Stonewall Productions. As well as doing the regular afternoons service, in the summer of '89, they also provided a CITV summer mornings service, which ran from 9:25am - 12:30pm on weekdays throughout July & August. Downs & fellow presenter, Clive Warren were both hired to present the mornings, although Warren initially started presenting on his own (in July '89), with Downs joining him shortly afterwards a month later. At the same-time, they also both took turns as stand-ins for fellow CITV presenter, Jerry Foulkes in the afternoons, when he was away on holiday. On the 2nd January 1990, (following Foulkes' departure on the 22nd December 1989), she took over co-presenting the CITV afternoons service, along with the puppet character, Scally The Dog. Warren returned to CITV in summer 1990, to present the mornings service on his own, but he & Downs did occasionally swap roles, with him doing the afternoons & she doing the mornings instead sometimes. In September 1990, CITV's afternoon service became slightly longer, now running from 3:55 - 5:10pm each weekday. Downs & Scally continued to present CITV's afternoons service until April 1991, when Stonewall lost the contract to produce CITV back to Central Television (who had also done it previously from 1983 - 1989). They were replaced by a solo Tommy Boyd, who had already presented CITV twice before in the 1980's, now returning for a 3rd time in 1991. However, on the 3rd January 2003, CITV celebrated it's 20th birthday, with a special one-off programme called, "CITV's 20th Birthday Bash". Downs & Scally both appeared on the programme, alongside other past & present CITV presenters, such as Roland Rat, Matthew Kelly & Michael Underwood.

Other Work

After she left CITV in 1991, Downs pursued a singing career, providing backing vocals for many artists, including Steve Hackett (a former member of the rock group, Genesis). She is involved with music production, songwriting, runs a 'pop school' in Surrey & is also a member of a 'live' band called Madison Square. [ [http://www.madisonsquare.co.uk Welcome to Madison Square - the party band ] ] She also does lots of voice-over & narration work too, including many commercials. [ [http://vocalpoint.net/fvo/downs Vocal Point - Jeanne Downs ] ] She is married to record producer, Aron Friedman and they have a young daughter called, Sophie.

References