{"id":31958,"date":"2023-04-07T11:10:04","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T09:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1813308"},"modified":"2023-04-08T10:07:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T08:07:41","slug":"bbc-presenter-and-itv-newsreader-nicola-heywood-thomas-dies-aged-67","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/bbc-presenter-and-itv-newsreader-nicola-heywood-thomas-dies-aged-67\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC presenter and ITV newsreader Nicola Heywood-Thomas dies, aged 67"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"> Tributes have poured in for the former ITV newsreader and BBC Radio Wales presenter. <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By Morgan Cormack\n                \t\t<\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Friday, 07 April 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body> <p>Former ITV newsreader and BBC Radio Wales presenter, Nicola Heywood-Thomas, has died aged 67.<\/p>\n<p>The Welsh broadcaster had reportedly been suffering from health problems over the past few months and BBC Radio Wales editor Carolyn Hitt said that Heywood-Thomas had been undergoing \u201cvery gruelling chemotherapy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Heywood-Thomas worked for Wales Today as a sub-editor, reporter and presenter, but was well-recognised after her 18 years as HTV\u2019s \u2013 the predecessor to ITV Wales \u2013 main news presenter.<\/p>\n<p>After leaving HTV, she was involved with arts coverage on BBC Wales and worked with BBC Radio 3. She continued work up until February of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Her former colleague and news anchor Jonathan Hill announced the news of her death on Wales at Six on Thursday evening (6th April).<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cI am afraid we have some very sad news to share with you. Our friend and colleague, former HTV presenter Nicola Heywood-Thomas sadly passed away earlier today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have of course presented many editions of this programme together and she will be greatly, greatly missed by all of us here at ITV Cymru Wales. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this very sad time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cShe anchored Wales at Six for more than 15 years. Thoughts are with all her friends and colleagues tonight\u201d.<\/p>\n<ul><li><strong>Read more:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/entertainment\/paul-ogrady-showbiz-world-tributes-newsupdate\/&quot;\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\" rel=\"&quot;noopener&quot; noopener noreferrer\">Paul O\u2019Grady remembered by Russell T Davies and more as showbiz world pays tribute<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Throughout her three decades on the screen, Heywood-Thomas had been a familiar face for many, presenting the news and fronting current affairs programmes, arts shows and documentaries.<\/p>\n<div class=\"&quot;ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper\" ep2nwvo0=\"\" data-component=\"&quot;text-block&quot;\">\n<div class=\"&quot;ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer\" e5tfeyi1=\"\">\n<p class=\"&quot;ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph\" eq5iqo00=\"\">ITV Wales paid tribute to Heywood-Thomas upon the news of her death, stating that she was one of its \u201cmost iconic faces\u201d. They said: \u201cShe anchored Wales at Six for more than 15 years. Thoughts are with all her friends and colleagues tonight\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>BBC Radio Wales editor Hitt said she was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by the news of her colleague\u2019s death, saying that Heywood-Thomas was \u201chugely respected and admired\u201d throughout her career. Together, the pair formed a well-known duo, becoming two of the major voices in Welsh arts coverage for nearly three decades.<\/p>\n<div class=\"&quot;ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper\" ep2nwvo0=\"\" data-component=\"&quot;text-block&quot;\">\n<div class=\"&quot;ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer\" e5tfeyi1=\"\">\n<p class=\"&quot;ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph\" eq5iqo00=\"\">\u201cShe was fascinated by performers and artists and the stories behind the work they created, and always looked for imaginative ways to communicate these stories,\u201d Hitt said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"&quot;ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper\" ep2nwvo0=\"\" data-component=\"&quot;text-block&quot;\">\n<div class=\"&quot;ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer\" e5tfeyi1=\"\">\n<p class=\"&quot;ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph\" eq5iqo00=\"\">\u201cNicola championed Welsh culture and hated the idea that the arts were some kind of posh pursuit for the elite.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"&quot;ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper\" ep2nwvo0=\"\" data-component=\"&quot;text-block&quot;\">\n<div class=\"&quot;ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer\" e5tfeyi1=\"\">\n<p class=\"&quot;ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph\" eq5iqo00=\"\">She continued: \u201cWe have been astounded and deeply touched in recent months to witness her dedication to her Radio Wales programmes, even though she was facing such challenging health issues. We will miss her creativity, her commitment and the warmth of her friendship.Wales has lost one of its greatest broadcasters.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Tributes have poured in for the former ITV newsreader and BBC Radio Wales presenter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":31959,"template":"","categories":[6,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/04\/bbc-presenter-and-itv-newsreader-nicola-heywood-thomas-dies-aged-67.jpg",823,549,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/04\/bbc-presenter-and-itv-newsreader-nicola-heywood-thomas-dies-aged-67-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/04\/bbc-presenter-and-itv-newsreader-nicola-heywood-thomas-dies-aged-67-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/04\/bbc-presenter-and-itv-newsreader-nicola-heywood-thomas-dies-aged-67-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/04\/bbc-presenter-and-itv-newsreader-nicola-heywood-thomas-dies-aged-67.jpg",800,534,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/04\/bbc-presenter-and-itv-newsreader-nicola-heywood-thomas-dies-aged-67.jpg",823,549,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/04\/bbc-presenter-and-itv-newsreader-nicola-heywood-thomas-dies-aged-67.jpg",823,549,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Tributes have poured in for the former ITV newsreader and BBC Radio Wales presenter.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/31958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}