Julian Lanus Simmons (born 27 March 1952) is a Northern Irish broadcaster, best known for his work as a long-serving continuity announcer on UTV.
Early life
Simmons was born in Kent, England on 27 March 1952. His parents were Pearl and Alan, both from London. Simmons later moved with his parents to Northern Ireland when his father was moved there by his company Morley's. Simmons attended Belmont Primary School and Methodist College. Simmons had an interest in drama at a young age; he held puppet shows at his home. Before his broadcasting career began, Simmons worked for McCalla Travel, and later worked for Air Canada in Belfast and London between 1978 and 1997, combining this with his announcing work for UTV.
Broadcasting career
Simmons' career in broadcasting began when he appeared in amateur drama productions in Belfast while working for Air Canada at their offices in the city.
When he started working at UTV, Simmons' job involved reading news and sports bulletins as well as introducing the channel's programmes, but he felt uneasy with newsreading. "I didn't know what I was talking about... My main worry when I was reading the news was...you are worried about making a mistake, but I was also worried I was going to laugh. I have this thing if I'm hearing bad news, or someone goes to tell me something grave... it must be a nervous thing, I feel myself starting to smirk. So I was always terrifed that when I was reading the news that I was going to laugh."
In the 2005 Julian documentary, Simmons describes how his continuity duties eventually changed: "Continuity was very straight... and then one Christmas, I was in for four or five days over the Christmas period, all done up like a dog's dinner and a dickie bow... no news to read, so I started introducing these programmes and acting 'a bit of the lig' in between the programmes. And it went down very well, apparently. They decided I would do permanently weekends: Friday/Saturday/Sunday primetime, where the programmes are all entertainment; nothing hard or heavy." He has also presented the light-hearted archive series, UTV Rewind and the travel series Come Fly with Julian.
Up until October 2016, Simmons usually introduced programmes on the station in-vision at weekends and was mainly associated with his links into what he has described as his favourite programme, Coronation Street, where he puts on a 'camper' voice and refers to recent story developments on the programme. When talking about his Coronation Street introductions, he comments that he is "...imitating what I [hear] people say on trains and on buses... people talk about the soaps as if it's happening to real people."
In April 2020, UTV abandoned local continuity, initially as a temporary measure, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on staff at the station's Belfast studios. Following a decision to switch permanently to ITV network presentation, Simmons announced his departure from UTV on 26 November 2020.
Personal life
Simmons currently lives in Belfast. In an interview in 2008, Simmons announced that he was gay. In 2011, Simmons underwent surgery for a quadruple heart bypass. He returned to his announcing role at UTV on 3 November 2011 after a four-month break.