It is an end of an era as Julian Simmons steps away as UTV’s continuity announcer. Here he discusses with Jane Hardy his much-loved television career, his former flight attendant job and growing up in Northern Ireland.
JULIAN THE GREAT I
f asked which much-loved Northern Irish celebrity earned the nickname ‘Ginger Vermin’ at the start of his career, you might not immediately think of Julian Simmons. But the former UTV linkman did answer to the moniker when working at McCalla travel agency. He explains: “We all had nicknames there – me, my friends Andytown Jez (or Jezebel) and Thunderbum, who gained hers for obvious reasons. And she was always asking whether her bum ‘looked big in this’.” He adds that the agency, which has now disappeared, was in Donegall Street and on the ground and first floors they had admin and the customer-facing section where Simmons worked. At the top, apparently, was the typing pool where you found all human life. “That’s where the nicknames were handed out,” he remembers. “I had a good time and
used to go for lunch with Andytown Jez in the Europa restaurant where we’d people watch.” Twenty-year-old Julian was the business trip booker, having attended the Methodist College, and the job triggered his later career in the airline industry. Simmons admits he really wanted to be an airline pilot and earn his stripes. “Oh yes, but I wasn’t bright enough at maths. I was best at English, which I found easy, I was good at geography but I’d never have been able to do the calculations.” Instead, Julian joined Air Canada. At one point during this glamorous era, he worked two jobs and would sometimes fly back to Belfast from London where he’d finished a long shift. “I’d head for the Havelock Street studios, go to a corner of the room, throw my gear on the floor, ignoring the fact I’d been up since 5am, 34
and don a suit to introduce the news.” How did he keep going? – “Lots of vitamins”. Looking back now, at the age of 59 (“It’s a good age, I think I’ll stay there for a while”), after his brilliant 35-year career as the continuity doyen at UTV, not to mention newsreader and travel show presenter, Simmons says he’s been very lucky. You sense that this is modesty and that clearly an awful lot of talent was involved. As a natural humorist, Simmons reveals he often had to quash his natural reaction to shocking news items. “In Northern Ireland we all have the ability to talk about horrendous events and make them sound funny. People would go ‘Oh Julian, have you heard the awful news?’. I often felt I was at risk of corpsing when reading out terrible things on air. I knew there’d be people
