Who's who

Guy Pannell has 40 years’ experience in journalism, including 33 years in television. Since 1993 he has brought his experience to teaching on the highly successful MA/Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism at University College Falmouth.

Guy began his career in 1966, reporting for weekly and evening newspapers in West London. He moved to Plymouth in 1971, as a reporter and then sub-editor for The Western Morning News and Evening Herald. Two years later he fulfilled his ambition to move into broadcasting, joining the regional independent company, Westward Television, as a news sub-editor.

For over 20 years Guy was involved in almost every area of television news and current affairs production in the south west. This ranged from producing and reporting the news and editing a weekly political programme, to delving into the archives for a series which looked back at past events in the region and brought back to the screen some of the personalities involved.

Guy became News Editor when Television South West succeeded Westward TV in 1982, responsible for regional and national coverage of many of the region’s major news stories, involving blizzards, floods and heat waves, strikes and industrial stories, air crashes and shipwrecks, including the Penlee lifeboat disaster. He was able to bring his interest in railways to bear when he succeeded in having a high speed train named after the evening news magazine Today South West, and produced the show on board.

Appointed programme producer, Guy was a regular editor of the evening news magazine together with Outside Broadcasts, sports programmes, current affairs and election specials and Plymouth-based episodes of the networked live audience show The Time, the Place. He was responsible for the last edition of Today South West on New Year’s Eve, 1992, even scripting the final storyline for the station’s much loved children’s birthday rabbit, Gus Honeybun.

Since 1993, first as Senior Lecturer and now as Joint Course leader, he has combined his teaching on the Broadcast Journalism course at Falmouth with continuing practise in the television newsroom for ITV Westcountry in Plymouth, As a freelance news producer he has close links with professionals responsible for employing many of the course’s former students. This enabled him to gain detailed feedback on what the industry requires from its recruits, and determine whether the course team is providing effective outcomes from the programme delivery. Arranging work placements for the students, and compiling a list of first employment destinations, also assists him to help fine tune the course to the current needs of employers.

Guy holds the Proficiency Certificate from the National Council for the Training of Journalists, is a Registered Practitioner of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Royal Television Society, and is course representative on the Broadcast Journalism Training Council.

He lives in Devon, where he is able to indulge his interests of walking Dartmoor, gardening, sailing and sport. He was founding Secretary of Ivybridge Rugby Club and is the Secretary of a charitable trust which owns recreational land in his village. He is also a Trustee of the TSW Group Pension Scheme.