Weather presenter Wincey Willis, whose bubbly personality and colourful jumpers brought a ray of sunshine to breakfast television, has died aged 76 after battling dementia.
Willis became ITV’s first female weather presenter on national television when she was hired to join Good Morning Britain by TV executive Greg Dyke in 1983. The breezy, mullet-haired 34-year-old blonde brought a brighter approach to weather forecasting at a time when television was awash with a gloomier style.
“Most people don’t want to know about high pressure over the Azores,” she told the Liverpool Echo. “All they care about is whether they need their umbrella.”
Willis, along with the ever-smiling anchor Anne Diamond, Rustie Lee, doing cookery, and a new exercise slot with “Mad Lizzie” Webb, ensured Good Morning Britain overtook rival BBC’s Breakfast Time in the ratings. And has her role expanded, animal-loving Willis even took part in co-presenting alongside infamous rodent puppet, Roland Rat.
Wincey was the first female weather presenter (Image: -)
She paved the way for other women in the business (Image: -)
She was widely acclaimed for blazing a trail for other female breakfast-time weather forecasters such as Trish Williamson and Ulrika Jonsson, who would also branch out into other programming.
Willis was born Florence Winsome Leighton, in Gateshead, Co Durham, in 1948 and adopted as a baby by Florence and Thomas Dimmock.
She picked up the nickname Wincey from her middle name when her classmates at primary school in Hartlepool were learning the words to Incy Wincy Spider.
Willis left school aged 16, travelling to France where she passed the baccalauréat before studying at Strasbourg University. She returned to the northeast in 1975, taking a job behind the scenes at Radio Tees in Stockton-on-Tees.
The star was known for her smile and warm personality (Image: -)
Wincey moved into presenting television after the weather (Image: newcastle chronicle)
From there she moved into television when asked to audition as weather presenter for the Tyne Tees regional TV and a year later was given her own series on Granada called Wincey’s Pets.
At the height of her career, in the mid-80s, she was appearing on the game show Treasure Hunt with Anneka Rice. A contract disagreement led Willis to resign from TV-am in 1987, after which her TV career largely stalled.
She spent subsequent years as a conservation volunteer helping endangered species across the world. Wincey also presented radio shows for BBC Coventry & Warwickshire and for BBC Hereford & Worcester.
Her 1972 marriage to Malcolm Willis ended in divorce. Willis suffered from dementia in recent years. Her death on December 18 last year was made public this week.
