Life after Meridian for weather girl Gemma Humphries
For nine years she was there come rain or shine – a friendly face to impart what the day's weather was likely to bring.
But after fronting thousands of two-minute reports during her spell at Meridian, weather girl Gemma Humphries was made redundant last month.
Along with popular anchorwoman Debbie Thrower, the 33-year-old was just one of a host of well-known faces to leave following a merger between the station's news programmes.
Staff at Meridian were told back in November that the three regions it covered would be combined into just one main programme serving all areas.
Gemma had to reapply for her job but sadly lost out to former children's TV star turned weather man Simon Parkin.
Considering she'd been there for so long you'd think she might be bitter and angry about Meridian's decision to axe her.
Yet Gemma – who earned pin-up status among many of Meridian's male viewers – says the news has simply left her saddened.
Critics of the merger have said viewers will lose out as the station will now cover a wider news area and Gemma fears that Meridian's most faithful watchers might find the new format hard to swallow.
'I think it's going to take some getting used to for our viewers, some of those faces have changed,' explains Gemma.
'I think some people might switch off and some people will stay with us and hopefully they will get used to it.'
She adds: 'Simon and I applied for the job and it was one of those things. I had a feeling that it wasn't going to be the job for me.'
When Meridian moved studios four years ago to its current home on the outskirts of Whiteley, near Fareham, Gemma found herself commuting a long way from her home on the Kent/Sussex border.
She's relieved that she'll no longer need to make that arduous commute four times a week but admits she'll miss those she worked with.
'I was there nearly nine years and it was like a family,' she adds. 'I absolutely adored the job and it was really sad.'
She continues: 'Things have to change. I know regional broadcasting has now changed. I think in a few years there are going to be huge changes again.
'I wasn't angry, I was just saddened that viewers aren't going to get the same. I don't feel bitter.'
Gemma started at Meridian in June 2000 after moving across from BBC South Today.
She'd trained in meteorology when she was with the BBC and had worked as a radio weather presenter on the breakfast show, with Julian Clegg.
Not all TV and radio weather presenters are meteorologically trained but Gemma takes pride in the fact that she could talk with confidence about what she was forecasting.
'People would ask me what I did with the rest of my day apart from the two minutes in the evening I was on the TV,' she laughs.
'They didn't realise there was a forecast at 11am and another one in the middle of the afternoon. We put all the graphics together ourselves, I'd look at all the charts.
'On a general day we'd get in and, if we were lucky enough, we'd make a cup of tea to look over the charts with.
'We'd speak to the forecasters in London who will go through things with us, we'd put together all of our charts and we'd put it all together and start recording.
'The first news bulletin would be at 11.10am but I'd have to be ready by 10.45am because the weather is all pre-recorded to make things easier.
'I got to the point I could virtually do it standing on my head. It's essentially a story of what the weather is going to do over the next 24 hours – that's what's most important to so many people.'
Weather girls sometimes get a bad rap for being picked to appear on TV just for their looks rather than their talent.
And being on screen day in and day out can put pressure on presenters to conform to a certain look.
But Gemma says she never felt any pressure – or competition from other weather presenters – and adds: 'I always like to look good anyway. TV puts a lot of weight on you – about two stone. People would come up and say: "You look so much smaller than you are on TV."
'Because they see you on TV they feel as if they know you. I loved choosing my clothes for Meridian. Sometimes I got some really nice emails from people saying they loved my clothes and that was a really nice part of the job.'
Sharing jokes with Fred Dinenage, and bonding with Debbie Thrower over their shared love of Siamese cats, also became part of her daily routine.
'They were fantastic,' says Gemma. 'Fred and Debbie are professionals. They made me feel comfortable whenever I was in.
'Fred is naughty and always cheeky and always playing jokes and I was always playing jokes on him. Debbie was lovely and so kind. She was always a professional and so great to work with.'
After leaving our screens in February there wasn't much time for Gemma to just kick-back and relax.
She's already busy working on her next venture – and it's got nothing to do with weather maps.
'I started up a company with a friend of mine 12 months ago,' she explains.
'We saw a niche in the market for clothing that was designed for D-cup ladies who were sizes 10 to 14. Quite often with fitted shirts and dresses, if you've got a bigger bust, it's difficult to get things to fit.
'We're in the process of designing it all now. It's very different to doing TV and the weather.
'It's something so exciting that I'm really confident it's going to be a success.'
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
