Helen McDermott

Helen McDermott (born circa 1954) is a British radio and television presenter, best known for her work at Anglia Television.

Helen began her broadcasting career in the 1970s as a continuity announcer and newsreader for Westward Television in Plymouth. While at Westward, she made an attempt at a singing career under the pseudonym of 'Helen Barnes'.

In 1979 Helen joined Anglia Television as an announcer and newsreader, where she quickly became one of the station's most popular faces. While working as part of the announcing staff, Helen devised the idea of utilising a puppet during the regular children's birthdays' slots, based upon her previous work at Westward alongside station mascot Gus Honeybun. The puppet BC (or Birthday Club) went on to become a fixture on Anglia for 22 years.

Helen left Anglia's presentation department when in-vision continuity was phased out at the station in the late 1980s. She later became one of the chief anchors for the East sub-regional edition of Anglia News between circa 1990 & 2001, and continued to work on a range of other regional programmes.

She was also a presenter at 99.9 Radio Norwich, but left in 2010 following budget cuts by station owners Tindle Radio. In January 2011, Helen joined BBC Radio Norfolk in Norwich as presenter of the 11am to 1pm slot from Monday to Thursday. In January 2012 Helen's programme was dropped from the Radio Norfolk schedule.

In 2014 Helen began appearing as a reporter on Norwich television station Mustard TV. Within weeks Helen was asked to co-present the channel's flagship nightly entertainment programme, The Mustard Show.