Jeanne Downs
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Jeanne Downs (born 6 January 1968) is a former presenter of Children's ITV (now known as CITV), which is the brand name used for the majority of children's television output on ITV in the United Kingdom. She is also a singer and voice over artist.
Children's ITV
On Monday 3 April 1989 the contract to produce Children's ITV was taken over by an independent production company, called Stonewall Productions. As well as doing the regular afternoons service, in the summer of '89, they also had to provide a mornings service too, which was a rival to But... First This! on Children's BBC. Downs & Clive Warren (a DJ from London's Radio Top Shop) were both hired to present the mornings service, which ran from 9:25am to 12:30pm on weekdays throughout July and August. Also, the puppet character Scally the Dog often appeared in the mornings with them too. Additionally during this time, they both took separate turns as stand-ins for fellow Children's ITV presenter Jerry Foulkes in the afternoons, when he was away on holiday.
On 2 January 1990 (following Foulkes' departure on 22 December 1989) Downs took over co-presenting the Children's ITV afternoons service, along with Scally. Warren returned to Children's ITV in summer 1990, to present the mornings service on his own, but he and Downs did occasionally swap roles, with him doing the afternoons and she doing the mornings instead sometimes. In September 1990, Children's ITV's afternoon service became slightly longer, now running from 3:55 to 5:10pm each weekday. Downs and Scally continued to present Children's ITV's afternoons service until 29 March 1991, when Stonewall lost the contract to produce Children's ITV back to Central Television (who had also done it previously from 1983 to 1989). They were replaced by a solo Tommy Boyd, who had already presented Children's ITV twice before in the 1980s, now returning for a third time on 1 April 1991. However, on 3 January 2003 CITV celebrated its 20th birthday, with a special one-off programme called CITV's 20th Birthday Bash. Downs and Scally both appeared on the programme, alongside other past and present Children's ITV presenters, such as Roland Rat, Alan Partridge and Michael Underwood.
Other work
After she left Children's ITV in 1991, Downs pursued a singing career, providing backing vocals for many artists, including Steve Hackett (a former member of the rock group Genesis). She is involved with music production, songwriting, runs a 'pop school' in Surrey and is also a member of a 'live' band called Madison Square.[1] She also does lots of voice-over and narration work, including many commercials.[2] She is married to record producer Aron Friedman, and they have a young daughter called Sophie.
