Last updated July 2007
Category: West Regional TV
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Alex Lovell joined the Points West presentation team in July 2005.
"There never was a master plan for my career," says Alex, who was brought up in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, "other than to work hard, enjoy it and make the most of opportunities as they came along. But in the event it has followed a logical sequence."
The result has been a long, hard apprenticeship with a rich variety of experience.
The seeds of Alex's career as a presenter were sown in her school days by joining in with choirs, bands and amateur dramatics. She also entered speech and drama festival competitions, which were a feature of Dales' life, and was awarded a prestigious Shakespeare Prize.
This helped to win her three years as a student in the Rose Bruford School of Drama in London and a Batchelor's Degree in Drama from the University of Kent – and so "another part-time waitress was born".
However, Alex had little time for "resting" and the first phase of her career, as a stage actress, took her to the English Theatre in Frankfurt and the Birmingham Rep.
She likes to keep her acting hand in and, when she has time, she still takes cameo parts, her latest being in BBC's My Dad's The Prime Minister.
The next phase was in children's entertainment – two years as a trouper singing, dancing, acting and puppeteering in the touring version of the BBC's Playdays.
This, in turn, led to television as joint presenter of the Disney Channel – where she became known to thousands of children as Little Alex, an opportunity that took her around the world – the Timmy Towers Show on CITV and Fun Song Factory on GMTV.
Pantomime offers followed and Alex played principal boy - and principal girl - in seasons at leading theatres in Nottingham, Blackpool and Woking.
"I loved every minute of it," says Alex, "and it provided a wonderful grounding – but I now wanted to get back to adult entertainment and into live presentation."
After serving a further apprenticeship in live shopping TV, Alex became host to Channel Five's live programme Brainteaser.
By now, her work was centred in Bristol and she was spending more and more time away from her base in London, so Points West became part of her routine relaxation after work.
"When I heard there was an opportunity to join the team, I put in an immediate application," says Alex.
"The BBC has always represented, for me, the peak of my ambition and I was ready for another sharp learning curve, this time into the field of journalism.
"I thought I could demonstrate the dedication and experience necessary to do the job and was over the moon to be given the chance to prove it."
She especially enjoys the job when she has the chance to interact with West Country viewers.
"They certainly know their own minds and provide the most wonderful responses," she says.
Alex may still be a "Yorkshire lass" but is putting down firm roots in the West.
