AND finally: Martin Henfield will read his last bulletin for BBC News North West on Sunday (April 11).

Martin, who lives in Ramsbottom, is retiring after 34 years of broadcasting for the BBC in the north west and the Midlands, where he started in local radio.

"Obviously I'll be sorry to leave," said the 60-year-old presenter, of Carr Bank Drive.

"I'll miss not only my colleagues who I've worked with over the years, but many thousands of listeners and viewers who I regard as friends. I've just turned 60 and I think it's time to try something new."

Mr Henfield has worked in radio and as a TV presenter since moving to the north west from Birmingham in 1975. For ten years he was an on-screen reporter for Look North, which was fronted by Stuart Hall, before changing its title to Look North West, and later to North West Tonight.

In 1988 he was appointed manager of BBC Radio Manchester, now GMR, but left after five years to front the station's breakfast programme as a freelance before becoming the presenter of BBC TV's North West Tonight in 1995.

He said: "I suppose you could say I decided to leave before my face fell in. But my brother, as brothers do, told me it had already fallen in, so I guess it was time to go."

He added: "I think the best tribute I can make about my various jobs with the BBC and more specifically about North West Tonight is that I would do it all over again.

"I'll be taking a lot of memories with me. I reported on the fatal explosion at Abbeystead and witnessed how the people of the village helped each other overcome the tragedy. I also recall presenting North West Tonight live from the rubble and wreckage of central Manchester after the IRA bomb."

Martin said he has seen great changes in broadcasting.

"The early tape recorders were like small suitcases and TV equipment was heavy and cumbersome too. We reported on film and it was a joy to have 50 minutes to script your reports while the film was being processed. You don't get that sort of break with video."

Martin was also the regular voice of documentaries for the BBC in the North West for many years and also presented the TV series Out and About in which he met some of the north west's "characters".

Martin said that he now will front conferences, seminars and corporate events and continue with his after dinner speeches.