A WELL-known face will be disappearing from our TV screen after April 11.

That's the day when Martin Henfield, who lives in Ramsbottom, reads his last regional news bulletin for the BBC .

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

Martin has worked as a radio and TV presenter since moving to the North-west from Birmingham in 1975. For 10 years he was an on screen reporter for Look North, fronted by Stuart Hall, which changed its title to Look North West and later North West Tonight. In 1988 he was appointed Manager of BBC Radio Manchester (now BBC 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 has been on our screens ever since, as a presenter and more recently news reader.

"I suppose you could say I decided to leave before my face fell in," said Martin who has an identical twin brother, Mike. "But my brother, as brothers do, told me it had already fallen in, so I guess it was time to go."

He added: "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 says much has changed since he began broadcasting. "The early tape recorders were like small suitcases," he said, "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 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 travelled around the region in an open- top 1953 Morris Minor going to unusual places and meeting some of the North-west's "characters".

Although he is retiring from the BBC, he has no intention of stopping work. He intends to front conferences, seminars and corporate events, as well as teach people to make business presentations. He is also a regular after-dinner speaker.