THE Cornish and Devon Post have signed up much-loved former BBC Spotlight presenter Justin Leigh to write a regular column for the paper.

Justin will be giving up his thoughts and views on a fortnightly basis, starting with the issue out today (Wednesday).

Justin left the BBC last October after 33 years with the corporation.

Almost 20 years of those were spent presenting the UK’s most popular regional TV news programme, Spotlight.

Justin began his broadcasting career as a volunteer at BBC Radio Cornwall, working first on the Sunday afternoon rock programme showcasing Cornish musicians, before moving to weekday afternoons and then taking over as presenter of the breakfast programme ‘Coast to Coast’.

A proud Cornishman, Justin crossed the Tamar in 1997 to begin TV reporting from the BBC’s South West HQ in Plymouth.

He quickly made an impression, and in 2001 he was asked to become a main anchor of the nightly regional news programme for the South West, BBC Spotlight.

Justin lives in Cornwall and has a great love for the South West.