Dick Joice

Who was Dick Joice?

Dick Joice was a British regional television presenter renowned in the East of England for his Anglia Television programmes - particularly the Bygones show that ran from 1967 for twenty years. He was a director of Anglia TV in the company's infancy and its head of local programmes.

A farmer's son, Joice was educated at Culford School before taking over his father’s tenancy on the Norfolk estate of the Marquess Townshend in 1940. It was a chance conversation with his landlord in 1958 that launched his career into television. Townshend, chairman of the new Anglia company, recognised that programmes for the farming community would be a vital part of the service and asked Dick to help.

From 1959 Dick Joice presented Anglia’s weekly Farming Diary as well as becoming the first host of the regional news magazine programme About Anglia in 1960. It was, however, his programme Bygones that had a tremendous impact in the region and established him as a much-loved presenter.

Each half-hourly edition of Bygones explored East Anglian history and traditional crafts and featured mystery objects, about which Joice asked viewers, "Does anyone know what this was used for?" In two particularly memorable programmes, Joice assembled teams of men - some in their eighties - to demonstrate their now-lost skills with horses and in the fields.