MANAGING director of the former Westward Television and former Tavistock resident Ronnie Perry died in York at the age of 87.

Ronnie was managing director of Westward Television, the commercial station in South West England from 1970 until 1981. When the company lost its contract from the IBA following the boardroom infighting over the chairmanship between Peter Cadbury and Lord Harris – Ronnie became a casualty of that wrangle.

Before moving to Perth, Western Australia in 1987 Ronnie acted as a consultant for HTV (Harlech Television) in Cardiff and London advising them on the likely effects of new technology on their terrestrial business.

Ronnie joined Westward at its inception in 1961 as a trainee assistant floor manager and within a few years was general manager. He became a director of the company in 1968.

However despite this humble beginning at Westward in 1961 Ronnie was no ‘Green-horn’ in the entertainment world. For 12 years before joining the fledgling TV station, where he excelled in labour relations, he was stage director and company manager with the H M Tennent organisation in London beginning with “the Lyric Revue” in 1950 and working with most of Tennent’s top stars of that period.

Ronnie was a ‘boy stage manager’ with ENSA towards the end of World War II and then stage managed a number of Alistair Sim Productions and spent a short period with Worthing Rep.

At 17 Ronnie was the youngest stage manager of opera in the world when he stage managed the New London Opera Company at London’s Cambridge Theatre for Jay Pomeroy which kept him busy for two years after which he joined Glyndebourne Opera organisation for two years before the move to HM Tennant. Ronnie looked back in the early sixties saying that ‘Glyndebourne were his happiest years’ in his formative years.

Ronnie’s move to Tavistock and Westward TV in Plymouth allowed him to bring up his family in the countryside he loved with his wife Jill.

His sense of humour was as strong as his integrity and even flowed into his work. Westward’s April 1 April Fools News stories always resulted in the stations switchboard lighting up as viewers became concerned over such imaginative subjects as ‘the Cornish treacle mines running out of treacle’ and the awful consequences expected.

Ronnie’s commitment and love of the South West saw great investment in local production with Clive Gunnell’s ‘Walking Westward’ and Westward Diary’ becoming household staples. There was also a focus on Children with Gus Honeybun the giant rabbit reading out Birthdays every day. Westward under Ronnie also became a training ground for such leading future national and international journalists as Angela Rippon and Brent Sadler.

Ronnie’s retirement with Jill was again spent near family in Perth Western Australia and then, as the family moved east, on the edge of Melbourne, before following his youngest son back to the UK where he spent his later years in York.

Ronnie is survived by his wife Jill whom he married in 1957 and his two sons David and Jonathan with grand-children living in the UK and Australia.