I'm sorry to have to report that David J Tollman (Tollers to many of us) sadly passed away on Saturday, 16th August 2025.

Dave joined the BBC as a Technical Operator in 1969 on TO Course 31.

After just a few years he left the BBC to join the fledgling LBC - the UK's first licensed Commercial radio station - which began broadcasting to London on Monday 8th October 1973. Taken on as a Sound Technician, he was soon appointed as a Shift Leader. There, he met Helen, who would later become his wife.

The two of them left LBC after a couple of years, all set to take up employment faraway in Wellington, New Zealand. However, a General Election in 1975, meant the new government's policy to cut immigration came into effect, and before they left the UK their job offers were quickly withdrawn.
Perhaps fortuitously, the two were able to find employment at Beacon Radio in Wolverhampton which was just setting up. Dave became their engineer with Helen employed as a journalist and phone-in presenter.

With a vague idea that he too wanted to become a journalist, in 1979 David left Beacon to do a BA(Hons) degree in International Relations and Politics, achieving a 2/1 degree. However, finding writing those essays a strain, he concluded that journalism probably wasn’t his calling after all!

By then Helen had joined Channel Four News at ITN where the Sound Department were looking for staff, several members having left to join TV-am. With their need of extra staff (to facilitate C4 News) in 1983 Dave joined ITN as a Sound Technician: after a couple of years, he was promoted to Sound Supervisor working on the various ITN bulletins and special programmes - including the General Election programmes of 1992, 1997 and 2001.

After Helen and he divorced in the mid-1980s, he married Judith - a divorcee with two teenage children - in 1999.

But then, on reaching the grand old age of 50, and feeling the need for a better work/life balance, Dave decided to go freelance after the 2001 General Election programme. This gave him the freedom to work not only on the BBC's London News programmes but also its ITV rival 'London News Network' as well as various shifts for BBC News 24 and BBC World - with the occasional Newsnight thrown in!

After working on BBC World's 2005 Election programme, Judith and he decided that they wanted early retirement. They both gave up work and moved to a small village on the Shropshire/Powys border.
In 2017, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer: he underwent surgery but the cancer then spread to his lungs and pelvic area. Sadly more chemotherapy was unable to halt the disease spreading, and he eventually succumbed to its challenge.

His funeral will take place on 1st September at 12:00 in the village church of Llanfair Waterdine in Shropshire [LD7 1TU] with a burial in the cemetery.