Jill Dando was born in Weston-super-mare North Somerset and educated locally, she went on to work for the BBC for fourteen years as a television presenter, she worked on many programmes such as Breakfast News, BBC One o’clock News, Six o’clock News, the travel programme Holiday, Crimewatch and occasionally Songs Of Praise. She was amonst the highest profile BBC on screen staff and she had also been personality of the year.
Before she became known nationally one of the places she worked for locally was the Weston Mercury newspaper where her father and brother also worked, she was also a keen Thespian and a member of the Weston-super-mare Amateur Dramatic Society.
Jill was a much loved personality who was sadly murdered on her doorstep on 26th April 1999 aged just 37, she was living in Fulham at the time of her murder and the crime has never been solved.
The memorial garden at Weston’s Grove park is named simply ‘Jill’s Garden’ it took three days of hard work by the BBC Ground Force team to design and complete and was opened on 2nd August 2001 by Councillor Peter Bryant, this permanent tribute to Jill is a sensory garden filled with plants and colours which were special to her such as roses, clematis, lavender and a range of tree’s and climbers it also contains a foaming fountain and a disabled ramp for easy access. Grove Park is situated in the centre of Weston at the top end of the high street with all day parking surrounding the area.
Also see our Tribute page with public comments, Jill Dando Tribute Page.
