Thomas John Sandars is a continuity announcer, newsreader and news presenter for BBC Radio 4. [1]
From 1989 to 1994, Sandars was educated at The Oratory School, [2] a Roman Catholic boarding independent school for boys in the village of Woodcote in Oxfordshire. He was active in Combined Cadet Force, in rowing and on stage. He was a joint founding editor of The Buzz school magazine and took A-levels in Art, Economics and English Literature. [3]
He then went to the University of Reading, where he studied Typography and Graphic Communication. In 1995 he was the editor of the student union newspaper at Reading, The Spark . [3]
He started at Radio Shropshire [3] in 1998, moving to BBC Radio WM. He was a presenter on Midlands Today and was also their political reporter for The Midlands at Westminster. He then moved to Sky News. [3]
Sandars was then a freelance newsreader for the BBC World Service. He has been a BBC Radio 4 continuity announcer since June 2017 and a BBC Radio 4 newsreader since May 2018. He was a newsreader and presenter for BBC Radio 5 Live for ten years from 2003. Between 2007 and 2017 he read news bulletins for BBC Radio 2 and for Radio 6 Music. Prior to 2017, he was also an arts correspondent; [4] he can also be heard on Radio 4 political programmes. [5]
On the 9 April 2021, Sandars' voice was heard breaking into all BBC Radio programmes to announce the death of Prince Philip. [6]