Helen Rollason Helen Rollason Helen Frances Rollason, MBE ("née" Grindley: 11 March 1956 – 9 August 1999) was a British sports journalist and television presenter, who in 1990 became the first female presenter of the BBC's sports programme "Grandstand". She was also a regular presenter of "Sport on Friday", and of the children's programme "Newsround" during the 1980s. Born in London, Rollason studied to become a PE teacher before entering radio broadcasting in 1980. After directing sport related content for Channel 4, where she helped to bring American football to British television, she anchored coverage of the 1987 World Student Games and
Grandstand (TV programme) other programmes. In August 2001 the "Football Focus" section, having been the first feature on "Grandstand" since 1974, separated to become a programme in its own right. This meant that "Grandstand"'s start time was now 13:00 rather than 12:15. At the same time, "Final Score" was also separated from "Grandstand", also becoming a programme in its own right, running from 16:30 meaning that Grandstand only broadcast between 13:00 and 16:30 rather than 12:15 to 17:15. "Around the Grounds" and the half time sequence did remain within the "Grandstand" programme. In 2004, following the success of Sky Sports' "Soccer Saturday" programme