A FAMILIAR face from BBC's Midlands Today - John Yates, who lives near Stourport - has filed his final report after deciding to retire.

Well known for sporting a bow-tie while reporting on the more offbeat and quirky aspects of life, his decision was prompted by ill-health.

He had worked for the BBC since 1979, having entered journalism through newspapers in the late 1960s.

Mr Yates, 56, is married - his wife, Chris, is also a journalist, as is one of his two daughters.

Although he is now a resident of the Wyre Forest area, he was born in Essex but brought up in Cheshire.

"My first newspaper was the now defunct Stockport Advertiser, which I joined in 1968," he said, reflecting that probably set the tone for the type of wacky stories he became noted for covering.

"I seemed to have been branded with that a long time ago," he explained, "I fought against it for some time and then thought, 'what's the point?' It's a bit like an actor being offered a long running season but saying 'I would rather be Hamlet.'"

Eventually he went with the flow, leading to a job with BBC Radio Leicester in 1979.

"I ended up doing a desk job, as acting news editor," he said, adding: "I hated that and they offered me an attachment to do television, which I didn't like, to begin with, but it grew on me."

The transition posed different challenges, he explained: "It's a very different sort of medium. You've almost got to unlearn everything you have learnt as a print journalist and radio journalist."

He recalled the early assignment that probably typified the offbeat tales that became his niche. "I remember I had been there about two weeks and they gave me a little story to do about a Gloucester old spot pig that had to go on a diet.

"I think it sort of stuck from there. They used to say 'if if that's a bit odd, Yatesy's the one to do it'."

He will not be giving up totally on media work and will keep his hand in with some television filming, but without the daily grind.

As far as the trademark bow-tie was concerned, he revealed why he began wearing it. "I have rather a large stomach and, if you spill your lunch down a normal tie, you have to get it dry cleaned," he said.

"But, if you spill your lunch down a shirt, you can wash it. You can't very well spill your lunch on a bow-tie."