Thursday, October 02, 2008

Speak up! On second thoughts, don't.

Patrick Moore, aged astronomer and veteran TV presenter (There can be nobody who does not know his programme "The Sky at Night"), practically got himself lynched when he said in a very public forum that the BBC was ruining the service by employing so many FEMALE announcers, newsreaders and the like. Man, you can't say anything like that in this day and age.
And yet. And yet. There are some people in broadcasting who have clear and beautifully modulated voices, and there are some who are close to incomprehensible, and, sometimes, unbearable.
OK, to cases. There is a programme I like called Cash in the Attic. If the presenter is Angela Rippon or Jenny Bond, I am happy, because they have voices like satin. If it's Lorne Spicer, I just have to switch off, because she has a screeching voice that would shatter a chandelier.
Equally, there are male voices that defy comprehension, often because they are thick with some local accent - all part of the political correctness de nos jours - but really it does no favour to some gabbling Glaswegian to give him a communicator's role, all it does is to make the rest of us furious. God knows how he understands himself, let alone the rest of us. I dinna ken what ye're on aboot, Jimmy. And that's a fact.
So, please, can we get back to horses for courses, and employ the right person for the right job, regardless of their origins, bra size or totemic value.

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