Last bastions
From David Allan
Sir: I fear the time to rescue BBC English (cf. Michael Henderson’s article, 12 February) may well be long gone. In 1994, after working as a BBC television continuity announcer for almost 25 years, my contract was terminated with, in fairness, a generous pay-off. Several colleagues soon followed, although one managed to escape the cull by resourcefully adopting a totally alien estuary-type twang. The reason given for my removal was that the then new trendy breed of network controller had decided that the Man in the Street wanted to hear the Man in the Street on the BBC, and not some professional broadcaster with a standard English accent. I have never met anyone, in the street or elsewhere, who agrees with this theory but it was the start of the great dumbing-down.
Fortunately there are still bastions of good taste where a well-spoken and reasonably educated announcer (with or without an accent) can find a sympathetic ear. I am, together with a couple of my ex-BBC colleagues, employed by the History Channel, which sets great store by the quality of its voices and the standard of its scriptwriting. Its audience is growing.
David Allan
Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire
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