TV news presenters should learn to speak properly

Would you trust a doctor who had no medical training? Would you hire an accountant who couldn’t do maths? Or employ a nanny who didn’t like children?

So why is it okay for the BBC to hire a presenter who can’t speak properly?

The death of Jill Dando in 1999 was a huge shock. She and I both worked at the BBC at the same time and shared a hairdresser, so we bumped into each other occasionally. I was equally shocked, however, when Barry George was found guilty of her murder. It seemed to me that the evidence against him was in no way strong enough to secure a conviction, so I was eager to see last night’s Panorama questioning his guilt.

It was in many respects an excellent programme. The narration was strong (if a little repetitive at times) and presenter Raphael Rowe’s questions appeared probing and perceptive. Yet Rowe’s delivery made me feel almost physically sick. It was so outrageously bad that my initial instinct was to switch off after just thirty seconds. I had to force myself – literally - to watch to the end.

Although clearly an intelligent guy, Rowe came across as a moronic, lazy and ill-educated idiot, all because his powers of speech (or lack of them) let him down.

He couldn’t say his r’s and he dropped his h’s. He said ‘anythink’ instead of ‘anything.’ Unable to put a ‘g’ on the end of his words, viewers had to listen to his endless repetition of key words such as investigatin’, takin’ and meanin’ instead of what they clearly should have been. He had the same problem with t’s, so George’s coat was repeatedly called a ‘co’ and his appearances in Court were described as ‘cour’ appearances.

I was exasperated at his inability to talk of ‘news’ or ‘new’ evidence. We got ‘Noos’ and ‘Noo’ instead. His voice demonstrated almost no variation of tone, rendering his narrative mostly monotonous and dull. When he committed the ultimate sin of referring to a clergyman as ‘Reverend Howe,’ instead of either adding the obligatory first name or substituting ‘Mr’ for ‘Reverend,’ I was ready to slit my wrists. Did no one in the entire, supposedly top-notch production team notice this error?

Please don’t call me snobbish or prejudiced. These problems have nothing to do with any speech disability or regional accent on Mr Rowe’s part. I have absolutely no problem with regional accents and loathe elocution as I feel it can strip the personality. I don’t care if comedians such as Jonathan Ross speak like this. I just happen to feel strongly that presenters of flagship news programmes ought to be able to communicate with us without distracting us by their inability to speak properly. If they can’t, they shouldn’t be given such a job in the first place.

Of course Mr Rowe could, should he chose, learn to speak properly. In fact he doesn’t have any problems that couldn’t be completely sorted in less than an hour with a half-decent voice coach. So, either he’s too big-headed to take advice or no one has raised the issue with him.

Which latter case begs the question, why not? Could it possibly be something to do his violent criminal record? Are those around him just a tiny bit timorous in the face of his rather worrying past?

Whatever; Rowe should sort his speech problems. He would increase his credibility by 1000%.

If he can’t or won’t, then the BBC should give his job to someone else; someone who is capable of doing it properly; who would no doubt value the break and take pride in seeking to improve their performance.