FNiMN

[french frank]

He might have more an argument about the length of his working day though quite a few presenters would be happy to be live 24 hours a day.

Perhaps he has a clause in his contract that allows him several compensatory hours off to listen R3 Unwind.

[Pulcinella]

Perhaps he has a clause in his contract that allows him several compensatory hours off to listen R3 Unwind.

[Nick Armstrong]

Perhaps he has a clause in his contract that allows him several compensatory hours off to listen R3 Unwind.

Re. the ‘submarine’ blooper, which live broadcaster hasn’t committed such a slip? - the likes of Coleman(balls) & Murray Walker made a second career out of them.

I’m still musing on the probable impact on the U-Boat conflict had RJ Mitchell actually invented a submersible Spitfire… “game-changer” indeed

I object far more to the fake, shouty presentation style imposed on PT - is this traditional for this sort of fare, a hang-over from the MC of noisy Variety halls kind of thing, Leonard Sachs style? As if the lower orders won’t pay attention unless they’re bawled at…?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Re. the ‘submarine’ blooper, which live broadcaster hasn’t committed such a slip? - the likes of Coleman(balls) & Murray Walker made a second career out of them.

I’m still musing on the probable impact on the U-Boat conflict had RJ Mitchell actually invented a submersible Spitfire… “game-changer” indeed

I object far more to the fake, shouty presentation style imposed on PT - is this traditional for this sort of fare, a hang-over from the MC of noisy Variety halls kind of thing, Leonard Sachs style? As if the lower orders won’t pay attention unless they’re bawled at…?

I’m beginning to sound like his agent but I think that’s because he has to be heard over the orchestra at the beginning . He sort of relishes it I guess because it’s a change from talking intimately to studio mic.
I don’t know how they do things now but on the one and time I worked on it the very junior job I was asked to do was to check the announcer (Desmond Carrington) was loud enough coming out of the auditorium speakers.

[Nick Armstrong]

I’m beginning to sound like his agent but I think that’s because he has to be heard over the orchestra at the beginning . He sort of relishes it I guess because it’s a change from talking intimately to studio mic.
I don’t know how they do things now but on the one and time I worked on it the very junior job I was asked to do was to check the announcer (Desmond Carrington) was loud enough coming out of the auditorium speakers.

Fair point, well made.

You’re really earning your 15% this weekend, Ein H!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Fair point, well made.

You’re really earning your 15% this weekend, Ein H!

Truth is PT is a good bloke - helped all sorts of people in all sorts of ways over the years . I’m not “impartial” …‘Nuff said

[Sir Velo]

I’m beginning to sound like his agent but I think that’s because he has to be heard over the orchestra at the beginning .

His producer needs to remind him what a microphone is for and that he should STFU when he has nothing to say.

[Ein Heldenleben]

His producer needs to remind him what a microphone is for and that he should STFU when he has nothing to say.

I dare you to try it with a presenter. You might get a Clarksonian response …

[french frank]

I dare you to try it with a presenter. You might get a Clarksonian response …

I daresay you might. And really no individual presenter should be blamed for the current cult of the omnipresent presenter which I'm sure should be laid at a door on the floor above. But now that people have mobile phones to fidget with when nothing much is going on, perhaps that should be encouraged among the listeners at home and in the hall without pointless prattle being inflicted on everyone.

"And now there will be a few minutes pause while the piano is being set up, so for those who don't want to listen to the audience chatter and background thumps we'll take a short phone browse and selfie break here".

[LMcD]

I've just listened again, to make sure it wasn't just a fluff, but no, he really does say with absolute clarity 'the submarine spitfire'. It confirms my suspicions that some of these people, however much of our money they are paid , simply don't know what they are talking about.

I checked on Sounds before posting!
For the record, I was more amused than annoyed at what I would describe as an entirely forgivable slip.

[smittims]

Certainly it was forgivable. It's not a crime. He shouldn't be fined or humiliated; but I still feel he (and others who've done this) given me the impression that they don't know what they are talking about. So I can't agree that it was a tiny or isolated slip. I've heard him do similar things before.

If he'd been speaking quickly, as many do on the radio these days and said something that sounded like 'supmeen', then I'd have thought the was being merely careless. But he brought out the word with a clarity that would have done credit to Tom Courtenay or Laurence Olivier. And if he'd said 'R A Mitchell' or 'the Supermarine Spiteful' I'd call that a slip of the tongue. But I'm sure from what is in the recording that he definitely intended to say 'submarine'.

[LMcD]

Certainly it was forgivable. It's not a crime. He shouldn't be fined or humiliated; but I still feel he (and others who've done this) given me the impression that they don't know what they are talking about. So I can't agree that it was a tiny or isolated slip. I've heard him do similar things before.

If he'd been speaking quickly, as many do on the radio these days and said something that sounded like 'supmeen', then I'd have thought the was being merely careless. But he brought out the word with a clarity that would have done credit to Tom Courtenay or Laurence Olivier. And if he'd said 'R A Mitchell' or 'the Supermarine Spiteful' I'd call that a slip of the tongue. But I'm sure from what is in the recording that he definitely intended to say 'submarine'.

I've searched in vain for even the slightest hint that Mitchell and/or the RAF originally intended the Spitfire to be used to sink, or at least deter, U-Boats. Given the level of criticism of Petroc that I seem to have inadvertently triggered, I would be delighted to discover that he'd been right all along. His occasional struggles with German names have not prompted me to revise my favourable overall assessment of his on-air performance.

[french frank]

All of which diverts from the argument that FNiMN is 'easy listening' (apparently a more acceptable term than 'dumbing down' - so be it) and that the great change in Radio 3 is that too great a proportion of the programming is now 'easy listening' for the broad public rather than the quality arts broadcasting which the BBC once considered the duty of a Public Service Broadcaster to provide.

Everything has to be plentiful, cheap, quick, minimal effort: it's the way of the world.

[oddoneout]

His producer needs to remind him what a microphone is for and that he should STFU when he has nothing to say.

But the modern approach is to fill every moment with sound, regardless of whether it's necessary or even desirable, and in practice that means presenters having to witter when the music (using the term in its widest sense)stops - or even before... Given that pressure, it's hardly surprising that the quality and/or accuracy of the spoken content suffers.
Long gone are the days when the listener was allowed a pause at the end of the music, or audience applause was considered sufficient in its own right to fill a space.

[oddoneout]

Certainly it was forgivable. It's not a crime. He shouldn't be fined or humiliated; but I still feel he (and others who've done this) given me the impression that they don't know what they are talking about. So I can't agree that it was a tiny or isolated slip. I've heard him do similar things before.

If he'd been speaking quickly, as many do on the radio these days and said something that sounded like 'supmeen', then I'd have thought the was being merely careless. But he brought out the word with a clarity that would have done credit to Tom Courtenay or Laurence Olivier. And if he'd said 'R A Mitchell' or 'the Supermarine Spiteful' I'd call that a slip of the tongue. But I'm sure from what is in the recording that he definitely intended to say 'submarine'.

Some thoughts.
He is human and humans aren't machines, they are fallible; brain processes don't always produce the right or helpful results.
The modern demands that presenters speak at every available opportunity reduces the space to consider what is being said - engaging brain before speaking, and choosing to not speak if there is nothing to say - which increases the incidence of mistakes and poor quality.
It was a proper live broadcast, ie in real time, not a relay of a live recording when mistakes can be sorted out later. Even if he realised as he was speaking that what he said seemed wrong, what does he do? Tell the conductor to hang on a minute so he can correct?
The deliberate delivery could have been due to multitasking and/or perhaps a doubt about what he was reading from the script and weighing up what the options were.
If wartime aircraft are not an area of knowledge to him what seems an obvious nonsense to a person with that knowledge won't immediately register.
Given the rubbish that appears on the online schedules, can we be sure that his script was factually correct? If it was produced by some one ignorant of wartime aircraft, or indeed aircraft in general would they have realised that word was a nonsense before sending the script out?