Peter Donaldson RIP

[subcontrabass]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34709664

[Lat-Literal]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34709664

Oddly enough, I was thinking only yesterday about R4 continuity announcers when I happened to hear one reading the Shipping Forecast. He had what sounded like an Indian accent and an Indian name and the accent was combined with Received Pronunciation. With his accent being softer than that of the Jamaican Neil Nunes, he seems to have avoided the unfair criticism of Nunes. And I think what struck me is that it must take some work to obtain the right people for continuity on R4 and arguably any selection requires more skill in an era of diversity. Mostly, I think, they get it right. Contrast with the World Service which while still very good even with the cuts has a success and failure rate that is 50/50.

Peter Donaldson was a very, very, fine continuity announcer and the point in the article about his involvement in an announcement for nuclear war is interesting. Those who now manage R4 should never forget that, at root, R4 is the Home Service and that the Home Service was as much the national voice of stability during WW2 as anything. That indeed is the principle raison d'etre for having an R4. No commercial service could do the same while advertising in the most glossy and glib way possible a range of unwanted products.

It doesn't mean that R4 should essentially be a news service. Far from it. 21st Century news thrives on the negative and provoking anxiety, just as do the tabloids and modern Governments themselves. It is often in the name of reassurance but that isn't what it tends to be and it is essentially economic. The cynical might say that in a competitive climate they subconsciously revel viciously in notions of survival-of-the-fittest. Anyhow, that would have to change in a real national crisis which would probably not be war in the old fashioned sense but it would no doubt be something just as grim. Continuity - national continuity, hence national security - requires an emphasis on strengthening all or at least giving the appearance of doing so. Often that means needing to have a standard in areas of interests with the news being clipped into the strictly relevant and mutually reinforcing.

This is where R3 and even R2/R4E are important because they do that, respectively, for the erudite and for the rest of the population who prefer light entertainment. But it is the actual voice of continuity that is absolutely essential. Voices of continuity on R4 such as Donaldson's are in effect a legacy of the tried and trusted and thus are at the heart of us.

[cloughie]

Oddly enough, I was thinking only yesterday about R4 continuity announcers when I happened to hear one reading the Shipping Forecast. He had what sounded like an Indian accent and an Indian name and the accent was combined with Received Pronunciation. With his accent being softer than that of the Jamaican Neil Nunes, he seems to have avoided the unfair criticism of Nunes. And I think what struck me is that it must take some work to obtain the right people for continuity on R4 and arguably any selection requires more skill in an era of diversity. Mostly, I think, they get it right. Contrast with the World Service which while still very good even with the cuts has a success and failure rate that is 50/50.

Peter Donaldson was a very, very, fine continuity announcer and the point in the article about his involvement in an announcement for nuclear war is interesting. Those who now manage R4 should never forget that, at root, R4 is the Home Service and that the Home Service was as much the national voice of stability during WW2 as anything. That indeed is the principle raison d'etre for having an R4. No commercial service could do the same while advertising in the most glossy and glib way possible a range of unwanted products.

It doesn't mean that R4 should essentially be a news service. Far from it. 21st Century news thrives on the negative and provoking anxiety, just as do the tabloids and modern Governments themselves. It is often in the name of reassurance but that isn't what it tends to be and it is essentially economic. The cynical might say that in a competitive climate they subconsciously revel viciously in notions of survival-of-the-fittest. Anyhow, that would have to change in a real national crisis which would probably not be war in the old fashioned sense but it would no doubt be something just as grim. Continuity - national continuity, hence national security - requires an emphasis on strengthening all or at least giving the appearance of doing so. Often that means needing to have a standard in areas of interests with the news being clipped into the strictly relevant and mutually reinforcing.

This is where R3 and even R2/R4E are important because they do that, respectively, for the erudite and for the rest of the population who prefer light entertainment. But it is the actual voice of continuity that is absolutely essential. Voices of continuity on R4 such as Donaldson's are in effect a legacy of the tried and trusted and thus are at the heart of us.

His was one of those very under stated but reassuring voices of Radio 4 from the Harriet Cass, Charlotte Green era. RIP Peter.

[ahinton]

His was one of those very under stated but reassuring voices of Radio 4 from the Harriet Cass, Charlotte Green era. RIP Peter.

The tributes that I heard on BBC R4 yesterday seemed effusive to the point of contrivance; however, having heard Mr Donaldson on many occasions (including in his self-invented guise as Donald Peterson), they were quite simply not so; a very sad loss indeed - and at no great age, either.

[Stillhomewardbound]

I have no pithy anecdote to contribute, but I was a lowly production assistant working for Radio 2 presentation, across the corridor from the Radio 4 presentation offices, and would occasionally glimpse PD passing by. Once, he popped into our office with a glint in his eye, an item of mail in his hand, and uttered in that unmistakeable timbre 'Not for us. Maybe you ... Two'.

Best of all was to know that he was a rare Beeb example of the poacher having being made the gamekeeper, but without it changing him. You'd never know from this presentation, or announcing as it was once called, that he was a rebel at heart.

In our times, seventy is no age at all.

God's speed to you, Peter Donaldson.