Obligatory Americans on BBC Radio

[Maclintick]

You're better off without her!

I think she's arrived independently at the same conclusion ! Apropos of FF's judicious reminder of the BBC Trust's 2011 chastisement of the BBC for its relentlessly America-centric programming, the Maclintick household gained an unexpected bonus this week when all BBC TV services were unilaterally withdrawn due to "analogue switch-off", and we found ourselves reliant on "Russia Today" for news and commentary. It's salutary to realise that Western TV news networks play down much that our transatlantic cousins would not wish to be widely publicised, e.g. murders of Iranian nuclear scientists. Oh, and check out that Yulia Shapovalova !

BW

[prokkyshosty]

I wonder if American intellectuals are finding themselves a home on the BBC simply because there seems to be no use for them over here.

I suppose it goes both ways.... Typically, on any US issues-laden show (which are few and far between), the only people who make any sense are the ones with British accents -- usually Hitchens, which is why we're in for it over here, now that he's gone.

[Serial_Apologist]

I suppose it goes both ways.... Typically, on any US issues-laden show (which are few and far between), the only people who make any sense are the ones with British accents -- usually Hitchens, which is why we're in for it over here, now that he's gone.

It's what I'd call transatlantic intellectual swappage.

[amateur51]

It was that Alistair Cooke who started it all, of course

[vinteuil]

It was that Alistair Cooke who started it all, of course

... I blame Henry James

[marthe]

... I blame Henry James

That Henry James! A local lad too! As for Alistair Cooke, we all thought he sounded very English until an English friend of mine told me that he thought AC sounded very American.

[salymap]

That Henry James! A local lad too! As for Alistair Cooke, we all thought he sounded very English until an English friend of mine told me that he thought AC sounded very American.

I thought AC had a nice voice and always listened to his talks as I felt nearer to my American relations. Then just in Philadelphia, now all over the place.

[marthe]

For us, Alistair Cooke was the first presenter of Masterpiece Theatre, the PBS show that features English costume dramas. He was the "Voice of England." I didn't know about his "Letter to America" broadcasts until I lived in England. My grandmother, who was in her 90s, when Masterpiece Theatre was first broadcast in the 1970s was a big fan of AC. She'd always blow him a kiss when he closed by saying "g'd night" to his viewers.

[Don Petter]

I seem to recall that AC was one of the first to be considered to have a 'mid-atlantic' accent, so each side of the pond would naturally think he smacked a little of the other.

[marthe]

I seem to recall that AC was one of the first to be considered to have a 'mid-atlantic' accent, so each side of the pond would naturally think he smacked a little of the other.

Don Petter, I think you've got it! Before I lived in England, my perceptions of all things English were formed by television, movies, and books, particularly children's books. I'm sure I had some notion that everything would be a combination of the 100 Acre Wood, the Yorkshire moors, and Dickens's London and that every one would speak either like the Beatles, Dickon in the Secret Garden, or the Pevensie children of Narnia fame. I found out very quickly how wrong were my ideas and certainly know better now!

[Mary Chambers]

Don Petter, I think you've got it! Before I lived in England, my perceptions of all things English were formed by television, movies, and books, particularly children's books. I'm sure I had some notion that everything would be a combination of the 100 Acre Wood, the Yorkshire moors, and Dickens's London and that every one would speak either like the Beatles, Dickon in the Secret Garden, or the Pevensie children of Narnia fame. I found out very quickly how wrong were my ideas and certainly know better now!

I suppose I knew that What Katy Did was an old book, and that America would have changed since 1870-ish, but I still suspect the vegetation consists of butternut trees and sassafras, both of which sounded so exotic to me. I had no idea what they looked like, but thanks to the internet, I do now!

There was also Noel Streatfeild's The Painted Garden, about an English child who goes to stay with an aunt in California in the 1940s, and lands the part of Mary in a film of The Secret Garden. It told me that American policemen were bad-tempered and curt, and that American food was very lavish compared with postwar London, which I'm sure it was. I seem to remember the children guessing that they might have for breakfast ' a real egg' or even....'two whole eggs!'

I still think that Canada is exactly like Anne of Green Gables, in spite of the fact that one of my best friends is Canadian, and tells me otherwise.

[DracoM]

Well, in one way I'm sorry to resurrect this thread, but I have just listened with growing horror to the latest Critics' Forum on R4 Sat 7.15 p.m., May 5th.

An American 'anthropologist', Kit Davis. She has a buzz saw nasal whine of a voice, and cackled insanely and at silly length, talked, muttered, interrupted, talked through and across others, she never stopped murmuring and giggling in the background no matter who was talking at the time, and when we did get to hear her contributions, they were distinguished by profound banality. How on earth she gets on the list of critics I cannot imagine. It was a tour de force in the modelling of exactly why such Americans seem to be so inimical to radio etiquette. It is a favourite programme of mine, and I simply had to switch off to save the radio from instant defenestration.

[Serial_Apologist]

distinguished by profound banality.

Nice turn of phrase, Draco

instant defenestration.

And the window as well, presumably!

[handsomefortune]

i think the sentiments of the opening message on this thread probably recur like indigestion, every time dracom's observations are reflected in r4 production values.... ie 'we must hear from an american' on whatever given topic under discussion..... at which point beeb runners must race off, and find 'an american' at random. though invariably it's either someone who doesn't know what they're talking about, or one just to left of attila the hunn, and as reactionary.

with the exception of 'thinking aloud' which introduced an even scarier scenario. perhaps other posters heard two guests who were invited on the programme to speak on the subject of supermarket waste? the brit guest rambled at length, making some pretty obvious errors, usually emphasising the polar opposite of widely held perceptions about supermarkets. (specifically, their integrity as regards any wider obligation beyond consumption and profit). the subject of supermarket food waste, often consumed by the homeless, or re-shared by charities, as described by the american chap, caused extreme friction. incredibly, the brit chap argued with the american, saying 'well, you're talking about the US, whereas i am talking about supermarket waste here, which you don't know about' ... as though there's no general global consensus of opinion on this widely discussed set of problems and solutions. laurie tailor decided to research supermarket response, to which only sainsburys took the trouble to respond to ....proving the american's point to be pretty much correct i thought.

it did make me think of this thread in reverse - where american guests are well informed, appear neutral, and express themselves politely ....and brits grumpy, biased and poorly informed. surely, it's even worse to think that problematic guests are from 'closer to home'...rather than 'american' (as far as they can be, or are represented by beeb guests).

typically, to round off, tailor read out a few particularly acid, nasty letters, supposedly from listeners to his programme. which he 'dutifully' read out, using his special, ultra patronising and rushed voice. (the one he saves for relaying listener participation via correspondence to him, from the uk and elsewhere).