Sunday 28 October 2018

Chips and Shoulders


Tina D, reading the news this morning

Tina Daheley, the co-presenter of the youth-aimed Today spin-off to be launched tomorrow, has been talking to The Observer. Here are some quotes from the piece:
Anyone who has been paying attention knows podcasts are hugely popular with under-35s, and if you’re serious about reaching that audience, it’s the logical thing to do. For me, a big thing is class and social background. We’re supposed to be holding a mirror to society and be representing them, but when was the last time someone who didn’t go to public school or Oxbridge presented the Ten O’Clock News?  
The BBC gets a lot out of me. I should be thinking: ‘this is brilliant, I’ve got this whole area locked off, I tick all of those boxes in terms of strategy – young women, brown people, so-called C2DE demographics – but I wish there were more of me. I had to work twice as hard and be damn good at my job to develop my career. I was doing 19 jobs and working for months without a day off [to get noticed] but there should be more people who look like me. 
"There should be more people who look like me"? Hmm, you have to wonder, don't you, does she actually watch the BBC these days?

And far be it from me to suggest that chippy-sounding Tina wasn't being entirely fair about the BBC's attitude towards diversity on 'The Ten O’Clock News', but, as we know, the Corporation is actually completely obsessed with such things:

The programme's six presenters are Huw Edwards, Fiona Bruce, Sophie Raworth, Reeta Chakrabarti, Clive Myrie and Jane Hill. 

That's four women and two men. And there are two ethnic minority presenters. Plus there's a mix of English, Scots and Welsh. And of straight and gay. 

Plus its main presenter, Huw Edwards, didn't go to public school or to Oxbridge. Nor did Clive Myrie. (The BBC ladies are much posher though!)

Anyhow, reading that Observer interview suggests to me that the young have got such a treat in store when SJW Tina and gloomy Matthew Price launch their Today-based podcast tomorrow.

O to be young again!

8 comments:

  1. Tina should get Katty in her sights.

    OMG.

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  2. I don't think Wilfred Pickles went to public school or Oxbridge. He read the news back in the 1940s in his regional accent.

    Once again I am disappointed to see the BBC fail to fill an important presenting role with an ugly female. Does Tina ever give thought to the unbecoming blobs of blubber who never get a look in? Somehow I doubt it. They could have the clearest voices, the greatest knowledge of news and the most penetrating of interviewing techniques but never be offered such a role. Where's the justice in that?

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    Replies
    1. The scourge of Backendofbusism at the bbc is rampant still, despite Steph at her most coquettish. Clearly an inquiry needed.

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  3. MB: In fact Wilfred Pickles affected a near-RP accent, with just the occasional lapse; one day, he lost concentration and pronounced the 'a' in 'aircraft' short, as in 'cat'. This led to the 1940s equivalent of a Twitterstorm: a prolonged 'letters-to-the-Times-storm.' Listen to 'BBC Wilfred Pickles reading news on the Far East (Newsreels World War2)', on YouTube. To hear him in full-blown 'Oop North' mode, listen to him in 'Have a Go', not his intro., but when he's speaking to people - also on YouTube.
    Peter & MB: am hoping Beeb doesn't monitor this blog at the weekend, otherwise the diversity commissars will be cramming our screens with roly poly look-alikes. Never mind, so long as we don't lose the divine Sophie! Sisyphus

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    1. I thought he'd read it in a Yerkshee-ar accent not this Southern RP Spoof. As you say quite affected - but he does say " 'ong Kong" - rather than "Hung Kung". Thanks for the gen on that.

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  4. Tina Daheley has been presenter on Woman's Hour on the odd occasion but she took Jenni Murray's weekly stint of Wednesday to Friday this week just past. I did wonder if Murray is just having a week off or if she is being eased out and Daheley lined up as replacement.

    That interview gives the impression of it all being about her and being rather up herself. Just how many people like her would meet her demand and sense of entitlement?

    And by the way, her question about presenting the News and Oxbridge, hasn't she herself presented it, quite apart from the others mentioned by commenters here?

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    1. Murray's deffo under pressure. You can always tell when
      they start coming over all Corbynista.

      Murray no longer regales us with stories of her sons' rugger matches at private schools...now it's all overcoming patriarchy and fighting for equality.

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  5. Why is no one at the BBC questioning the massive chip on this girls shoulder, not to mention the huge exaggerations and color biased statements that are just ridiculous? Everyone has to work hard, not just asians or those of darker skin color. She should be thankful for her carefree life and all the lucky breaks the BBC has given her which afford her so many freebies and holidays at least once a month rather than complaining 247 about pay, color bias etc.

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