JAG Retires

Riviera

James Alexander Gordon who has read the classified football results on BBC Radio's Sports Report for over 40 years, has announced his retirement. I always found him a bit of a joke really and not a patch on dear old Len Martin or Tim Gudgin who did Grandstand/Final Score for years.
I'm sure JAG means more to those who go to football home and away and catch him on the way home just as they get in their cars than the couch potatoes like me.

Stig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv_idtcK1-E

Lincsaddick

he's 77 .. the old boy should have retired years ago .. no wonder youngsters can't find decent jobs with these old buggers hanging on for grim death ...... we'd still be stuck with Stuart bleedin Hall if he'd not been banged up. The BBC usually employs 'em until they drop dead at the microphone

Viewfinder

"East Fife, four; Forfar, five." After a Scottish match, the commentator trilled: "They'll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight." Oh no they won't - there's no such place as Raith.

adamtheaddick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACMcjbmniC8

Stig

Viewfinder said:

"..."They'll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight." Oh no they won't - there's no such place as Raith.

I never knew that Viewfinder. Where did they get the name Raith from then?

man_at_milletts

Understand he has cancer of the throat. A sad day, but many happy memories of that great voice over the years, as we sat glued to the box checking the pools coupon.

adamtheaddick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gtl85_8jmI

adamtheaddick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBUiPs1PxKo

adamtheaddick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew1-FVgre-I&list=PLDF9409E50A8F4481

Viewfinder

Stig said:

Viewfinder said:

"..."They'll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight." Oh no they won't - there's no such place as Raith.

I never knew that Viewfinder. Where did they get the name Raith from then?

Don't know without consulting Professor Wiki, Stig - but do know Raith play in Kirkcaldy. There are/were quite a few of those confusions in Scotland: no places called St Mirren, Clyde, Hibs, Hearts, St Johnstone, Albion Rovers, or Queen of the South (unsurprisingly). Conversely, there are very few in England; Port Vale? Arsenal?

BIG_ROB

.

carly burn

"....Charlton.........nil"

Stig

Viewfinder said:

Stig said:

Viewfinder said:

"..."They'll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight." Oh no they won't - there's no such place as Raith.

I never knew that Viewfinder. Where did they get the name Raith from then?

Don't know without consulting Professor Wiki, Stig - but do know Raith play in Kirkcaldy. There are/were quite a few of those confusions in Scotland: no places called St Mirren, Clyde, Hibs, Hearts, St Johnstone, Albion Rovers, or Queen of the South (unsurprisingly). Conversely, there are very few in England; Port Vale? Arsenal?

Cheers.

Absurdistan

carly burn said:

"....Charlton.........nil"

He said it way to many times over the years :-(

Viewfinder

Charlotte Green, ex-Radio Four newsreader, has been appointed to read the football results in place of retiring James Alexander Gordon. Heavens above! - A woman reading the results...?

Lincsaddick

Viewfinder said:

Charlotte Green, ex-Radio Four newsreader, has been appointed to read the football results in place of retiring James Alexander Gordon. Heavens above! - A woman reading the results...?

this is a windup surely .. the BBC (which I still love despite all) gets weirder and weirder every day .. at least Colin (fucking) Murray didn't get the job .. we'll have Alison Mitchell on TMS before long .. mark my words and weep all ye lovers of traditional England

Viewfinder

Lincsaddick said:

Viewfinder said:

Charlotte Green, ex-Radio Four newsreader, has been appointed to read the football results in place of retiring James Alexander Gordon. Heavens above! - A woman reading the results...?

this is a windup surely .. the BBC (which I still love despite all) gets weirder and weirder every day .. at least Colin (fucking) Murray didn't get the job .. we'll have Alison Mitchell on TMS before long .. mark my words and weep all ye lovers of traditional England

Try not to choke on your Werther's Original, Lincs dear boy...!

Lincsaddick

Viewfinder said:

Lincsaddick said:

Viewfinder said:

Charlotte Green, ex-Radio Four newsreader, has been appointed to read the football results in place of retiring James Alexander Gordon. Heavens above! - A woman reading the results...?

this is a windup surely .. the BBC (which I still love despite all) gets weirder and weirder every day .. at least Colin (fucking) Murray didn't get the job .. we'll have Alison Mitchell on TMS before long .. mark my words and weep all ye lovers of traditional England

Try not to choke on your Werther's Original, Lincs dear boy...!

enuf to make a f***ing saint choke (:->)

Viewfinder

Lincsaddick said:

Viewfinder said:

Lincsaddick said:

Viewfinder said:

Charlotte Green, ex-Radio Four newsreader, has been appointed to read the football results in place of retiring James Alexander Gordon. Heavens above! - A woman reading the results...?

this is a windup surely .. the BBC (which I still love despite all) gets weirder and weirder every day .. at least Colin (fucking) Murray didn't get the job .. we'll have Alison Mitchell on TMS before long .. mark my words and weep all ye lovers of traditional England

Try not to choke on your Werther's Original, Lincs dear boy...!

enuf to make a f***ing saint choke (:->)

Lincs - There are generations of male Radio-Four listeners who melt at the sound of Charlotte Green's "breathy" voice, and her coy, giggling that goes with the 'The News Show' on Friday nights. Not I. Her articulation has always been bad, putting in syllables as affectation: "Here is the New-oos." No! If a lady is going to give us the results, let's have the gorgeous, sensuous tones of the continuity announcer, Arlene Fleming. Oh please, she can whisper "Crewe Alexandra" in my ear all night long....

Lincsaddick

Viewfinder said:

Lincsaddick said:

Viewfinder said:

Lincsaddick said:

Viewfinder said:

Charlotte Green, ex-Radio Four newsreader, has been appointed to read the football results in place of retiring James Alexander Gordon. Heavens above! - A woman reading the results...?

this is a windup surely .. the BBC (which I still love despite all) gets weirder and weirder every day .. at least Colin (fucking) Murray didn't get the job .. we'll have Alison Mitchell on TMS before long .. mark my words and weep all ye lovers of traditional England

Try not to choke on your Werther's Original, Lincs dear boy...!

enuf to make a f***ing saint choke (:->)

Lincs - There are generations of male Radio-Four listeners who melt at the sound of Charlotte Green's "breathy" voice, and her coy, giggling that goes with the 'The News Show' on Friday nights. Not I. Her articulation has always been bad, putting in syllables as affectation: "Here is the New-oos." No! If a lady is going to give us the results, let's have the gorgeous, sensuous tones of the continuity announcer, Arlene Fleming. Oh please, she can whisper "Crewe Alexandra" in my ear all night long....

I agree .. contrived posh, like Princess Margaret for example .. VERY off putting. Women are/have already taken over at the BBC. The decision to have Green reading the football results is quite simply ridiculous and verges on taking the piss out of football fans. This would not have happened were the BBC not reduced to having women's football as their 'jewel in the crown' football outside broadcasts.
I have the same problem with Henry Blofeld. He sounds to me like Ray Winstone doing Bertie Wooster. Over contrived poshness, totally unnatural and unnecessary. Agnew & Vic Marks are 'posh boys' and have naturally 'posh' voices, rhythmical and melodic. The Blofelds and Greens (Charlotte) of this world merely grate on the/my nerves.

Anyway .. moan moan grumble .. we're stuck with these nincompoops until either they or I kick the bucket.

Viewfinder

Lincsaddick said:

Viewfinder said:

Lincsaddick said:

Viewfinder said:

Lincsaddick said:

Viewfinder said:

Charlotte Green, ex-Radio Four newsreader, has been appointed to read the football results in place of retiring James Alexander Gordon. Heavens above! - A woman reading the results...?

this is a windup surely .. the BBC (which I still love despite all) gets weirder and weirder every day .. at least Colin (fucking) Murray didn't get the job .. we'll have Alison Mitchell on TMS before long .. mark my words and weep all ye lovers of traditional England

Try not to choke on your Werther's Original, Lincs dear boy...!

enuf to make a f***ing saint choke (:->)

Lincs - There are generations of male Radio-Four listeners who melt at the sound of Charlotte Green's "breathy" voice, and her coy, giggling that goes with the 'The News Show' on Friday nights. Not I. Her articulation has always been bad, putting in syllables as affectation: "Here is the New-oos." No! If a lady is going to give us the results, let's have the gorgeous, sensuous tones of the continuity announcer, Arlene Fleming. Oh please, she can whisper "Crewe Alexandra" in my ear all night long....

I agree .. contrived posh, like Princess Margaret for example .. VERY off putting. Women are/have already taken over at the BBC. The decision to have Green reading the football results is quite simply ridiculous and verges on taking the piss out of football fans. This would not have happened were the BBC not reduced to having women's football as their 'jewel in the crown' football outside broadcasts.
I have the same problem with Henry Blofeld. He sounds to me like Ray Winstone doing Bertie Wooster. Over contrived poshness, totally unnatural and unnecessary. Agnew & Vic Marks are 'posh boys' and have naturally 'posh' voices, rhythmical and melodic. The Blofelds and Greens (Charlotte) of this world merely grate on the/my nerves.

Anyway .. moan moan grumble .. we're stuck with these nincompoops until either they or I kick the bucket.

You have got it spot-on, Lincs - and I love your image of Henry Blofeld, Ray Winstone, and Bertie Wooster. Some people are caricatures of themselves - and what really gets my goat is that we (us) are meant to like them. Take this whole concept of hiring Charlotte Green to read the football results, for example. Somebody, somewhere, has come up with the idea that men like football and men like women. So they must go together. Well, fuck my old boots - it's patronising! Charlotte Green has become a Z-list celebrity for her "breathy" voice on that smug Friday news programme that does "naughty quips" about "The Establishment" - and the whole nation is meant to quiver and titter in some sort of guilty delight. Count me out. Charlotte Green read the News for decades, and according to her it was the New-Oos. Affectation like that is simply tiresome - and then to have a BBC bright spark tell us we must have more of it is plainly insulting.

Viewfinder

Lincs - It's all part of this idea that we are idiots. May I give you another example? Look at any TV news, and the reporter approaches the camera (us) wiggling his eyebrows and waving his arms while he is talking. What is this - some kind of deaf-and-dumb language? The idea is that unless a semblance of physical action happens in a millionth of a nanosecond, we are all going to get bored. So the reporter heavily accents his words "TWO million", etc., etc. And just in case we are not complete idiots, a big '2' flashes up on the screen behind him. Adults are treated like children! Of course Christopher Morris spoofed all this, in 'The Day Today' and 'Brass Eye' - swivelling in his chair as a news anchor: "Over to Kerlaterly Sisters for Enviro-News..."

Riviera

She took a voluntary redundancy package from the BBC earlier this year. I wonder if she'll pay the money back?

Lincsaddick

Riviera said:

She took a voluntary redundancy package from the BBC earlier this year. I wonder if she'll pay the money back?

really? ... there should be a stewards enquiry on this one .. an acquaintance of mine took BBC redundancy once upon a time .. it was a ruse designed to cut staff costs, or rather to give that impression to Mr Gullible Public .. as soon as it was permissible under the redundancy terms, she was back at work doing the same job, at a higher rate of pay as a freelance .. this was in the mid 1990s , I last spoke to her about ten months ago, she was still with the BBC but going for compensation as 'her job' was moving to Salford .. these sort of quasi fiddles were commonplace in the BBC, Public Sector, NHS etc., anywhere where the sitting duck tax payer foots the bill .. I wonder if it still happens now that we are all in it together

Viewfinder

Lincsaddick said:

Riviera said:

She took a voluntary redundancy package from the BBC earlier this year. I wonder if she'll pay the money back?

really? ... there should be a stewards enquiry on this one .. an acquaintance of mine took BBC redundancy once upon a time .. it was a ruse designed to cut staff costs, or rather to give that impression to Mr Gullible Public .. as soon as it was permissible under the redundancy terms, she was back at work doing the same job, at a higher rate of pay as a freelance .. this was in the mid 1990s , I last spoke to her about ten months ago, she was still with the BBC but going for compensation as 'her job' was moving to Salford .. these sort of quasi fiddles were commonplace in the BBC, Public Sector, NHS etc., anywhere where the sitting duck tax payer foots the bill .. I wonder if it still happens now that we are all in it together

It's really quite scandalous. On the subject of TV generally, I got so fed up with being patronised - the arm-waving news reporters, the daft muzak behind documentaries, the canned hysterical laughter, the assumption that we have the attention span of a gnat - that about fifteen years ago I chucked my telly into a skip and have never watched one since. My dear elderly mother had a telly in her house and it actually made me feel physically unwell. Not knowing what Julia Bradbury had for breakfast is my single and sole virtue. I have thousands of superb books: I read, go for long walks with the camera, and print photographs in my darkroom. I am never bored. Simon Cowell, Graham Norton, Nigella Lawson, Kirsty Alsopp - they all sicken me in the gut and the soul.