A few years in the past, I had a dearly liked colleague on one other paper who used to pepper her articles with quotations from philosophers and eminent historic figures.
I hope I don’t improper her once I say that I reckon she did this to present her readers the impression that she was somewhat extra realized than was truly the case.
Thus, she may write: ‘Was it not Alexander the Nice, if reminiscence serves me, who noticed in about 323 BC, “I’m dying with the assistance of too many physicians”?’
In truth, she would know completely nicely that the quote was extensively attributed to Alexander. However this was not a lot as a result of she was a scholar of historic historical past as given that she had simply come throughout it within the Penguin Dictionary of Quotations, which she favored to maintain open on the desk in entrance of her as she wrote.
All proper, I should confess that I personally, in widespread with quite a lot of different columnists, have sometimes been responsible of the identical sin. Certainly, I’ve simply lifted Alexander’s witticism from that exact same dictionary. However I prefer to suppose I’ve not been fairly such a serial offender as my beloved ex-colleague.
Sneery
Anyway, I used to think about her each time I listened to Radio 4’s long-running present, Quote . . . Unquote. That was earlier than it was lastly scrapped final month — after no fewer than 57 collection and 506 programmes — for causes that emerged solely this week. I shall come to them in a second.
Radio 4’s long-running present, Quote . . . Unquote was lastly scrapped final month — after no fewer than 57 collection and 506 programmes
Now, I do know I danger incurring the wrath of legions of devoted followers of the programme once I say that I by no means loved it a lot, and I’m actually not going to overlook it now it’s gone.
It appeared to me to signify the old-style, pre-woke BBC at its worst — smug, a tad sneery and showing to have little different function than to present its contributors the chance to inform the world: ‘Look how intelligent I’m!’
Specifically — and right here I’m maybe being terribly unfair — I’ve lengthy been irritated by the sleek radio voice of its presenter, Nigel Rees, 77, who co-invented the programme 46 years in the past with John Lloyd, the producer and author behind programmes similar to Not The 9 O’Clock Information, Blackadder, The Hitchhiker’s Information To The Galaxy, QI and Radio 4’s The Museum Of Curiosity.
Nigel Rees (pictured), 77, who co-invented the programme 46 years in the past with John Lloyd, the producer and author behind programmes similar to Not The 9 O’Clock Information, Blackadder, The Hitchhiker’s Information To The Galaxy, QI and Radio 4’s The Museum Of Curiosity
I ought to say directly that I’ve by no means met Mr Rees, who could also be acquainted to readers not solely from Quote . . . Unquote however as a long-serving common in Dictionary Nook on Countdown till 2001.
For all I do know, he’s a beautiful bloke, probably the most erudite, civilised, witty and stimulating firm possible — and type to youngsters and animals in addition.
All I can say — on no extra strong proof than his lofty drawl — is that he at all times got here throughout to me as a little bit of a patronising bore (look who’s speaking!). In case you ask me, he tended to sound greater than somewhat happy with himself, as he chuckled over the bons mots of Samuel Johnson, Oscar Wilde and the like.
Certainly, he struck me as simply the type of fellow visitor we’d dread to search out sitting reverse us at a cocktail party.
However go away apart the actual fact there’s nothing very intelligent about reciting from dictionaries of quotations — and even compiling them, as Mr Rees has performed. From the very first airing of Quote . . . Unquote, manner again in January 1976, I felt that the format by no means actually labored.
That is regardless of the actual fact the programme attracted a galaxy of distinguished visitor panellists, from playwrights Alan Bennett and Sir Tom Stoppard to such raconteur luminaries as Sir Peter Ustinov, Dame Judi Dench, Sir David Attenborough and the late novelist Sir Kingsley Amis.
For the advantage of these clever or fortunate sufficient by no means to have listened to it, I ought to clarify that the primary a part of the present took the type of a quiz, wherein an announcer learn out a quote and Mr Rees requested his panellists to determine its origin.
The difficulty was that, fairly often, not one of the visitors had a clue to the reply, irrespective of how well-known the quote. This made for awkward silences, till Mr Rees was lowered to dropping ever-heavier hints.
Bigwigs
To provide the normal thought, what follows is a parody I’ve made up — however I reckon it’s not so very far faraway from the truth.
Announcer: ‘To be or to not be, that’s the query…’
Rees: ‘Who do you suppose wrote these phrases?’
Movie star panellist: ‘Um, it sounds very profound. Might it have been Adele?’
Rees (in his smoothest, most schoolmasterly voice): ‘Noooo, you’ll have to return additional than that. Consider a sure bard from Stratford-upon-Avon — or a scion of the Danish royal household.’
Panellist: ‘Ah! I believe I’ve bought it! Was it Prince Philip?’
Radio 4 presenter Mr Rees revealed he stop the BBC after 46 years as a result of he felt pressured by the company’s deal with variety
I felt that this downside grew notably acute throughout the last couple of collection, when the visitors’ common information stage appeared to plummet.
Which brings me to the reason Mr Rees has now given for his determination to wind up the present. He has let it’s identified that he was fed up with the interference of right now’s BBC bigwigs, obsessive about ‘variety’ and wokery, who tried to dictate to him the form of visitors he ought to invite on to his present and which quotations he ought to keep away from airing.
As he wrote within the January version of his Quote . . . Unquote publication, which he’ll proceed to provide although the present itself is over: ‘I don’t need to sound like an “anti-woke” Tory MP (which I’m removed from being), however . . . “cultural points” have been among the many a number of components that contributed to my pulling the plug.’
Providing an perception into the hilarious antics of his bosses within the real-life W1A, he went on to quote how he needed to struggle to get them to allow his announcer, Charlotte Inexperienced, who was privately educated within the House Counties, to learn out a citation in a Yorkshire accent.
Patronising
‘I can solely assume that anticipating complaints from Yorkshire those who they have been being patronised or stereotyped had led to this,’ he mentioned — including his personal remark (which itself smacks to me barely of a patronising stereotype), ‘should you can think about Yorkshire folks able to being patronised.’
He additionally revealed that for the five hundredth version of his present he wished to incorporate the traces from Noel Coward’s Mad Canines And Englishmen: ‘In Bengal/ To maneuver in any respect/ Is seldom if ever performed.’
‘And but I used to be advised that it “mirrored colonial attitudes”,’ he writes, ‘and so the woke police leant closely upon me to decide on one thing else.’
As he identified, the BBC authorities appeared to have missed the purpose that Coward was poking enjoyable on the English, not the Bengalis.
Mr Rees mentioned he felt put underneath stress by the BBC’s ‘precedence’ to ask numerous visitors – even when they weren’t at all times probably the most appropriate audio system. Pictured, Broadcasting Home, in London
They appeared to not have seen the traces: ‘It appears such a disgrace/ When the English declare/ The earth/ That they offer rise to such hilarity and mirth.’
Warming to his theme, Mr Rees made it clear in an interview this week that he resented being instructed to ask visitors for no higher cause than that they ticked the BBC’s containers for variety.
‘The query should be: Is the panellist appropriate for the programme?’ he mentioned. ‘As an alternative, we had prescriptions to have numerous teams and disabled visitors. I didn’t agree with it in any respect, however I went together with it as a result of I needed to.’
Does this, maybe, clarify why Quote . . . Unquote grew to become such notably painful listening in its dying weeks?
Regardless of the fact, I say full marks to Mr Rees for difficult BBC wokery, even on the danger of being ‘cancelled’ by the champions of this dim-witted, illiberal creed. Certainly, I’m firmly on his aspect.
However as for his dire programme, my view is maybe finest summed up in a two-word phrase, which I see from my dictionary of quotations comes from Troilus And Cressida, by a sure bard of Stratford-upon-Avon: ‘Good riddance!’