Another two unique voices ...

[andy-hughes]

I have mentioned before that in common with Terry Wogan, Jimmy Young speaks in a way that is unlike the speech patterns of anyone else on the planet.

That bizzarre whooping and shrieking, mumbling and singing way of talking is too weird to allow me to hear what they are actually saying half the time.

Well, two more have joined my list in the last couple of days -

Cilla Black who has continued to add her cod-Liverpudlian twang where it never occurs naturally in speech - "Clure with the fur hur ..." as one blonde lady was described. She talked like this in the 1960's, before mass media, when the Scouse accent was a novelty - and as time has gone on, and everyone knows how Liverpudlians sound, she has simply added grotesqueries on to ther unique way of muderering her local dialect, and now the weird pitching she uses makes her sound like a cat sliding down a blackboard.

And step forward Robert Peston - the BBC's Business Editor who has also managed to corner a unqiue method of communication. he speeds up and slows downm, his voice goes up and down at random, and he stammers as his thoughts run away with his mouth.

So why are these people given public access to talk in this peculiar fashion?

It would appear that all of them started off speaking in a relatively sane fashion, but as time has gone on, their voices have morphed into something alien and other-wordly, and the TV and radio outlets they use seem unwilling or unable to tell them that they sound like a visitor from another planet who has learned English from a speak-your-weight machine.

Any thoughts?

[HowardKennitby]

Further to the 'Today' theme; Justin Webb never seems to know what he is going to say and stammers a lot. Evan Davies is also a bit lightweight for that prog, in my view.

[sir.prize]

And ITN newsreader Alastair Stewart overly emphasises insignificant words. So unnecessary.

[andy-hughes]

sir.prize - my issue with AS is that he always speaks as though he is using the last eighth of the breath in his lungs. I always expect him to go purple and keel over!

[sir.prize]

So true Andy.

[andy-hughes]

Master of the shouted random emphasis - Frank Bough - never beaten!

[Lie-in King]

I often find myself wishing that Andrew Neil's mouth & brain had a better connection.

Cilla Black - one of the reasons the mute button was invented.

Robert Peston - God's gift to impressionists during a dearth of notable voices in Westminster.

[gingejbee]

..add David Mellor to your list, andy. I find his Classic FM programme most entertaining because - of -the- way- he - spaces -out- most -of - his -words.

[oldgreyweird]

Don't you think the profoundly irritating Robert Peston sounds like Gordon Brittas in the Brittas Empire?