Fast-Talking On Radio And T V

[gl556tr]

Listening to programmes are becoming exhausting: presenters and news-readers talk so fast, zooming through full-stops and commas, without stopping, catching a breath in the middle of a sentence.
Whew!
It is no wonder that they mispronounce the simplest of words.
.
Manna from Heaven, when John Simpson and Kate Adie -- rare breed indeed! -- speak in a measured manner: one feels invited to listen to them.
(They also have time to choose from our wealth of words to paint the virtual pictures.)

[emmie]

sometimes i think i am going deaf, though i am not, when they speak so quick i don;t catch half of what is said. As to dramas, often the music drowns out the dialogue.

[aelmpvw]

it's the mumbling that drives me mad, i thought Sarah Lancashire was playing the part of a ventriloquist in The Accident ...

[Georgiesmum]

Yes, Ive noticed Zoe Ball doing this recently too and I remember thinking I havent a clue what she just said.

[CrapAtCryptics]

It seems that Beth Rigby cant afford Gs on her words and usually pronounces us as UZ.

[hereIam]

I agree about Sarah Lancashire in Accident, but I can honestly say, I've never noticed anybody else doing this ...

[Rosie29]

I'm so relieved other people have noticed this breakneck way of speaking. I didn't know if I had slowed down while everyone else had speeded up.

[Khandro]

More like this?

[Rosie29]

Lol Khandro - I remember him well.

[andy-hughes]

Georgiesmum - // Yes, Ive noticed Zoe Ball doing this recently too and I remember thinking I havent a clue what she just said. //

It's less the speed with which she talks, but the fact that whatever comes out of Ms Ball's mouth is so uniformly vacuous and pointless, than even the most attention-paying listener has forgotten what she said as soon as each sentence ends, before she sucks in a noisy breath to carry on pouring out the verbal equivalent of pond water.

[naomi24]

//whatever comes out of Ms Ball's mouth is so uniformly vacuous and pointless//

You'd need to listen to her to know that. I don't.

[andy-hughes]

naomi - // //whatever comes out of Ms Ball's mouth is so uniformly vacuous and pointless//

You'd need to listen to her to know that. I don't. //

I have, which is why I don't any more.

[THECORBYLOON]

For some reason it sounds odd when hearing Beth Rugby speak yet I do the same and it's normal to hear Scots folk drop their g's.

[ummmm]

Apparently I speak very fast. So did my dad and uncles. I used to have to translate for them.

[naomi24]

Ahhh, you learnt the hard way, AH - but well done. ;o)

[NellieMay]

I speak very quickly too when out with friends, but do measure my speech when talking publicly or on the phone (when apparently as my son told me when he was young) I speak like the Queen!

[NellieMay]

I'm a real snob when it comes to newsreaders, tv announcers, reporters etc. I like a good, clear accentless measured voice.

[naomi24]

Me too, Nellie. Steph McGovern seems a very nice lady but her accent really grates. I have to switch off.

[NellieMay]

Agree about Steph, and as for Stacey Dooley words fail me...............

[naomi24]

Yes!

[MargoTester]

Carol Kirkwood (weather, BBC Breakfast) never pauses for breath