Radio 4 Saturday Live

[drmorgans]

On Saturday Live this morning one of the guests was introduced as having won the Somerset "Morgam" Award. "Morm", surely? Am I being picky, or should presenters be able to pronounce the names of famous authors properly?

[THECORBYLOON]

Where's the "r" in the surname?

[andy-hughes]

I think the BBC should be on top ofa bsolutely every pronunciation.

There is no excuse not to, they have a Pronunciation Unit whose sole remit is to advise presenters of the way to say tricky names.

That said, it can't allow for the simple ignorance of prestners

[andy-hughes]

… presenters who are promoted into positions above their knowledge, which should at least be sufficient to know something about the person to whom they are referring.

Remember the baffling appointment of Emma Freud, food writer and columnist, which someone imagined qualified her to present a lunchtime show on Radio One?

Her tenure was short-lived, not least because of her ignorance of rap music in general, and cutting edge rapper MC Lyte in particular.

Everyone with a passing interest in modern popular music knows her name is pronounced 'Em Cee Lyte' because the 'MC' prefix is very common and well known.

Not to Ms Feud apparently, whose highbrow tastes led her to refer to the lady in question as 'Maclite' - possibly an obscure Scottish clan she has knowledge of?

The BBC has access to the entire world of knowledgeable professional presenters, and pays them six-figure salaries to do their jobs, so the least we can expect is a reasonable level of education which is the equal, if not superior, of the standard Radio 4 listener.

[THECORBYLOON]

When Martin Luther King Jr gave his "I have a dream" speech in August 1963, he was introduced as "Martin Luther King J R".

[mushroom25]

on radio 2, through most of yesterday afternoon and evening, the traffic announcer referred to an accident between Scarborough and Whitby as being at "Flyingthorpe". a simple misreading of the order of the L and the Y, nevertheless....

[drmorgans]

Not far from Flying Dales on the North Yorks moors?

[andy-hughes]

Why does everyone across the BBC, television and radio, pronounce the word 'secretary' as 'seck-a-terry'?

[THECORBYLOON]

Some folk say "secretree".

[Peter Pedant]

Andee - they HAD a pronounciation unit

Moggam should be Maugham Maum I mean
Surnames are as the family pronounce it - 1979 this was a problem for the dead Earl Mountbatten - Looee instead of Lewis ?
No they got it wrong for the Dunner-maws who spelt it Donoughmore

Towns should be as the townspeople say it
the famous exception is that Tarnton is ignored for Taunton
oh and (Gobsh*te for Liverpool ) joke but you can see why
and Larnston is Lawn-sess-ton in Oz

Moggam - christ

[jourdain2]

Pronunciation (or mis-pronunciation) causes me to shout at R4 quite often. These people are paid good money to communicate and they can't speak English! I know a BBC pronunciation dept. exists (or at least it used to) so there is no excuse. No, you are not being picky.