Another icon of my life has passed beyond the veil. Richard was one of the first newscasters I ever knew, but not always as a newscaster. He was involved with the developing media in so many ways from being the voice-over for children’s programmes through appearing as a panel member on “Face The Music” to “Last Night of the Proms”, one of my favourite annual treats. An avid classical music fan, he was the presenter of choice for the Third Programme which eventually became Radio 3.
What is interesting in his first role as a newscaster is that he was never allowed to appear on-screen. The BBC mandarins had paternalistically decided that seeing a person narrating the news would distract the public from the truth and so Richard was allowed to present the news with everything being shown as still pictures – not even video in those days.
How different today, where ‘presenters’ often give the impression that they are much more important than the news or the facts and spend their time teasing each other, cracking jokes and pushing their opinions in our faces.
Richard will be greatly missed by many.
Paddling 