Wednesday 16 October 2019

The genius of Johnny Morris


Johnny Morris was a genius of storytelling, and through my childhood a vivid presence. I've just discovered this radio documentary by him from 1960 - about the Isle of Portland, on the coast of Dorset. It is a masterpiece of its kind. A piece of old Albion!


2 comments:

dearieme said...

I remember his burbling gently on the telly in my boyhood - about animals, mainly.

His voice was less ugly than most English voices the BBC used then.

Have you heard many of the female voices on American TV current affairs/news programmes? Appallingly ugly - squawking and honking and shrieking. Meantime many of their male equivalents have rather pleasant voices. All very strange.

The nearest British equivalent I can think of is a woman the Beeb use for occasional football commentaries - she's pretty bad but not as repellent as the American hussies. Anyway you can mute her if you want - you can still see the football after all.

Moira Stuart has a very pleasant West Indies voice, now available for your enjoyment on Classic FM.

Bruce Charlton said...

Johnny M was born in Newport, Monmouthshire - just over the border into Wales; and most English people find that Anglo Welsh (esepcially rural) South Walian accent to be pleasing (e.g. Dylan Thomas, Richard Burton, Gwyn Thomas, Anthony Hopkins). Somehow we enjoy rhetoric from that kind of voice when it would seem pretentious from an English accent.