Alvar Lidell
(Tord) Alvar Quan Lidell (
September 11,
1908–
January 7,
1981) was a
BBC radio announcer and
newsreader.
Lidell was born in
Wimbledon Park,
Surrey, to
Swedish parents. His father John Adrian Lidell was a
timber importer; his mother was Gertrud Lidell (née Lundström). Lidell attended
King's College School, Wimbledon and
Exeter College, Oxford. As a boy, he studied
piano,
piccolo,
cello and
singing, and was a noted
actor at Oxford.
After some brief teaching and singing jobs, he joined BBC
Birmingham as chief announcer, transferring to
London after a year. He became deputy chief announcer in
1937, and the following year married Nancy Margaret Corfield, a lawyer's daughter (they had two daughters and a son). He made some historic broadcasts, including the announcement of
Edward VIII's
abdication. On
September 3 1939 he read the
ultimatum to
Germany from
10 Downing Street then, at 11 a.m. introduced
Neville Chamberlain who told the nation that they were at
war with
Germany.
It was during the
Second World War that the BBC named its previously anonymous announcers and newsreaders - to distinguish them from enemy
propagandists. "Here is the News, and this is Alvar Lidell reading it" became an inadvertent
catchphrase. In
1943 he served with the
RAF as an intelligence officer, but returned to the BBC a year later. In
1946 he was appointed chief announcer on the new
Third Programme, where he remained for six years, maintaining the highest standards, particularly over
pronunciation and
phrasing.
In
1952 the BBC's news service was reorganised, and he returned as a newsreader, even doing a little
television work. He was appointed an
MBE in
1964 and retired in
1969. In
1979 he published an article about the deteriorating standards of speech at the BBC in
The Listener - the BBC immediately set up a panel of experts to report on the matter. Lidell also worked as a
narrator, and recorded over 237 volumes for
Books for the Blind, including long works such as
Anna Karenina. As a
baritone, he gave recitals and recorded with
Gerald Moore at the
piano.
He died at
Northwood,
Middlesex.
*
Alvar Lidell reading the BBC news in March 1945*
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
