Why can’t newsreaders act properly? We know how important they are by the run-up to the 10 o’clock BBC News when a sea of busy background nobodies parts for the presenter to cross abridge; when brave, underpaid, short soldiers get to cluster round the visiting tall television personality; and when the only people who are more important than the reporters are the red carpet celebrities the reporters aspire to join.
It’s been a long time since news presenters spoke nicely and wore dinner jackets. They don’t apparently do much in the way of journalism these days. But they do do entertainment. Their producers pair off the wise and experienced man with the bright, pretty woman. They pay them four or five times the average wage. News presenters are personalities. Yet unlike the great Roger Moore and his eyebrow, who were both perfectly fitted for light entertainment, these people don’t know how to react.
They can say their words, but they don’t know what to do with their faces when they aren’t Speaking.
Look out for this next time you watch the news. At the start of the programme with the serious item observe the silent presenter put on a mask worthy of a Greek tragedian contemplating the fall of the house of Atreus. In the second half see the woman fake wholly unconvincing interest in the Premier League and then wonder as the look of we may be personalities but we can still laugh like you’ is applied for the final item.
And another thing, why do the presenters have higher seats than the people they interview in the studio?
Colin Vreeman
