ANNOUNCER MUFFS THE NEWS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27463, 24 September 1954, Page 13

ANNOUNCER MUFFS THE NEWS

“Attack Of Nerves” On 8.8. G. Session (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, September 23. Angry listeners jammed the 8.8.C.’s telephone switchboard for more than an hour last night after the 9 o’clock evening news session had dissolved into a series of stammers and indistinct sounds.

The callers were told that a relief announcer, who had read the news before, had “got an attack of nerves” after making a couple of errors and had then made many more. A 8.8. C. official told inquiring newspapers: “It was most unfortunate. The next news session will be read by a

Reporters found that the announcer was Mr Wallace Greenslade, compere of the 8.8.C.’s leading variety programme, “Goon Show,” who “stood in for a regular announcer. Mr Greenslade said: “It is just one Of those things. I knew I was making a hash of it, but the more I tried to correct myself the worse it became.’ - Mr Greenslade’s wife told reporters that she was transfixed with horror when she heard her husband stammer and stumble over phrases. He called a factory’s expansion programme an explosion” programme, said “qualify” instead of “quality,” repeated himself and made other mistakes. “I turned it off,” she said.