Richard Baker: voice of BBC TV’s first news bulletin dies
Richard Baker has died. The former BBC newsreader and Proms presenter was 93. Baker introduced the corporation’s first news bulletin broadcast on 5 July 1954. To many, his was the face of TV news. He also voiced the children’s series, Mary, Mungo & Midge, first produced by the BBC in 1969. Asked why he did not smile more often on television, Baker replied: “Because there is seldom anything in the news likely to make anyone smile.”
The Times adds:
Mr Baker served on a minesweeper with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve during World War Two, which interrupted his studies at Cambridge University.
He was born in north London [Willesden] and was the son of a plasterer, attending grammar school before reading history and modern languages at Peterhouse College.
He worked for the BBC from 1954 until 1982.
The BBC recalls his big break:
In 1950, he wrote to the BBC asking if they were recruiting actors, resulting in an offer of a job as a presenter on what was then called the Third Programme, much later to become Radio 3…
When the news department began planning bulletins, Baker and Kenneth Kendall were recruited..
Notable how chance played a key role in so many careers…
Posted: 17th, November 2018 | In: Celebrities, TV & Radio Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
