So - Tor Alvar Quan Lidell[1]
Is a name unfamiliar (hard to spell)
But recent happenings have brought
His name to consciousness, unsought.
Newsreader he, in London fair.
On Radio, with dialect rare
Throughout the war years he would read
From Concrete bunker; he would feed
The long despatches from the war
The news that he could say, the core
Of progress on the battles fought,
In air, on sea, on land he sought
To tell what he was asked to say
In clear, unwavering tones each day
He carried on through air raid fear
To reassure the listeners here
The wartime news was in good hands
From Shetland Isles to Goodwin Sands,
When he announced ‘th’assuring bit’,
‘This is Alvar Lidell reading it’.
I wonder what he’d make today
Of his beloved Beeb; he’d say
That vested interests have a right
To criticise by day and night.
What is truth? Or balance real
The Overton window[2] does conceal
As much as it reveals as nowt
For what we choose to care about.
So Donald Trump is furious
At edits deleterious,
He blusters about recompense,
A billion dollars (talk some sense!)
He’s used to using media teams
As cruelly fashioned income streams
Let’s see if he still has some clout
When Epstein’s files are flung about.
And Truss, and others of her ilk
Are praying that he wins, to milk
Their hatred of the BBC
And other heinous calumny
The greatest virtues of our nation
Include this splendid Corporation
The noble story it has sown
Coterminous with Britain’s own,
It’s irreplaceable, you see
(Not simply Midwives and Strictly)
World Service lifelines round the world
In lands where flags remain unfurled.
Lose the Beeb at all our cost
Regain the things that we have lost,
You ‘Always keep a hold of nurse,
For fear of finding something worse.[3]’
[1] Tor Alvar Quan Lidell MBE (11 September 1908 – 7 January 1981) English radio announcer and newsreader for the BBC
[2] Refers to what is deemed an ‘acceptable’ range of opinions and discussion points (which change over time)
[3] Last two lines from ‘Jim’ by Hilaire Belloc.
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