Charlotte Green

Charlotte Green (born 4 May 1956[1]) is a British radio broadcaster and a former continuity announcer and news reader for BBC Radio 4.

For other people named Charlotte Green, see Charlotte Green (disambiguation).

Charlotte Green
Born (1956-05-04) 4 May 1956
NationalityBritish
EducationHaberdashers' Aske's School for Girls
Alma materUniversity of Kent
OccupationRadio newsreader, announcer and presenter
Years active1978–
EmployerBBC Radio

After 1988 she specialised in news reading, including reading the news on Radio 4 breakfast Today programme, and reading news items on The News Quiz.[2] The Daily Telegraph described her as "the supreme Radio 4 announcer whose warm yet slightly formal tones were once voted the nation's favourite".[3] Green left Radio 4 in January 2013,[4] and currently reads the classified football results on BBC Radio 5 Live and the World Service Sports Report, succeeding James Alexander Gordon.[5] Her autobiography The News is Read was published by The Robson Press in 2014.

Early life

Green was educated at the independent Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls in Elstree, followed by the University of Kent, where she gained a first-class BA in English and American Literature[6] and was involved in university radio,[7] before joining the BBC as a studio manager in 1978[4] at the World Service. She has said that "I wanted to be an actress, but I decided there were too many actresses around, so I joined the BBC."[8]

Broadcasting

After reading out letters for PM and You and Yours[7] she became a continuity announcer in 1985,[9] and then a newsreader in 1988.[2] She was a regular newsreader for the Today programme and the comedy programme The News Quiz,[2] and she has worked on PM and the Shipping Forecast. From 29 October 2005, she joined Chris Evans's Saturday afternoon show on Radio 2 to read phone numbers and announcements.[10]

Her voice is a marvel, something to make one feel safe and secure, like being tucked up in bed with a hot water bottle.

—David Jewell, BJGP[11]

She was voted the "Most Attractive Female Voice on National Radio" in a poll by the BBC's Radio Times publication in 2002.[12][13] Green has acknowledged the reliance lonely listeners place in her; her habit of wishing listeners "a peaceful night" led many to send her letters.[3]

In addition to newsreading, Green has been a presenter, including for a programme on church music, a classical music concert series, and a series on World Service news bulletins.[8] She presented Notes & Queries with Clive Anderson on television.[7]

Between 2003 and 2006, Green was unique in her pronunciation of the years between 2001 and 2009. She adopted the 'twenty-oh' method instead of 'two-thousand-and'. This was said to have sparked so many complaints that she reverted to 'two-thousand-and' in 2006.[14]

She played herself in a 2005 radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,[15] and again played herself in 2008 in Simon Brett's radio detective drama Charles Paris.[16] She has been impersonated by Jan Ravens reading out a double-entendres-filled shipping forecast on the BBC radio comedy show Dead Ringers.[10] She signed a public letter of protest to the BBC Trust regarding cuts to the radio news service in 2007.[17]

Green has on occasions attracted some attention for inopportune giggling during on-air broadcasts.[3][7] While announcing the death of American film and television writer Abby Mann, Green laughed after what is believed to be the world's earliest recording, played during the preceding item, was described off-air as sounding like "a bee trapped in a bottle".[18][19] In a 2012 interview, she named the fall of the Berlin Wall as the 'biggest' story that she'd ever read the news for.[20]

Green, and her colleague Harriet Cass, left Radio 4, having opted for voluntary redundancy owing to reorganisation.[21][22] Green's final news bulletin[23] was the 6 o'clock news on Friday 18 January 2013.[24]

Green broadcast on Classic FM between April 2013 and December 2018 presenting Charlotte Green's Great Composers.[25][26] A keen supporter of Tottenham Hotspur FC, in August 2013 it was announced that Green will follow James Alexander Gordon as the permanent announcer of the Saturday football results on BBC Radio 5 Live. Green's new role, the first ever woman appointed to the post, began on 28 September 2013.[27]

As of July 2015, Green is the reader in the BBC Radio 4 panel game Quote... Unquote.

Personal life

Green is an avid reader who enjoys going to the theatre, concerts and art exhibitions. She is also a Trustee of the University of Kent Development Fund.[2]

Bibliography
  • Green, Charlotte (2007). "8: How to present a talk". In George Martin Hall (ed.). How to present at meetings (2 ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 51–4. ISBN 1-4051-3985-4.
  • Green, Charlotte (2014). The News is Read. The Robson Press. ISBN 978-1-84954-691-1.

Filmography

References
  1. "Weekend birthdays". The Guardian. 4 May 2014. p. 53.
  2. "Charlotte Green". BBC. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012.
  3. Elmes, Simon (29 September 2007). "Meet the disembodied friends of BBC Radio 4". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
  4. Dixon, Hayley (18 January 2013). "Charlotte Green leaves the BBC after 25 years". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  5. "Charlotte Green replaces James Alexander Gordon on BBC Radio". BBC News. 6 August 2013. Archived from the original on 7 August 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  6. Sherwin, Adam (6 August 2013). "Charlotte Green becomes first female voice of BBC Saturday football scores". The Independent.
  7. Carter, Meg (31 March 1997). "Heard and not seen". The Independent. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  8. "Charlotte Green". BBC. 24 February 2004. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  9. Green, Charlotte (2014). The News is Read. The Robson Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-1849546911.
  10. Kirby, Terry (5 May 2006). "Good faces for radio: Unmasking the broadcasters". The Independent. London. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  11. Jewell, David (1 November 2007). "Happy 40th birthday BBC Radio". British Journal of General Practice. Royal College of General Practitioners. 57 (544): 925. doi:10.3399/096016407782318044. PMC 2169327.
  12. "Terry Wogan and Charlotte Green voted most attractive voices on national radio". BBC Press Office. 22 January 2002.
  13. Akbar, Arifa (22 January 2002). "Newsreaders beat well-known 'faces' of radio in poll of most popular voices". The Independent. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  14. Pointon, Graham (30 December 2007). "As Time Goes By". Linguism.co.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  15. Adams, Douglas; Maggs, Dirk; Hyman, Bruce; Chattwell, Helen (2005). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio scripts: the tertiary, quandary and quintessential phases. Pan Macmillan. p. 246. ISBN 0-330-43510-8.
  16. Reynolds, Gillian (6 December 2008). "The singular charms of a louche sleuth". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  17. Plunkett, John (11 October 2007). "Radio 4 newsreaders join protest". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  18. Sherwin, Adam (29 March 2008). "BBC Radio 4's Charlotte Green gets a fit of the giggles". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  19. "Old audio causes hilarity. An ancient audio recording gave BBC Radio 4 news reader Charlotte Green a fit of the giggles live on air". BBC News. (RealPlayer)
  20. "Five Minutes with Charlotte Green". BBC. 9 June 2012.
  21. "Charlotte Green and Harriet Cass to leave BBC Radio 4". BBC News. 5 September 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
  22. Singh, Anita (5 September 2012). "Radio 4's Charlotte Green and Harriet Cass say goodbye". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  23. "BBC Radio 4 6 o'clock news". BBC. 18 January 2013.
  24. "BBC Radio 4 newsreader Charlotte Green retires". BBC. 18 January 2013.
  25. Brown, Maggie (15 March 2013). "BBC Radio 4's Charlotte Green to join Classic FM". The Guardian. London.
  26. "Alex James & Charlotte Green to leave Classic FM". Radio Today. 2 December 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  27. Halliday, Josh (6 August 2013). "BBC's Charlotte Green to read classified football results". The Guardian. London.
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