Zeb Soanes

Zebedee Soanes (born 24 June 1976), is a British announcer and newsreader for BBC Radio 4, most notably of the Six O’Clock News, a presenter for BBC Radio 4 Extra and a children's author. More recently he has collaborated in concert performances, particularly with the vocal ensemble Opus Anglicanum, and has published the children's book series Gaspard the Fox.

Zeb Soanes
Soanes in 2014
Born (1976-06-24) 24 June 1976
Lowestoft, Suffolk, England
NationalityBritish
OccupationJournalist, presenter, newsreader, author
Notable credit(s)
BBC Radio 4
Gaspard the Fox books
TelevisionBBC Proms
Websitezebsoanes.com

Early life and education

Soanes was born in Lowestoft in Suffolk, the son of a Methodist minister.[1] He is named after the Biblical fisherman Zebedee, who was the father of two of Jesus' disciples.[2][3] Soanes has two sisters, Anna and Rebecca.

Soanes was educated at Northfield St Nicholas Infants School and then Harris Middle School in Lowestoft and then at Denes High School, a state comprehensive school in the town, followed by the University of East Anglia,[1] where he read Drama and Creative Writing. He then taught drama and toured Britain as an actor.[1][4]

Life and career

Early career and Shipping Forecast

Near the end of his degree course Soanes appeared on a BBC Local Radio station, promoting a charity improvised comedy show in which he was taking part. He was spotted by one of the presenters and a few days later Soanes was called back to improvise some impersonations live on air.[5]

Soanes was a presentation announcer for the television channels BBC One and BBC Two. His was the first voice of BBC Four when the digital channel launched in March 2002 and was the channel's sole announcer for the first ten months.[2][3] He left BBC television in February 2003 and took up a position with BBC Radio 4 on 9 February 2003.[6]

In 2001, he began reading the Shipping Forecast, a weather report for the seas around the British Isles, which is broadcast four times a day on BBC Radio 4. For the 2008 Beijing Olympics he was asked to read the shipping forecast to a worldwide audience of over a billion.[7] Describing the forecast in 2012, Soanes said: "To the non-nautical, [it] is a nightly litany of the sea... It reinforces a sense of being islanders with a proud seafaring past. Whilst the listener is safely tucked-up in their bed, they can imagine small fishing-boats bobbing about at Plymouth or 170ft waves crashing against Rockall."[8]

Writing in the foreword to the 2020 The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book, published by BBC Books, he explained: "The forecast gives the wind direction and force, atmospheric pressure, visibility and the state of the sea. It is a nightly litany with a rhythm and indefinable poetry that have made it popular with millions of people who never have cause to put to sea and have little idea what it actually means; a reminder that whilst you're tucked-up safely under the bedclothes, far out over the waves it’s a wilder and more dangerous picture, one that captures the imagination and leads it into uncharted waters whilst you sleep. Dependable, reassuring and never hurried, in these especially uncertain times The Shipping Forecast is a still small voice of calm across the airwaves."[9]

Later radio career

Soanes has been a newsreader for Radio 4's Today, PM and the Six O’Clock News. He is a regular newsreader on The News Quiz, joining the programme under the chairmanship of Sandi Toksvig, then Miles Jupp and in 2013 accompanied the programme on its first visit to the Edinburgh Festival.[7][10]

He acted with Toby Jones in the radio drama Beautiful Dreamers and has reported for BBC Radio's long-running series From Our Own Correspondent. He has also presented BBC Radio 3’s Saturday Classics, the first edition of which consisted of three hours of favourite sea-inspired music.[7] In December 2010, Radio Times magazine placed Soanes in the list of the seven most recognisable voices in Britain.[11] He voiced a series of documentaries for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary, the launch of Sherlock in the US and is in Mayday, a short film with Juliet Stevenson.[7]

Author Francesca Simon, creator of Horrid Henry, featured Soanes as the newsreader in The Lost Gods, her 2013 book for older children.[7]

In a July 2015 poll of favourite radio voices in The Sunday Times, Soanes was voted as the favourite male voice. His voice was described, by the paper's radio critic Paul Donovan, as smoother than that of the favourite female Jane Garvey and as "evoking an earlier, more formal BBC".[12][13] In September 2015, he played a vintage radio announcer in the BBC Radio 4 drama Dead Girls Tell No Tales.[14]

In April 2016 Soanes played Derek Nimmo in the radio drama All Mouth and Trousers, by Mark Burgess, the story behind the making of the television comedy series All Gas and Gaiters.[15] The reviews for the programme were generally positive with The Sunday Times' Paul Donovan saying "Zeb Soanes is terrific as its star, Derek Nimmo" and Gillian Reynolds of The Sunday Telegraph commenting "Zeb Soanes makes an ace Derek Nimmo."[16] Also in 2016 he played the sinister librarian in a Doctor Who audio adventure called The Unbound Universe with David Warner as The Doctor.[17]

At Christmas 2018 Soanes appeared as part of the team for the University of East Anglia on BBC's Christmas University Challenge.[18] The team lost to University of Westminster by 100 points to 130.[19]

The Proms and concert performances

Soanes returned to BBC Four television in August 2006 as a presenter for the BBC Proms. In 2017 he presented a television tribute to The Proms on the occasion of the First Night of The Proms, in sepia tone in the style of a vintage programme. The sequence included photographs, radio and TV footage from the history of the concerts, with Soanes partly presenting in Received Pronunciation, fitting the style of early BBC programmes.[20]

On 24 November 2013 he took the role of God in a production of Noye's Fludde for BBC Radio 3, as part of the station's celebration of Benjamin Britten's centenary.[21]

In November 2014 he participated in a concert by the vocal ensemble Opus Anglicanum at Wells Cathedral, featuring the poetry of George Herbert[22] and has appeared in numerous productions with them since.[23] The ensemble has touring an entire reading of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, set to music by Lynne Plowman.

In 2016 Soanes was narrator for The Snowman by the Brandenburg Sinfonia at St Martin-in-the-Fields, with Andrew Earis conductor. In 2019 the church commissioned him to rewrite the libretto for Vaughan Williams' 1958 nativity pageant, The First Nowell, presented as a charity gala casting BBC colleagues Dame Jenni Murray as God and Evan Davis as a Wise Man.[24]

He was narrator for Peter and the Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood at the Wimbledon International Music Festival, with Leo Geyer conductor. The Daily Telegraph has described Soanes as "the go-to person for music narration, specialising in children's concerts". Andrew Baker, son of broadcaster Richard Baker, has said "It is unusual .... for newsreaders to come from a non-journalistic background, but this seems to have ben Zeb's path, just as it was my father's, so the state school, university, actor, BBC trajectory is uncannily similar.[25]

In March 2017 Soanes appeared, alongside Carole Boyd, in a new recording of Façade by William Walton and Edith Sitwell, produced by Andrew Keener.[26] Christine Labroche, of concertoNet.com said of the recording: "These two celebrated voices chant the strange poems of Edith Sitwell with an infallible rhythm and a perfect, stretched or swift diction."[27] Andrew Baker also praised Soanes for the way he had performed Façade by William Walton: "My father regarded Façade as the pinnacle of the narrator's art, a hugely enjoyable challenge, and a celebration of clarity, breathing, projection and timing. Zeb has all of these attributes, and it's always a pleasure to hear him at work."[25]

On Twelfth Night, 5th January 2021, he appeared in a YouTube video with The King's Singers performing John Julius Norwich's humorous correspondence The Twelve Days of Christmas surrounding the gifts given in the traditional carol.[28]

Charitable work

Soanes is patron of two charities - Awards for Young Musicians[29] and the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine.[30] He is also the first patron of The Mammal Society and is a patron of the Thaxted Festival.[31][32]

During the 2020 coronavirus lockdown, Soanes created "celebriTEAS", a comedy podcast, impersonating theatrical heroes to raise money for the Equity Benevolent Fund and Acting for Others. It was warmly endorsed by fellow broadcaster Stephen Fry[33]

Personal life

The Soanes family’s presence in Lowestoft dates back to the 1700s. Interviewed in 2011, Soanes said that he enjoyed acting as it gave him a chance to act out a character hugely different from his own calm, measured personality, saying "Working on a character is the most rewarding because you get to put yourself in someone else’s mind."[5]

Soanes lives in Islington, North London[34] and returns to Suffolk whenever he can.[4][35] Formerly a resident of Highgate, he was made a Freeman of Highgate, by means of the ancient Swearing on the Horns ceremony, on 25 February 2015, at the Duke’s Head public house.[36]

He has a love of classical music and plays the piano.[5] Soanes' is represented by agents Curtis Brown.[37]

In Who's Who he is listed as being a member of The Garrick Club and the Southwold Sailors' Reading Room.

Books

In 2018 independent Welsh publisher Graffeg announced that Soanes was to collaborate with illustrator James Mayhew on a series of children’s books about an injured urban fox which had appeared at Soanes' home and which he and his partner had subsequently befriended.[35][38] The book, Gaspard the Fox, was published in May 2018[39][40] and includes illustrations inspired by Soanes and his partner Christophe: "It was also important for James and I to include a positive representation of a gay couple in a very matter-of- fact way and so my real-life relationship with Christophe and the fox is depicted at the end."[35] The second book, Gaspard: Best in Show was published in August 2019[41] and the third,Gaspard's Foxtrot is to be published in March 2021.[42]

Gaspard's Foxtrot has also been adapted as a major new concert work by the British composer Jonathan Dove in the tradition of Peter and the Wolf, to be premiered by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in March 2021.[25]

During the 2020 coronavirus lockdown, Soanes created a video series, on his own YouTube channel, called Gaspard’s Den, exploring and explaining the changed world as a spin-off from his children's books. The videos drew viewers from all over the world whose pictures and letters were shared in each episode.[43]

Works
  • Gaspard the Fox. Illustrated by James Mayhew. Graffeg Limited. May 2018. ISBN 978-1912213542.
  • Gaspard: Best in Show. Illustrated by James Mayhew. Graffeg Limited. August 2019. ISBN 978-1912654673.
  • Gaspard's Foxtrot. Illustrated by James Mayhew. Graffeg Limited. March 2021. ISBN 978-1913134808.

Discography
  • Facade [44]
  • Mediaeval Carols III - Opus Anglicanum[45]
  • In Parenthesis[45]
  • An English Music[45]
  • The Great and Wide Sea[45]

References
  1. "For those in peril on the sea". East Anglian Daily Times. 16 December 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  2. "BBC Radio 4 - Six O'Clock News - Zebedee Soanes". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  3. Johnson, Richard (7 December 2010). "Heard But Not Seen: Seven Recognisable Voices". Radio Times. p. 20.
  4. "BBC Radio 4 - Six O'Clock News - Zebedee Soanes". Bbc.co.uk. 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  5. "#28 A Voice For Radio". Dining With Strangers. 10 May 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  6. "Announcers". thetvroom.com. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  7. "Biography". Zebsoanes.com. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  8. Hudson, Alex (17 February 2012). "BBC News - The lull of the Shipping Forecast". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  9. "Foreword: The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book". Zeb Soanes. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  10. "The News Quiz - BBC Radio 4". zebsoanes.com. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  11. "Heard but not Seen: Seven Recognisable Voices". Zebsoanes.com. 7 December 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  12. "Sunday Times Favourite Voices". Zebsoanes.com. 12 July 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  13. Paul Donovan (12 July 2015). "Radio Waves: Bedside manners". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  14. "Dead Girls Tell No Tales, Drama - BBC Radio 4". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  15. "All Mouth and Trousers, Drama - BBC Radio 4". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  16. "Radio". zebsoanes.com. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  17. "3. The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Volume 03: The Unbound Universe - Doctor Who - The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield - Big Finish". bigfinish.com. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  18. "BBC - Christmas University Challenge alumni line-up announced - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk.
  19. "Christmas University Challenge - Results". www.blanchflower.org. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  20. "BBC Proms - First Night of the Proms: the morning after the night before - BBC Radio 3". BBC. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  21. "Noye's Fludde - Britten Centenary". Zebsoanes.com. 24 November 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  22. "Welcome to Opus Anglicanum". opus-anglicanum.com. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  23. "Past Events". zebsoanes.com. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  24. "About". Zeb Soanes.
  25. Pepinster, Catherine (19 August 2019). "Tales of the Fantastic Newsreader's Fox". Zeb Soanes. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  26. Keener, Andrew (31 March 2017). "The special challenges of recording Walton's Façade". gramophone.co.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  27. "ConcertoNet.com - The Classical Music Network" (in French). concertonet.com. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  28. "The King's Singers & Zeb Soanes - The Twelve Days of Christmas - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  29. Dan Moe & Ruyman Rodriguez. "Awards for Young Musicians | Giving talent a chance | Zeb Soanes". A-y-m.org. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  30. "British Association of Performing Arts Medicine | Zeb Soanes". bapam.org.uk. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  31. "Keeping the Festival spirit alive". us11.campaign-archive.com.
  32. "Broadcaster Zeb Soanes is Mammal Charity's first patron". The Mammal Society.
  33. "celebriTEAS". Zebsoanes.com. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  34. Hansel, Aleesha. "Fox finds a friend in newsreader Zeb". Islington Tribune. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  35. "The fascinating tale of Gaspard the Fox". 11 December 2018.
  36. "Zeb Soanes on Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  37. "Curtis Brown". www.curtisbrown.co.uk. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  38. "Gaspard the Fox signs three book deal". zebsoanes.com. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  39. "Gaspard the Fox - Graffeg Publishing". www.graffeg.com. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  40. "Gaspard the Fox". Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  41. "Gaspard: Best in Show". Graffeg Books. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  42. "Gaspard's Foxtrot". Graffeg Books. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  43. "Gaspard's Den". Zeb Soanes. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  44. "WALTON:FAÇADE". 7 January 2017 – via Amazon.
  45. "Opus Anglicanum — Shop". Opus Anglicanum.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.