BBC had unofficial league desk of finest and worst British accents, says high correspondent | EUROtoday

The BBC had an “unofficial league table” of British accents, wherein Birmingham was ranked the worst, one of many broadcaster’s most-esteemed battle correspondents has mentioned.

In remarks at a University of Sunderland occasion marking the opening of an archive of her work, Kate Adie – who now presents From Our Own Correspondent – mentioned the BBC would obtain widespread complaints over regional accents when she began her profession.

Ms Adie, who for years was one of many BBC’s best-known journalists, mentioned: “It is one of this country’s complex matters. Accents vary hugely, and how they are received varies hugely.

“Years and years ago, the BBC had an unofficial league table of the most liked and the most hated accents.

“The view was that some of them drove people nuts up and down the country. Geordie did pretty well. It’s liked.”

Confirming the reply given by the viewers when requested to guess what essentially the most disliked accent was, Ms Adie is reported by The Guardian to have mentioned: “From one end of the country to another, it’s Birmingham.

“Michael Buerk, who comes from Birmingham, was once asked why he didn’t use the accent. He said, ‘I didn’t want death threats.’”

The veteran correspondent mentioned that when she began as a station assistant at BBC Radio Durham, they might obtain “complaints from everywhere” if a regionally accented producer learn the information bulletin.

open picture in gallery

“We got complaints from everywhere. The whole range of audience. They felt it wasn’t right for news. It is a curious one,” she mentioned.

Ms Adie, aged 79, lined a number of conflicts whereas working because the BBC’s chief information reporter between 1989 and 2003, having first joined the company as a radio technician and producer 20 years prior.

Her first main break got here masking the Iranian embassy siege in 1980, after which she went on to report from battle zones world wide, together with the Gulf battle, the 1986 bombing of Libya, and the Bosnian battle.

During the Tiananmen Square bloodbath, Ms Adie was hit within the elbow by a bullet, which is reported to have killed the person standing subsequent to her, and was nicked by a bullet fired at point-blank vary in Libya. She was awarded an OBE in 1993.

The newly opened archive is reported to comprise greater than 2,300 gadgets donated to the college, together with Ms Adie’s tapes, letters, pictures and the bullet which grazed her at Tiananmen Square.

The Independent has approached the BBC for remark.