Just back from a quick jaunt bargain holiday. On any flight I always lend a close ear to the flight attendant announcements. Not just because if something goes hideously wrong I  a) don't want to die just yet and b) it's a courtesy to do so (those announcements are there for our benefit after all ) but also because I always wonder who trains the flight attendants how to make them.

Rattling them out in a sing song rush - all rising and falling cadences -  is not how it should be done. But if no one ever teaches them that  then it's really not their fault. A bit of training in this area couldn't harm. It would make the difference between sounding like they mean what they say - which would have far greater impact on the listening passengers- or sounding like  'I've just got to read this out because it's part of my job'.  Just a thought.

I am known, I suppose, as a 'late adopter'. I tend to watch how trends develop with a wry eye before I finally jump in, and just recently I dipped another late toe in the world of social networking. 

Not without some reservation, I signed up for Twitter.
(I am not sure yet what I think of it, apart from that it seems to be another way to steal my time!)

I haven't yet got used to the notion of using it to tell anyone who might be reading just what I am up to, at any given moment. I can't quite shake off the feeling of digital narcissism. Who would be interested? But there are some very funny twitterers out there in cyberspace. In a sublime piece of inspiration, the tweeting of Big Ben always puts a smile on my face. On the hour,every hour, he tweets the requisite amount of 'bongs' just when you expect him to.

If you want to check it out - it's http://twitter.com/big_ben_CLOCK.
If you want to follow him he's @big_ben_CLOCK

(and if you want to follow me - although I can't guarantee to be as entertaining as Big Ben!  I am @VO_Trish )

Now, what was that I was saying about the English accent recently...?

Russell Crowe appears to have been having his own problems with the vagaries of England's  mother tongue. Robin Hood may be a rollicking good movie, but his Robin comes laced with an Irish lilt by all accounts. It's an interesting observation - given that he allegedly took Michael Parkinson's solid Barnsley tones as his vocal guide. (I just wonder who Dick van Dyke modelled himself on for Mary Poppins!)

And not too distantly related to the above, I was recently in the frame for a vo job but someone along the chain had a concern. 'You've got a great voice, Trish...but can you sound less British? '

I've just got back from my travels which took an interesting turn when a certain Icelandic Volcano decided to make its presence felt.   I had a lovely time in Australia, after which a quick week in Dubai unexpectedly turned into two.

At the risk of sounding like a colonial Brit, I was amused to find that my RP tones were at times   somewhat confusing. While haggling in Dubai's Karama markets I was regarded with suspicion, as they tried to place where in the world I hailed from.

'Are you South African ?' I was asked. 'No' I replied...'Australian then?' ...'No - I'm English....' I said. 'You don't sound like an English person'   accused my interrogator. My father, who insisted on having me elocuted at an early age, would have been most amused. But it made me realise that there really is no such thing as the   typical 'English accent' anymore.

Well, it had to happen one day. I was rung up and sounded out for my interest in a possible tv project. 'We thought that it would be great to have a 'retro voice' ....and we thought of you.'

 Not that I think of myself as a retro voice, you understand. But I guess when you have been around as long as I have ....well, you know the rest.

The perception of voices, voice styles and accents has always interested me.  Despite having been 'elocuted' at an early age, I was taken on at LWT in the early 80s as the 'down market voice'. Largely because my RP tones were not quite as uppercrust as some of my colleagues - and I spent my youth trying to sound like a grown up ( aka 'posh' ) broadcaster. (Somewhere along the line I found my own announcing voice and style - it takes awhile sometimes!)

Forward to the 90s and another terrestrial broadcaster, who was utilisng me in a promo capacity, 'let me go' (*ahem*) for making them sound too downmarket. ( Although I gather that was something to do with my smokey tones ...).

Fast forward again to the 2000s and the start of a mood change. Now, I was too upmarket. RP was out - regionality and a more casual, conversational style was in. I have no problem with that. As George Bernard Shaw once wrote: 'It is impossible for an Englishman  to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him.' Voices go in and out of fashion. Perceptions change.

But what do you do if you've been voicing as long as I have?  No point in trying to blow with whichever way the wind blows. So...in the end I just keep doing what I do. Certainly my voice has got deeper with time ...as my early efforts on Youtube will show !  And hey, if I am about to become 'retro' - that's fine by me!  As the great  John Hurt once said in a promo session ...'This is the Voice, luvvie ...it goes with the territory ....'

My good friend Radio Imaging Supremo Sandy Beech, had tickets to see his good friend Chris Moyles recording an edition of his tv show 'Chris Moyles Quiz Night'. So a party of us headed down to my old stamping ground, The London Studios ( forever in my heart as 'LWT'),  to watch Radio 1's finest in action in front of the cameras. He was exceptionally entertaining and it got me thinking about what it is that presenters from a radio background bring to tv.

With a mix of banter, insults and generally giving the impression that anything could happen - Chris created a mood that we were all in  his gang of  mates for the evening. Just like radio. And I am not talking about just when the cameras roll - but during the breaks and retakes.  

Now, this may sound like I am stating the obvious, but I have seen many shows being recorded over the years. For anyone who has ever sat in a tv audience, you'll know that once you are in - you're in. There's no escape! And those lights are hot. So you really want to be kept amused for the entire duration. And thanks to Chris,we were.

My first introduction to a tv studio was many years ago as an impoverished drama student - ironically, also at LWT in the late 70s. A group of us had tickets to see the well known Chat Show Host of the day in action. He came out, ignored us all sitting there patiently waiting, and turned to the floor manager.  'Are they warmed up yet?' he asked , with barely a nod in our direction. He then recorded his entire show, while we looked on, feeling somewhat excluded from the whole process.  I remember thinking that if this was telly then I was not impressed.

Many moons later I would often blag seats to see Michael Barrymore recording  - trust me, he was the hottest ticket in the building. Michael's brand of mayhem could whip up an audience to a frenzy and I wish you could have seen what ended  up on the cutting room floor. The whole experience was quite surreal and fantastically funny.

A quick mention for the unsung hero of Chris's evening, comedian Andy Collins who did indeed 'warm us all up', and brilliantly. And to Jimmy Carr - whose flights of comic fancy kept us all on our toes.

By the way, permit me if I may a quick and shameless plug for Chris's new 'Parody Album' - it'll be in the shops soon. Produced and co written by Sandy, who disappeared into the bowels of his studios at Music4  ( www.music4.com)  for days and nights for weeks on end,  he's done a great and very funny job...... 

www.amazon.co.uk/Parody-Album-Chris-Moyles/dp/B002PJ64PY          

It's a funny old world, this home studio way of working.

I find myself working much harder than I ever do  when  I just sail  into a studio, open my mouth, and gaily sail out again - leaving the director, producer and dubbing mixer to carry on beavering away long after I have departed. Suffice to say, it has given me a renewed respect for my fellow industry professionals.

In just 10 months:   

 I have got to grips with  the basic technicalities of my  studio kit and can spend hours minutely tweaking  in pursuit of  the perfect settings to enhance my vocal chords. Where once I would run away screaming, I can now  discuss pre-amps,mixers and microphones with fellow home studio voices  til the cows come home.

Cool Edit Pro ( my editing software ) can amuse me for   days - I am even not frightened of 'multitrack view' anymore! Thank you BBC Training for your online guide and all the cool hip hop deejays on youtube for teaching me a variety of tricks and tips.

Then there is Mr Site. HTML is another world as  I was  concerned - but, thanks to its clever software built for non techies like me, I can have a presence in cyberspace all of my own - and manage it too.

And don't get me started on Search Engine Optimisation! The mysteries of which I am enjoying discovering more than a Dan Brown novel!

As for actually working. Well, rest assured, I am my own harshest self producer. With no friendly face to give  me the yay or nay through the glass, I, in common with all my colleagues, probably spend more time taking and retaking, tidying up and trimming  and critically listening back than you could ever imagine. (But don't worry, we don't charge you for that - we just want you to be happy!)

So... am I enjoying this Brave New World? You betcha! I may have arrived late at the party....but I am catching up fast!

I've just got back from a trip to Barcelona. I hadn't visited this gorgeous city before and I wanted a quick snapshot of everything there was to see, so I hopped on the tourist bus.

I plugged in the issued headset  to listen to the audio city guide. The voice of my 'guide' was articulate and clear. But the gentleman whose vocal chords they were, probably hadn't envisaged me and my fellow travellers in happy holiday  mood  on the top deck of  open top bus in the Spanish sunshine. He was a little severe in his delivery and tended to bark the information at us.

How would it have been if he had imagined who his listeners were?  what mood they might be in? and in what surroundings they were likely to be listening to him?

A friendlier, warmer tone would have complemented their mood and enhanced the delights of the city he was describing.

It reminded me as a voiceover  to never lose sight of not only who  is going  to be listening -but where and in what mood or circumstances they might be listening too.

Along side my voiceover career, I have been a tv continuity  announcer for 27 years. In that time I've seen many changes in the way the 'bits between the programmes' get to come out of your tv set. But none more so than  with the current tv channel  I am announcing for. It's quite clever, actually.

I have spent literally thousands of hours sitting in various continuity studios over the years - the main terrestrial channels and one or two of the digital channels still require their announcers to be 'live'.

And I have also gone into many more  tv stations to pre-record announcements for other channels.

Once upon time this would involve a producer recording all the links onto video tape which would then be edited into lots of separate carts to be played out; then it progressed into 'self op-ing': recording lots of seperate tracks straight on to a minidisc. These days of computer driven transmission, announcers now record straight into a computer programme ( like 'pharos') that can be downloaded into a channel's transmission schedule.

Now, if you'd told me way back when I started that one day I would be able to do all the above from the comfort of my own home with a nice cup of tea I wouldn't have believed you.

But when you hear me and my colleagues on Film24 ( on Sky 157)   - that's exactly how we do it. The rise of the home studio way of working means we can write, record, create the individual  announcements as Wav files and email them straight to our transmission centre to drop into the schedule.  Clever eh?

This is the brain child of a forward thinking (and cost conscious!) CEO and a scheduling and transmission centre that was willing to give it a go.  And it works....

So next time you hear me chatting away on Film24 - there's a good chance I am wearing my pyjamas....  

A friend and colleague has sent me a link to a feature on The Guardian's TV and Radio blog.

It's about the world's smallest radio station - the recently Sony Award nominated Radio Scilly - of which I am proud to be the  Station Voice.

Click below to sample the delights of the beautiful Scilly Isles and learn more about this extraordinary Radio Station  launched by 'One Man Radio Powerhouse', the remarkable Keri Jones. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/tvandradioblog/2009/jun/19/radio-scilly

The Guardian newspaper concludes with

"If you make it to the 10pm closedown, you're in for a treat as a lady with a slow, soothing, hypnotic voice lists the delights of the islands"

So if you want to know if I really do sound 'soothing and hypnotic'

Click here !