Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2011 | Page 55

INTERVIEW

Kenneth as viewers remember him on BBC news

first person in vision to read the news
I was absolutely terrified because it
had never been done in this country
before, and I didn’t know how to sit
or behave. So I just went ahead and
did it. There was no autocue in those
days; I had to read from a script, and
reading with my head down was not
popular with the viewers.
“So after a time the BBC
had to work out a way for us
to look at the camera, so they
came up with a Pini-prompter
after a Mr Pinfold who
invented it. There was a pedal
under the desk which we had
to press with a foot to bring
the words up. But if you forgot to
press it nothing happened.”
In the cramped studio there was just
Kenneth and the cameraman, and just
occasionally a floor manager, as he
read the 10-minute bulletin just once
a day. He would read radio news first,

and then jump in a car to travel to the
Alexandra Palace studios for the TV
version.
He admits he has been asked many
times which piece of news stands out
most in his memory. He reckons: “I
perhaps didn’t think it at the time, but
I believe the most important thing was

an earth-shattering achievement. But
other than that the main things you
tend to remember are the dreadful air
or train crashes, and similar tragedies.”
Whatever news he was reading,
Kenneth was trained not to show any
emotion, but he did let it slip a couple
of times. He said: “We had reported
on a case in court of child
cruelty and the Judge
had given a very lenient
sentence. Apparently on
my face as I read the story
I showed my disgust and
horror. Shortly afterwards,
just by chance, I met the
Lord Chief Justice. His wife
said she saw how upset I was, told her
husband, and he called in the Judge in
question. So in a small way it showed
the power of television, but also taught
me a lesson not to show any emotion
when reading the news.
“We were not allowed to laugh or

"Apparently on my face as I
read the story I showed my
disgust and horror."
the announcement of the first space
ship – sputnik – which went around
the world with a dog inside, before the
first spaceman Yuri Gagarin went into
space.
“When you think what has
happened as a result of that, it was

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