31 July 2013

"Breaking BBC rules"

A stupendous review of SK from TV Tropes:

A quintessentially British radio presenter, now retired, who presented an early morning radio show on BBC Radio Two for fifteen years. her performance style was characterised by fumbling, bumbling, on-air gaffes, ocassional lapses into non-politically correct jokes and references, and the suggestion that she sometimes arrived at work in an over-medicated state. 

 Despite this, her on-air personality, reminiscent of a boarding school matron, was loved by many fans, who protested vocally when her association with the BBC was severed in mysterious and still unexplained circumstances in 2009. This radio presenter's career presented examples of these tropes: 


Author Tract: her conservative views and opinions, often blatant and breaking BBC rules about political impartiality. 

Creator Breakdown: on at least one occasion her show was taken off the air because she was incoherent, rambling, and clearly in no fit state to continue. 

Suspicions of Drinking On Duty were levelled. Allegedly. 

 Dude, Not Funny!: the jokes about black people that got her into trouble at least twice. 

So Bad, It's Good: listening figures were boosted by those who tuned in early in the hope of hearing another classic Kennedy gaffe.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Shame Sarah hasn't returned to the Radio or somewhere else. I'm sure she's enjoying her retirement.

Anonymous said...

Drunken toff!!

Anonymous said...

2009? has it really been 4 years since Sarah departed radio2?

Anonymous said...

I still miss sarah.classic fm now gets my vote.

AgProv said...

As the man who wrote the TvTropes article on Sarah, I'm really chuffed to see it's been recopied here and that it has been generally well received. My intention was to write a fair and honest appraisal of a radio presented I really liked, despite or even because of her quirks. I was truly sorry to see her go and I still believe (applies something tvtropes calls "the rule of cautious editing judgement" here) that she was unsubtly "eased out" of her BBC role at the command of others who might have stood to benefit... she was such a warm, genuine, person on air that I even forgave her for the "Daily Mail Made Flesh" persona which sometimes made me wince. Radio has lost something for her going; her successors feel as if they were manufactured for the job rather than manifesting their natural personalities. And they shout a lot and get over-excited. Ah well.