From Now On I Will Call my Email "Boy"

[steepholm]

Well, there we have it. The King's English (1931) is proof that the BBC really did have a sinister plot to make everyone speak English like... well, the BBC. Luckily, in a past designed by Heath Robinson it was never going to work.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

All of British Pathe's films are now apparently available on Youtube, which may turn out to be a time sink deeper than did ever plummet sound. Reel 2 doesn't seem to be included, however, so we'll never know whether the Frenchman was convinced.

Comments

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I work in a newsroom. It seems very clear to me that things started going downhill when they did away with the boys, the tea-ladies and the contraptions for whizzing paper round the room. (In fact, I've seen a documentary film of my office from the 50s, and they had the whizzy things. We have to carry our own paper now, it's very sad.)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

We have to carry our own paper now, it's very sad.

That is sad! What are unpaid interns for?

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Good point! Getting on this first thing Monday morning.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

"The French don't care what they do actually, as long they pronounce it properly."

Nine

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

:) Though goodness knows the French too have accents, so I'm not sure where this guy was coming from - indeed he was really French...

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

They have accents, they have dialects, they have Breton. I hope that wasn't a real Frenchman. His English was outrageously Pythonesque.

I am so glad the Beeb has stopped trying to impose Received Pronunciation on the U(for now)K. It was like tearing up hedgerows.

Nine

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly confident that that was not a real Frenchman!

I was thinking today, though, how in love that period was with the idea of standardizing stuff in general. If they could have found the perfect meal, delicious and nutritionally balanced, would they have tried to ensure that no one ever ate anything else, so as to avoid the messiness of different ingredients and recipes? In any case, I think it no coincidence that this film was made the same year Brave New World was written.

Today we recognize both that such dreams are not possible and that we wouldn't want them to come true even if they were - but I wonder which disillusion came first?

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

That was mildly terrifying. I have no idea what accent to adopt now. :)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

You have three options: American, Glasgow or Cockney.