Essay: Shaping the Air - Writers and Radio - Roger Phillips




Radio 3 Essay show

Summary: The fourth of five personal essays on the voice and radio. BBC Radio Merseyside presenter Roger Phillips describes his job as the listening anchorman of the station's daily phone-in programme. What is is like to be the in the middle of a city as it talks to and of itself every day of the week? How does the city's voice manifest itself in the way it talks? Are there as many talkers in Newcastle or Bristol? What does the Liverpool voice do to the Liverpool mind? Thoughts too on victim culture and Scally jokes. An essay given in front of an audience at the British Academy in London in October 2014 as part of a series of events marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dylan Thomas. Producer: Tim Dee.