BBC radio announcer with a warm and mellifluous delivery
One day in 1981, the Radio 3 voice announced at 8am that she was going to read the news summary. There was a pause. Then she exclaimed, "Good gracious! I had it here a moment ago!" The nation's music lovers' breakfast was momentarily interrupted by this grave crisis. Matters were resolved when the errant bulletin was retrieved from the wastepaper basket into which it had fallen.
This incident befell Patricia Hughes, acclaimed for her impeccable delivery of announcements and who – despite possessing a confident-sounding voice – was petrified of making mistakes such as this one.
Patricia, who has died aged 90, was part of a generation of radio announcers who, broadly speaking, were selected for their voices and personalities rather than specialist knowledge or journalistic skills. Until about 1970, even presenters on news and current affairs programmes – such as Patricia's near-contemporary Jack de Manio on Today – mostly had their scripts written for them. In time, these golden voices were swept away by more demotic ones, but they remained fondly remembered by many.
Born in Malaya, where her father was a senior executive, Patricia went to school in Sussex and then rejoined her parents in Kuala Lumpur. Following the Japanese invasion at Christmas 1941, she and her mother fled to Singapore. After a short spell in South Africa, Patricia came back to Britain on her own and took a secretarial job with the BBC General Overseas Service (GOS).
In due course, she applied for an announcing post and remained with the GOS for about 15 years, also working for the Home Service and for the Third Programme after it was inaugurated in 1946. She moved over to the Light Programme when Jean Metcalfe, one of the few other female announcers at that time, left to have children.
Patricia had a brief wartime marriage to a naval officer, which ended in divorce. In 1958, she married John Ginnett, a solicitor, and took a career break in the early 1960s to have a baby. In 1969, she returned to what had just been renamed Radio 3. Chiefly known for introducing the Monday lunchtime concerts from St John's, Smith Square, she also became noted for poetry and prose readings that she inserted in the nooks and crannies between programmes.
Various attempts have been made to characterise her delivery – of which "dark brown voice" tells only half the story. It was warm, creamy, mellifluous and with a touch of smokiness. Whatever it was, it enthralled listeners. According to BBC rules, she had to retire at the age of 60 in 1983, but there were mutterings that her "cut-glass tones" and "Kensingtonian vowels" – not to mention her lack of a formal musical qualification – had become inappropriate for the BBC as it was then developing.
When, in 1994, I rescued her from retirement to be a reader on my Radio 4 programme Quote … Unquote, she said she had almost "come to accept that my voice has been relegated to the scrapheap". Our listeners made it clear they were not having any of that. When we went on the road, grown men would go weak at the knees at the prospect of meeting her in the flesh. Would it be all right if they gave her some flowers? I would joke that it was a bit like having the Queen on the programme.
I soon discovered that, in herself, Patricia was not at all regal. In fact, whatever she sounded like, I was struck by how in need of reassurance she could be. After seven years, she asked to retire a second time and I could not stand in her way.
In her final years she continued to enjoy playing the piano – she had composed her own pieces long ago – and so her beloved music was with her to the end.
She is survived by her daughter, Emma, and two granddaughters, Polly and Lara.
• Patricia Rosemary Hughes, radio announcer, born 26 January 1923; died 8 February 2013