(Pause) then I will begin.
Those eight words coming through the ether via the BBC Home Service and spoken in a rather plummy English accent had a profound and transforming effect on me as a small boy.
At a quarter to two as soon as the strains of the signature tune for Listen With Mother came through the wireless, I sat transfixed for a quarter of an hour. My mother could never get me to move and many a bus was missed because of the programme. I found it wonderful.
Saddened to hear that Daphne Oxenford who was the voice of the show died yesterday, aged 93. The programme was first broadcast in 1950 and ran for a couple of decades but inevitably fell victim to a change of taste and television, eventually coming off air for the final tim in 1982.
Oxenford was an accomplished actor in her own right and her last role was in a Dr Who DVD in 2008 playing the role of Agatha Christie. She also appeared as Esther Hayes in Coronation Street and for a long time was the straight foil to Les Dawson.
So another bit of my childhood slips away – thanks for the memories.
windowthroughtime 