what I am saying. That happens here.
It’s about affectionate companionship,”
he says.
Soanes grew up in the era of section
28, the now-notorious part of the 1988
Local Government Act, brought in to
stop any book with reference to
“pretended family relationships”. He
can’t recall any books being available
that suggested being gay was fine.
What he does remember is an idyllic
childhood. “It was all a bit Arthur
Ransome, with building dens and
being creative and feeling very safe.”
His introduction to public speaking
came via his father who was aMethodist minister; his parents called
him Zebedee because they wanted a
biblical name. On Sunday afternoons
the Soanes family would head off to
Suffolk chapels.
“My father would preach, my
mother would play the harmonium
and I would give the reading. At school
I was a shy child and loved playing
different characters. Having a career as
myself is not what I envisaged.”
After studying drama and creative
writing, he dabbled in acting and then
joined his local BBC station, before
auditioning in London for a role on
national TV.Façade. “My father regarded Façade
as the pinnacle of the narrator’s art, a
hugely enjoyable challenge, and a
celebration of clarity, breathing,
projection and timing. Zeb has all of
these attributes, and it’s always a
pleasure to hear him at work.”
The BBC was an integral part of
Soanes’ childhood in Lowestoft,
where the Shipping Forecast was
essential listening. Reading it was his
first task on national radio and he
recalls being very nervous. Even
today, he becomes emotional talking
about it. “I know it is life or death forsome people listening. In that studio
late at night, I’m transported back to
the boats I knew in Lowestoft.”
It must be tempting for someone
with his name to finish his broadcast
with “time for bed”, just like The
Magic Roundabout’s Zebedee. But he
has other ideas.
“A friend of mine who lost her
husband told me she struggled to get
to sleep. It made me realise how it can
be for some people. So instead I say:
‘Have a very peaceful night.’ I want it
to be as peaceful as possible.”
And for those who depend on
Radio 4’s voices as trusted
companions, it must be a consoling
message to hear, just before the click
of the bedside lamp and the end of
another day.person for music narration,
specialising in children’s concerts such
as Peter and the Wolf and a musical
version of Paddington. He
has just set up a project
with composer Jonathan
Dove to make Gaspard’s
London Foxtrot, the third
book in the series, into a
musical composition for
children, where Soanes will
narrate and James Mayhew
will draw on stage.
As Soanes puts it rather
shyly, “I’d like to be this generation’s
Richard Baker” – another BBC manwho also combined news reading and
music careers. “He was the ultimate
broadcaster. A concert hall can be very
intimidating for children but he knew
how to bring them into the concert.”
Baker’s son, Andrew, can see
“uncanny” links between his father’s
career and that of Soanes. “It is unusual
... for newsreaders to come from a
non-journalistic background, but this
seems to have been Zeb’s path, just as it
was my father’s, so the state school,
university, actor, BBC trajectory is
uncannily similar”, he said.
He also praised Soanes for the way
he had performed William Walton’sINTERVIEW
W
hat’s behind a
voice? Like
millions of Radio 4
listeners, I’ve been
waking up with
Zeb Soanes
reading the news headlines for years.
His voice’s deep timbre convinced me
it belonged to a very tall, very broad,
dark-haired man in his 50s. So
meeting him in the flesh is a surprise:
he is a wiry, red-haired man in his
early 40s. But everything else about
him is as the voice suggests: warm,
quietly confident, authoritative,
trustworthy. They’re typical
characteristics of the BBC’s
newsreaders and continuity
announcers. Whatever state the
world is in, millions find their voices
reassuring.
And yet, I’m not feeling that
convinced by Zeb Soanes on the day I
meet him. For Soanes – newsreader,
continuity announcer, actor,
classical music presenter, The Voice
We Trust – has also become apologist
in chief for the fox. Yes, the very
creatures that, the night before our
interview, kept me awake with their
barking and scattered the contents of
my neighbour’s bin bags across my
drive.
His apologia comes by way of a
planned series of children’s books.
First up was Gaspard the Fox,
introducing readers to this
supposedly cute creature, and now
comes Gaspard Best in Show, which
he launched at the Edinburgh
Literary Festival.
The books are rather like Soanes:
charming, and metropolitan with a
touch of the rural. Gaspard is based
on a fox that Soanes and his partner
befriended in their Islington
neighbourhood. So come on, Zeb,
explain: what’s so lovely about this
vulpine beast?
“I had to question my view of them
after I started to meet one every night
and I realised how gentle they are,”
he says. “This fox seemed to know
the sound of my Brompton bike and
would even stop beside the bike. The
fox felt comfortable with me and
would sit next to me on my doorstep
in the centre of a very urban city.”
Soanes never saw a fox while
growing up near the Suffolk coast.
But in London they are much more
noticeable. In the books, Gaspard is
providing a useful service, eating up
discarded food.
“Remember, if there were fewer
foxes, we’d have more rats,” he says in
mitigation. I’m beginning to see his
point. So does the Mammal Society,
which has appointed him its patron
following the success of the Gaspard
books. Now he’ll also be speaking up
for hedgehogs, otters and badgers –
but maybe not rats.
The Gaspard books are elegantly
illustrated by James Mayhew, who
shares a school and a home town with
Soanes. They combine a retro look
with a depiction of a very
contemporary Britain.
“The books we grew up with were
illustrated by Edward Bawden and
Edward Ardizzone. We wanted
something slightly nostalgic about
the Gaspard books, even down to the
heavy, thick paper the hardback is
printed on”, Soanes explains.
Shard and Gherkin-like buildings
dominate the skyline and the
community living around the canal is
multicultural. A same-sex couple
befriends Gaspard, just as Soanes and
his partner did. It’s an understated
part of the story, with Gaspard
looking up at a lighted window and
two men appearing to hold hands.
“When James and I were growing
up, gay men were outsiders. They
were often comic creations. I wanted
a matter-of-fact depiction of them. I
learnt that I could let James tell the
story with an image; it completesCatherine Pepinster
meets Zeb Soanes,
once voted the
nation’s favourite
male voice, and now
a successful author
Tales of the fantastic newsreader’s fox
“I got mugged that night, and the
next day I was supposed to go back to
Lowestoft and I had no money, no
ticket, nothing. The lady
opposite me on the train
from Liverpool Street got
chatting and I told her what
had happened, and she said
she’d been Lord Reith’s
librarian. She told me how
she was only allowed to
wear culottes in a cold snap.
And she gave me one piece
of advice: ‘If something
goes wrong, it will be fine’.”
However long he’s been in the job,
he’s still nervous about the early shift.
“You worry that something will have
happened, like the entire Thai cabinet
being wiped out overnight in a plane
crash, and it’s too early for the
pronunciation unit to be in to help
with the names.”
A Radio Times poll recognised him
as one of the seven most recognised
voices in Britain, and in 2015 a national
newspaper poll of listeners voted him
favourite male voice, praising him for
evoking an earlier, more formal BBC.
But things are very different at New
Broadcasting House these days, with
the BBC looking not to its formal past
and the broadcasters loved by older
viewers and listeners, but focused
instead on younger people.
So rather than rehire Soanes for his
regular gig of presenting the Proms, it
has recruited Cerys Matthews, the
Radio 6 presenter, Clara Amfo, the
Radio 1 presenter, Isata Kenneh-
Mason, the pianist who is the sister of
Royal Wedding cellist Sheku, and
Kwame Ryan, the Canadian/
Trinidadian conductor.
They’re (mostly) young, funky, and
ethnically diverse, seemingly hired to
attract what the BBC describes as
“passionate minds”. It’s all a bit
focus-group: the BBC reckons they are
culturally engaged, extravert and more
likely to use Instagram than the
average Briton. If Soanes is smarting
over falling victim to newfangled
marketing, he’s far too polite to say so.
“I had six years working on the
Proms and if things never change it’s
not good for anybody. Now I’ve got this
new writing career,” he says.
Nor has this blip affected the rest of
his classical music career. He has
developed a reputation as the go-toGaspard Best In Show by Zeb Soanes is
out on August 22 (RRP £12.99). Buy
now for £10.99 at books.telegraph.co.
uk or call 0844 871 1514RII SCHROER; STAN WAS‘The fox felt
comfortable with me
and would sit next to
me on my doorstep’
‘At school I was a
shy child and loved
playing different
characters’
Midlife guide to ...
decidophobia
I’m a bit peckish,
what are we having
for lunch?
I was thinking
of making some
sandwiches, then
I thought we’d be
better off with
a soup. Now I’m
thinking I could make
a salad.OK, so which is it?
I... can’t decide!Oh for goodness’
sake, I don’t want a
re-run of last night
when you spent half
an hour deciding
whether to watch
University Challenge
or Coronation Streetand we missed both.
It’s not my fault – I
have decidophobia.A fear of making
decisions? Don’t
be silly.
I am not! Half of all
Britons suffer from it,
apparently – in fact,
it gives a third of us
sleepless nights.Is that why you
were tossing and
turning until the
early hours?
No, I just
couldn’t make
up my mind
whether to
sleep or stay
awake.Then there was last
Saturday where
the restaurant shut
before you could
work out if you
wanted a dessert.
Don’t remind me. I’m
still trying to decide
whether it will ever
be safe to return.Right.
You get anxious
about making
decisions, too!
Remember how you
had to take the bus
for a month because
you couldn’t work
out if you wanted a
silver car or a black
one?That’s different.
Both were very
nice options.
And you
nearly had a
meltdown
choosing
what socks to
wear today.The stripesand the spots are so
very different! I just
couldn’t make up my
mind what mood I
was in.
I don’t think that one
on each foot was the
answer, though.Well, at least I didn’t
have to choose one
over the other.
That is one way
of looking at it, I
suppose. Anyway, I’m
still waiting to hear
your thoughts on
lunch.How long have you
got?Helen Chandler-WildeNational debut: Zeb Soanes started at
Radio 4 reading the Shipping ForecastClassical quest: ‘I’d like to be this
generation’s Richard Baker,’ admits
Zeb Soanes, with his foxy friendird of us
ights.you
ng and
til the
s?ake
dayone?ThaT t’s diff
BotB h we
nicne op
And y
nean rl
mmelt
choc
wwwwhaww
wwweaThThe Daily Telegraph Monday 19 August 2019 *** 21
RELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws