BBC Olympics presenter Alex Scott delivers perfect openin’ line after criticism of her accent
No holding back with an indirect response
Support truly
independent journalism
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
Louise Thomas
Editor
BBC presenter Alex Scott fired back last night at criticism of her pronunciation from an ex-minister - then used her morning introductory line to underline her pride in her roots and deliver a beautiful rebuke at complaints of a lack of “elocution”.
Lord Digby Jones had moaned that coverage of the Tokyo Olympics was being ‘spoiled’ by a “noticeable inability to pronounce her ‘g’s at the end of a word”, tweeting out a list of sports ending in the letter which had apparently offended his sensibilities.
Scott quickly retorted on Twitter that she was proud of her upbringing and accent which was representative of her struggles and successes and encouraged youngsters who may not “have a certain kind of privilege in life” to not let misplaced judgements on their accent or appearance hold them back.
To that end, the 140-cap former England international turned leading broadcaster made a point of listing as many sporting types and approaches as possible - all not-so-subtly lacking in their final letter.
“Evenin’! So far we’ve been runnin’, ridin’, shootin’, scorin’, swimmin’ and puttin’, but we’ve got a lot of gold to still uncover.”
With that, she handed over to direct coverage of each event, her point well and truly made and her status as a top-level broadcaster entirely intact.
To find out what others are saying and join the conversation scroll down for the comments section or click here for our most commented on articles
Scott has been a regular on-screen presence throughout the summer, during the Olympics and Euro 2020 and will be back for the new Premier League season too, having been appointed the new host of Football Focus on BBC Sport.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments