Charlotte Green: Velvety Voice

Her voice has been described as smooth and velvety, authoritative, distinctive and clear. Drawing on her autobiography ‘The News is Read’; she recounts both amusing and serious aspects of her life on and off air. Offering an entertaining and often hilarious look behind the scenes of the radio.

Popular Voice

After reading out letters for PM and ‘You and Yours’, Charlotte Green became a continuity announcer; and then a newsreader in 1988. She was a regular newsreader for the BBC Today programme and the comedy show The News Quiz; and she has worked on PM and the Shipping Forecast. In 2005, she joined Chris Evans’s Saturday afternoon show, on Radio 2; to read phone numbers and announcements.

She was voted the “Most Attractive Female Voice on National Radio”; in a poll by the BBC’s Radio Times publication in 2002. Charlotte has acknowledged the reliance lonely listeners place in her; her habit of wishing listeners “a peaceful night”; led many to send her letters.

Twenty Oh

In addition to news reading, Charlotte Green has been a presenter; including for a show on church music, a classical music concert series and a series on World Service news bulletins. She presented Notes & Queries with Clive Anderson on TV. Between 2003 and 2006, Charlotte was unique in her pronunciation of the years, between 2001 and 2009. She adopted the ‘twenty oh’ method instead of ‘two thousand and’. This was said to have sparked so many complaints, that she reverted to ‘two thousand and’ in 2006.

Being Charlotte Green

Charlotte Green played herself, in a 2005 radio episode of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’; and again played herself in 2008, for Simon Brett’s radio detective drama Charles Paris. She has been impersonated by Jan Ravens; reading out a double entendres filled, shipping forecast, on the BBC radio comedy show Dead Ringers. She signed a public letter of protest to the BBC Trust, regarding cuts to the radio news service in 2007.

Classic FM

Charlotte joined Classic FM in 2013 and has presented Charlotte Green’s Great Composers. A keen supporter of Tottenham Hotspur FC, in August 2013 it was announced that she would follow James Alexander Gordon; as the permanent announcer of the Saturday football results on BBC Radio 5 Live. Her new role, the first ever woman in the post, began on 28 September 2013.

Getting The Giggles

Charlotte has often attracted some attention, for giggling during on air broadcasts. While announcing the death of American film and TV writer Abby Mann; Green laughed after what is believed to be the world’s earliest recording; played during the preceding item, was described off air as; “sounding like a bee trapped in a bottle”.

In a 2012 interview, she named the ‘fall of the Berlin Wall‘ as the biggest story that she had ever read the news for. Charlotte is available for voice overs, hosting awards and public speaking.