News from BBC Radio 4. David Miles
David Miles subjected his parents to evenings of plays, poetry and music linked and controlled from a converted desk in his bedroom when he was in his mid-teens.
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Oblivious that continuity announcing was firmly etched into his blood he decided that he wanted to become a vet and so headed off to the Solent to teach canoeing. Cambridge beckoned for a while, because he liked punting, but then he had his hair cut, bought a suit and the BBC made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
David worked as a studio manager, initially working in a multiplicity of languages at Bush House, which, one a night shift, he thought resembled Colditz. An escape to Broadcasting House followed, where he rustled the sheets for a couple making love in a drama serial. After a spell producing Today, he moved across to television to be the "voice behind the globe", introducing everything from EastEnders to Panorama and, on no less than six Christmas Days, The Queen's Speech. For many years viewers in the south woke up to his powder-caked visage when he presented the news during Breakfast Time.
David defected to Channel Four continuity and a freelance life followed, during which he advertised dog food and make-up in between voicing a few serious documentaries, all the while moonlighting for his favourite radio station, Radio 4. He's still doing that when he is not fell walking in The Lake District or sailing his yacht across a tiny bit of the seven seas.
