Tom Crowe

Tom Crowe (5 July 1922 – 6 December 2010)^[1] was an announcer on BBC Radio 3.

Raised in County Clare, Ireland and educated at St Columba's College, near Dublin, his studies for a degree at Trinity College, Dublin, where he read French and German Literature, were interrupted by joining the British Army and serving in the Irish Guards between 1944 and 1948.^[2] He first joined the BBC's Third Programme in 1952 discovering his job was "simply a mouth opening and shutting in this tiny little studio in the double basement of Broadcasting House". He left in 1960, but returned in 1964 when attitudes were changing; the Third's announcers were now sharing office space with broadcasters from the Light Programme.^[1][3]

He wrote the biography of the Arabist Owen Tweedy Gathering Moss (1967).^[4] During the 1970s he became one of the most familiar voices on Radio 3, and "an accident-prone but haughtily unflappable persona"^[1] evolved. Hans Keller recalled Crowe's "inspired" opening of the network in June 1971 with the words: "Good morning to you. It's seven O'clock I'm afraid".^[4] On another occasion, when the Greenwich Time Signal was accidentally heard over The Hebrides overture (aka, Fingal's Cave) he commented: "I do hope the Mendelssohn didn't spoil your enjoyment of the pips".^[2]

Crowe retired from the BBC in 1982. Later he worked for the South African Broadcasting Corporation where he presented a classical music programme for three months each year.^[2] He died at his home in Pickering, North Yorkshire where he lived with his second wife, Elizabeth Cooper.^[2]

References

This page was last edited on 6 January 2023, at 10:34