Harriet Cass - BBC Radio 4

When I first became interested in radio in the mid 1970s I was fascinated by the bits in between programmes as much as the programmes themselves: the news bulletins, weather forecasts and continuity announcements. The notes that I kept at the time show that one announcer on BBC Radio 4 in 1977 was Harriet Cass. Thirty-six years later Harriet is leaving the Corporation, her final news bulletin at 6 p.m. today. She is the last of four much-loved voices to leave the network in quick succession: Alice Arnold, Peter Donaldson and Charlotte Green having already moved on.

Harriet Cass joined the BBC in 1972 as a secretary before becoming a studio manager. Her first broadcast was in 1974, reading letters in You and Yours before joining the Radio 4 presentation team. In the 80s Harriet left the network to join the radio newsroom and to work in various capacities in TV news and at the BBC’s Westminster offices. She returned to Radio 4, her “spiritual home” in 1996.

The photograph is taken from Who’s Who in Radio published in 1983.