BBC's 1st woman commentator - Olga Collett

Women on-air at the BBC were relatively rare in its early days. The tale is often told of the first female newsreader, Sheila Borrett, who was moved from the task after three months in the wake of bags of adverse mail, the majority written by women. In truth, the BBC was probably ahead of many organisations in those days, trying to push women forward to appropriate opportunities.

Olga Collett was another formidable early women broadcaster whose services were used by the Corporation. She’d held down a significant post at ICI, helping to manage 650 staff. At the BBC she became the first women to commentate at outside broadcasts, beginning, I believe in June 1937.

Like so many gifted commentators, she excelled at ‘filling’. On 21st March 1939, along with John Snagge, Olga was notably charged with commentating at a Command Performance at Covent Garden , in honour of the visit by the French President and Mme Lebrun. The press reported they would ‘describe the scene in the auditorium’. When the special guests arrived fashionably late, Olga rose to the challenge of filling for 35 minutes. She was, rightly, later applauded for her own performance.

Here, enjoy hearing Olga reflecting on her art in 1983, albeit taking exception to the questions from the interviewer, John Lane. The press, who dubbed her ‘the woman commentator’, had suggested she had commentated on Ascot ‘from a woman’s point of view’ and John came to regret he’d leant on that quote.