News readers standing up.

Wouldn’t you prefer them to get back behind their desks? They they looked more credible, conveyed more authority and put that vital bit of distance between us and them. I thought of this when I heard about the death this week of Gordon Honeycombe, one of the great newscasters who were household names in their 70s heyday. Gordon Honeycombe would never have stood up to present the news. Largely because at 6″ 4′, he’d have comically dwarfed his inevitable female co-presenter. But others of his vintage, like Peter Woods and Reginald Bosanquet, may have had other reasons for sitting down. I used to see Bosanquet staggering out of Wolsey’s wine bar opposite the ITN studios in Foley St, just before he went on air. He clearly had to sit down as he was barely able to stand up.