Background
Lidell was born in Wimbledon Park, Surrey, to Swedish parents. His father John Adrian Lidell was a timber importer. His mother was Gertrud Lidell (née Lundström).
Lidell was born in Wimbledon Park, Surrey, to Swedish parents. His father John Adrian Lidell was a timber importer. His mother was Gertrud Lidell (née Lundström).
Lidell attended King"s College School, Wimbledon and Exeter College, Oxford. As a boy, he studied piano, piccolo, cello and singing, and was a noted actor at Oxford.
During the Second World War his distinctive voice became synonymous with the reading of news. After some brief teaching and singing jobs, he joined Birmingham as chief announcer, transferring to London after a year. He made some historic broadcasts, including the announcement of Edward VIII’s abdication.
On 3 September 1939 he read the ultimatum to Germany from 10 Downing Street then, at 11 a.m. introduced Neville Chamberlain who told the nation that they were at war with Germany.
lieutenant was during the Second World War that the named its previously anonymous announcers and newsreaders - to distinguish them from enemy propagandists. During the war, "Here is the news, and this is Alvar Lidell reading it" became an inadvertent catchphrase.
In 1943 he served with the Royal Air Force as an intelligence officer (some of the time at Bletchley Park), but returned to the a year later. In 1946 he was appointed chief announcer on the new Third Programme, where he remained for six years, maintaining the highest standards, particularly over pronunciation and phrasing.
In 1952 the ’s news service was reorganised, and he returned as a newsreader, even doing a little television work.
He was appointed an Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1964 and retired in 1969. In 1979 he published an article about the deteriorating standards of speech at the in The Listener - the immediately set up a panel of experts to report on the matter. Lidell also worked as a narrator, and recorded over 237 volumes for Books for the Blind, including long works such as Anna Karenina.
As a baritone, he gave recitals and recorded with Gerald Moore at the piano.
Recordings of Lidell"s news bulletins have been included in many films set in Britain during the Second World War, such as 1968"s the Battle of Britain. In later life he lived for a time at Little Knighton, Worcestershire, England.
He died at Northwood, Middlesex, aged 72.