James Alexander Gordon

Last updated

James Alexander Gordon
Born(1936-02-10)10 February 1936
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died18 August 2014(2014-08-18) (aged 78)
Reading, England
OccupationRadio broadcaster
Years active1972–2013
SpouseJulia
Children1

James Alexander Gordon (10 February 1936 – 18 August 2014) was a Scottish radio broadcaster, best known for reading out football results on BBC radio. [1]

Contents

Born in Edinburgh in 1936, [2] as a baby he was paralysed with polio and he spent a large part of his childhood in hospital. [3] He worked in music publishing before joining the BBC in 1972, becoming an announcer and newsreader (mostly on Radio 2) until the early 1990s. In 1974 he followed in the footsteps of John Webster, reading the classified football results, first on Radio 2 and later on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Popularly known as "Jag", [2] he used his intonation, when pronouncing the names of the clubs, to indicate whether a match had ended in a home win, away win or draw. [2]

Gordon also worked as a freelance voice artist, recording voice-overs and commenting on company videos. [4] He also recorded a sequence of fictional football results to introduce each scene in performances of Tom Wells' 2013 play, Jumpers for Goalposts. [5] [6] [7]

He announced his retirement from radio in July 2013 following surgery to remove his larynx after being diagnosed with cancer which rendered his voice too weak for broadcasting. [8] He was succeeded as the reader of the classified football results by former Radio 4 newsreader Charlotte Green from late September 2013. [9]

Death

Gordon died of cancer on 18 August 2014, [10] at the Sue Ryder Duchess of Kent Hospice in Reading.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Henderson (television presenter)</span> Australian television presenter (1931–2021)

Brian Weir Henderson was a New Zealand-born Australian radio and television personality and pioneer known for his association with the Nine Network as a television news anchor in Sydney, as well as a variety show presenter and host of music program Bandstand, the local version of the US music program American Bandstand.

Ronald Gordon Honeycombe, known professionally as Gordon Honeycombe, was a British newscaster, author, playwright and stage actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moira Stuart</span> British newsreader (born 1949)

Moira Clare Ruby Stuart, is a British presenter and broadcaster. She was the first female newsreader of Caribbean heritage to appear on British national television, having worked on BBC News since 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Humphrys</span> Welsh broadcaster, journalist and author (born 1943)

Desmond John Humphrys is a Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter of the Nine O'Clock News, the flagship BBC News television programme, and from 1987 until 2019 he presented on the BBC Radio 4 breakfast programme Today. He was the host of the BBC Two television quiz show Mastermind from 2003 to 2021, for a total of 735 episodes. Humphrys now presents a regular Sunday afternoon show on Classic FM, where he also sometimes fills in on the weekday More Music Breakfast show.

Charlotte Green is a British radio broadcaster and a former continuity announcer and news reader for BBC Radio 4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Baker (broadcaster)</span> English broadcaster

Richard Douglas James Baker OBE RD was an English broadcaster, best known as a newsreader for BBC News from 1954 to 1982, and as a radio presenter of classical music. He was a contemporary of Kenneth Kendall and Robert Dougall and was the first reader of the BBC Television News in 1954.

Tord Alvar Quan Lidell was an English radio announcer and newsreader for the BBC and compere. He joined BBC Birmingham as chief announcer in 1932 before moving to London the following year. Lidell was made deputy chief announcer of the BBC in 1937 and announced important events such as Edward VIII's abdication and Britain's declaration of war with Germany in 1939.

Alan Dedicoat is an English announcer for programmes on BBC One. He is known as the "Voice of the Balls" on the National Lottery programmes, providing a voiceover for the draws since 1995. He was a BBC Radio 2 newsreader until his retirement from this role in March 2015. Dedicoat is the announcer on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing and its American version, Dancing with the Stars.

Peter Ian Donaldson was an English newsreader on BBC Radio 4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Tennant</span> Scottish actor (born 1971)

David John Tennant is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in the sci-fi series Doctor Who. He returned to the show as the fourteenth incarnation of the character from 2022 to 2023. His other notable screen roles include DI Alec Hardy in the crime drama series Broadchurch (2013–2017) and its 2014 remake, Kilgrave in the superhero series Jessica Jones (2015–2019), Crowley in the fantasy series Good Omens (2019–present) and various fictionalised versions of himself in the comedy series Staged (2020–2022).

Scott Mills was a British radio show broadcast on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 2022. It was hosted by Scott Mills, with contributions from Chris Stark. Other contributors have included Mark Chapman, Laura Sayers, and Beccy Huxtable, the last of whom left the show in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominic Byrne</span> British television presenter (born 1972)

Dominic Anthony Byrne is a British newsreader, presenter, songwriter and choreographer. He currently works on the Chris Moyles Breakfast show on Radio X, having previously worked as the newsreader for Capital London on the Capital FM Breakfast Show. Prior to this he worked with the BBC from 1997 to 2012, as part of the on-air team on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 2012, working as the newsreader and contributing to the show's zoo format.

Kenneth Kendall was a British broadcaster. He worked for many years as a newsreader for the BBC, where he was a contemporary of fellow newsreaders Richard Baker and Robert Dougall. He is also remembered as the host of the Channel 4 game show Treasure Hunt, which ran between 1982 and 1989, as well as the host of The World Tonight in the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Newsbeat is the BBC's radio news programme broadcast on Radio 1, 1Xtra and Asian Network. Newsbeat is produced by BBC News but differs from the BBC's other news programmes in its remit to provide news tailored for young people.

Sports Report is one of the longest-running programmes on British radio, and is the world's longest-running sports radio programme. It started on 3 January 1948, and has always been broadcast from 17:00 on Saturday evenings during the football season, for most of its history featuring two readings of the classified football results, although the length of the programme has varied in more recent times depending on whether the BBC has a commentary of a 17:30 Premier League match.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeb Soanes</span> British broadcaster

Zebedee Soanes is a British radio presenter who hosts the weekday evening music show Relaxing Evenings with Zeb Soanes on Classic FM. He was previously a newsreader and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra until June 2022. He presents live concerts, specialising in narrated orchestral works, and has published the children's book series Gaspard the Fox.

This is a list of events in British radio during 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Smith (newsreader)</span> British childrens author and broadcaster

Christopher Smith is a British children’s author and radio newsreader. He co-wrote the Kid Normal series of books, presented Newsbeat on BBC Radio 1 and co-hosted the That's What He Said podcast alongside Greg James.

A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 5 Live, and its predecessor BBC Radio 5.

References

  1. ↑ Rawling, John (18 August 2014). "ames Alexander Gordon obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 Hunter Davies (27 November 2000). "JAG, the man who has read the results for nearly 30 years". New Statesman. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  3. ↑ Elliott, Jane (28 December 2002). "Football scores 5 Polio 0". BBC News. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  4. ↑ "From Arsenal to Liverpool to Wolves – James has the results (From Times Series)". 17 July 2003. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  5. ↑ "Playwright Tom Wells on Jumpers For Goalposts". BBC News. 29 August 2013.
  6. ↑ Shuttleworth, Ian (10 April 2013). "Jumpers for Goalposts, Watford Palace Theatre, UK – review". Financial times. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  7. ↑ "Jumpers for Goalposts, Bush Theatre". CultureWhisper. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  8. ↑ "James Alexander Gordon to retire as football results reader". BBC NewsOnline. 24 July 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  9. ↑ "Charlotte Green replaces James Alexander Gordon on BBC Radio". BBC News Online. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "James Alexander Gordon: Voice of football results dies, aged 78". BBC News. 18 August 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.