Zeb Soanes
| Zeb Soanes | |
|---|---|
| File:Zeb Soanes.jpg
Soanes in 2014
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| Born | Zebedee Soanes 24 June 1976 Lowestoft, Suffolk |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Journalist, Presenter, Newsreader |
| Notable credit(s) | BBC Radio 4 BBC Proms |
| Website | zebsoanes |
Zebedee "Zeb" Soanes (born 24 June 1976), is a newsreader and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4 and presenter on BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Contents
Early life
Soanes was born in Lowestoft in Suffolk, the son of a Methodist minister.[1] He is named after the Biblical fisherman Zebedee, who was the father of two of Jesus' disciples.[2][3] Soanes has two sisters, Anna and Rebecca.
Education
Soanes was educated at Northfield St Nicholas Infants School (now Poplars) and then Harris Middle School in Lowestoft and then at Denes High School, a state comprehensive school in the town, followed by the University of East Anglia,[1] where he read Drama and Creative Writing. He then taught drama and toured Britain as an actor.[4][1]
Life and career
Near the end of his degree course Soanes appeared on a local BBC radio station, promoting a charity improvised comedy show in which he was taking part. He was spotted by one of the presenters and a few days later Soanes was called in to do some improvisation live on air.[5]
Soanes was formerly a presentation announcer for the television channels BBC One and BBC Two. His was the first voice to welcome new viewers to BBC Four when the channel was launched in 2002 and was the channel's sole announcer for the first ten months.[2][3]
In 2001 he began reading the Shipping Forecast, a weather report for the seas around the British Isles, which is broadcast four times a day on BBC Radio 4. For the 2008 Beijing Olympics he was asked to read the shipping forecast to a worldwide audience of over a billion.[6] Describing the forecast in 2012, Soanes said: "To the non-nautical, [it] is a nightly litany of the sea... It reinforces a sense of being islanders with a proud seafaring past. Whilst the listener is safely tucked-up in their bed, they can imagine small fishing-boats bobbing about at Plymouth or 170ft waves crashing against Rockall."[7]
He returned to BBC Four in August 2006 as a presenter for the BBC Proms. Soanes has been a newsreader for Today, PM and the Six O’Clock News, He has also appeared on The News Quiz with Sandi Toksvig and in 2013 accompanied the programme on its first visit to the Edinburgh Festival.[6]
He acted with Toby Jones in the radio drama Beautiful Dreamers and has reported for BBC Radio's long-running series From Our Own Correspondent. He has also presented BBC Radio 3’s Saturday Classics, the first edition of which consisted of three hours of favourite sea-inspired music.[6] In December 2010, Radio Times magazine placed Soanes in the list of the seven most recognisable voices in Britain.[8]
He has voiced a series of documentaries for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary, the launch of Sherlock in the US and is in Mayday, a short film with Juliet Stevenson.[6]
In September 2012, at a dress rehearsal for his new show, comedian Julian Clary "married" Soanes at the end of the show.[9] On 24 November 2013 he took the role of God in a production of Noye's Fludde on BBC Radio 3, the production being part of the station's celebration of Benjamin Britten's centenary.[10]
Author Francesca Simon, creator of Horrid Henry, featured Soanes as the newsreader in The Lost Gods, her 2013 book for older children.[6]
In November 2014 he appeared again on BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz with Sandi Toksvig[11] and participated in a concert by the vocal ensemble Opus Anglicanum at Wells Cathedral, featuring the poetry of George Herbert.[12]
In a July 2015 poll of favourite radio voices in The Sunday Times, Soanes was voted as the favourite male voice. His voice was described, by the paper's radio critic Paul Donovan, as smoother than that of the favourite female Jane Garvey and as "evoking an earlier, more formal BBC."[13][14]
Charitable work
Soanes is patron of two charities - Awards for Young Musicians[15] and the British Association of Performing Arts Medicine[16]
Personal life
The Soanes family’s presence in Lowestoft dates back to the 1700s. Interviewed in 2011, Soanes said, "I’m the only one of my immediate family who’s left the area, gone to university, and come to London."[5]
Soanes has a love of classical music and used to play the piano.[5]
Soanes lives in Highgate, North London and returns to Suffolk whenever he can.[4]
References
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