Not Funny, Not Clever ..... Part 2

It was that Winifred concluded the interview by congratulating Anna on being a "clever girl."

"Please remind Winifred Robinson that despite feminism and all that women have achieved in recent decades, women of all ages still have enough problems with being patronised....without her calling Anna Bullus a 'clever girl,' " wrote Louise. "Would she have called a male designer in his twenties who had come up with such an innovative idea a 'clever boy?' "

Winifred and I discussed it afterwards and we agreed that she does indeed, from time to time call intelligent young men in the office "clever boy" after they've winkled out a particularly good story or planned a skilful route through an interview.

Why use the word "boy" or "girl"? We decided it was partly to do with Winifred being from the north of England where directing such informal words at strangers is commonplace. It's regarded as friendly. And if it has any subterranean significance It's not so much for the more mature to belittle young people as to express mild light-hearted envy at their youth.

We decided to ask Anna if she felt patronised by the remark. Not at all, she told us, while adding she was looking forward to her next interview with Winifred. After we broadcast the complaint by Louise and a similar e-mail from another listener, we also received heartening support from other members of the audience, not all of them men.

"I am 58-years-old and I have never written to any media body before," wrote Val. "But I felt the need to offer my support to Winifred. It was absolutely clear that she was listening to the very clever young designer with real admiration."

What this episode did re-emphasise is the Radio 4 audience's eternal vigilance when it comes to our use of language on air. It was apparent too in the response to Quentin Letts' audio column on the creeping use of Americanisms in everyday discourse.

Rather optimistically Peter called for listeners to tell us the Americanisms they most liked. We received one, maybe two but the vast majority had a long list of words and phrases they love to hate.

Things took a turn for the worse when a listener accused Peter of deploying hated Americanisms himself. The offending word? "Awesome." Peter had no recollection of using it - in fact he went as far as to say on air he'd never used the word "awesome" in his life.

That sounded a bit strong but I was relieved when David, who spotted the "awesome "in the first place, e-mailed again.

Peter, I humbly apologise! You didn't say "awesome" at all - you said "autumn'!
Keep doing what you're doing - awesome programme!"

The joys of interactivity eh?

Andrew Smith is the Editor of You and Yours, In Touch, Face the Facts and The Media Show on BBC Radio 4.

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