Yes We Can! The Lost Art Of Oratory Updated listing
BBC2, Sunday 05 April 7:50pm - 9:00pm As a companion piece to BBC2's The Speaker series, Alan Yentob explores how public eloquence has swayed listeners from ancient Rome to Barack Obama's election campaign. It's a terrific film, studded with gems and surprises: there's Bob Geldof analysing Hitler's stage presence; there's Geoffrey Howe comparing Margaret Thatcher to Cilla Black; there's Gore Vidal arguing that Churchill got his rhetorical style from Irish-American politics; there's even Alastair Campbell recalling how Tony Blair's conference speeches got a comic edge courtesy of Roy Hudd. We get insights, too, about why oratory seemed to have withered: "Most political rhetoric is soggy," an American speechwriter observes, "because most politicians are trying to avoid saying anything." And for those who grouse about dumbing down, the film includes Latin jargon aplenty: would you have known what anaphora, praeteritio or captatio benevolentiae were? Me neither.
radiotimes
