Plummy voice saved me from racist bullies, says TV George
Matilda, five copies classic movie clips to beat boredom
GEORGE Alagiah says he learned to talk posh to escape racist bullies.
The BBC newsreader was born in Sri Lanka before moving to Ghana at a young age – eventually ending up in Britain aged 11.
George, 64, first developed his cut-glass English accent when he was picked on at boarding school.
He said: “We had communal showers in school and I got teased and taunted about my colour. But I think somewhere in the immigrant – it’s sink or swim.Well I wasn’t going to sink, I didn’t have a choice, I was on my own at the boarding school.
“I had left a family in Ghana where there were banana trees, guava trees, pineapple bushes in our garden suddenly to a school playground which was all tarmac.
“I can remember being chased by
MOSTLY she is The Shining star but sometimes things get Rocky for little Matilda Zane, who copies a movie scene nearly every day.
The idea came from her dad Alex, 39, who had been struggling to find ways to keep his five-year-old daughter occupied during the lockdown.
They started their project in March and have so far copied 50 films, with the other
JURASSIC PARK skinheads, who were shouting at my white friends, ‘What are you doing with an etc., etc.?’
“So I can only think that – as I say – you find a way to fit in. And, in my case, this accent certainly
THE SHINING Matilda plays Wendy, above, to her horror
ROCKY She boxes as clever as Sly Stallone, inset, in the 4th film roles being filled by Matilda’s toys.
However, the dinosaur in Jurassic Park was a neighbour who’s been dressing in the costume to keep local kids amused.
Film fan Alex, who was furloughed from his job as a prosecutor in Massachusetts, US, said: “Matilda was desperate for activities. We
have been
doing one per day on Monday to Friday while I was not in the office.
“It has been really fun but I only have a short period of time as she is only five and gets bored easily.
“She can scream, sleep or laugh and that is as far as her acting skills can go.
He added: “Matilda enjoys some more than others. It is a tougher sale when she has to wear a fake beard like she did for Forrest Gump.”
FORREST GUMP
Matilda has a hairy moment when she has to wear a beard for this classic
was one answer to that.” The journalist carried on having a Sri Lankan passport for years, even when working for the BBC, but his posh accent helped him deal with airport immigration officials. Speaking on the podcast Table Manners with Jessie Ware, he added: “We’d get back to
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Heathrow from whatever assignment we’d been to and all of my crew were English and white. They would just zoom through immigration. I’d be queuing with the Algerians and Bangladeshis – all of us getting very nervous.
“You get to the immigration desk and it’s just so interesting. This is before people knew who I was.
“I’m talking very early 90s, when I hadn’t made a name for myself.
But all I had to say was ‘hello’ and something clicked in. ‘Welcome back, sir’ kind of thing!
“I think a class thing played in. Suddenly they were thinking: ‘He doesn’t sound like the others in the queue – he’s kind of one of us’.”
George was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2014. The respected reporter said earlier this year that it had spread to the lungs, but was not chronic or terminal.