Whatever happened to Leonard Teale?

Who???? I can hear our our Millennials and Generation Zs calling out as they scratch their heads….. the Gen Xers might have trouble remembering him too. It does seem a lifetime ago. Sleeping on a pull down bed in my Grandmother’s lounge room from the mid to late 60s, Leonard Teale was one of the first voices I heard. Probably not exactly appropriate by today’s standards, but HOMICIDE was the first word I recognised coming up on the small black and white screen and Leonard Teale’s resonant baritone voice made an impression.

He was a Brisbane boy, went to Milton Primary School and left school early because of the Great Depression. Leonard never studied “speech and drama” or even finished year 12, but he could certainly speak eloquently. He did get involved in amateur theatre and had a part time gig as a radio announcer, before auditioning for the ABC.

Television had only been going for about 10 years and the remnants of radio still had a large influence on the population. People appreciated vocal clarity, a resonant tone and a flair with language. Presenters spoke with excellent diction and there was an appreciation for the spoken word. We even recited poetry at school in those days from our little anthology books! Whether you were a bank teller, like my father, or a baker, or a pharmacist, you would be listening to someone like Leonard Teale on television and consequently, your own enunciation was all the better for it.

Some might say that Leonard and his era of announcers and actors were left over from “the British Empire”. The last remaining speakers who used RP ( Received Pronunciation). Some might also argue that as a diverse and multi cultural nation, that we shouldn’t “speak posh” or “proper” anymore because it is divisive. Conversely people with English as a second language, would probably appreciate improved Australian speech.

So what has any of this got to do with ACTING????? EVERYTHING unless you are performing MIME!

On several occasions recently, I have had to stop NETFILX shows and put on the captions to understand what the character said. ( Not Downton Abbey or the Crown but many others). Fortunately actors training at Australian establishments like NIDA and VCA still spend a lot of time on the voice and how to use it effectively.

You can tell the actors on our stages and screens who have worked on this skill. Actors like Richard Roxburgh, Judy Davis, Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman all possess a unique Australian voice delivered with resonance and clarity. Watch them… listen to them and learn. Spend time on your speech …… not just your drama. Recite poetry and prose. Read aloud. Make your words come alive; use emphasis, pitch, pace and pause and always aim for a speech that is clear and resonant. Without this important skill in your arsenal of talent, you may not be understood, and words are far too important for that to happen!