Body & Mind column (Evening Standard 24th February, 2003)

Relax - you're on air in 30 seconds... Tina Bexson has words of advice to help you stick to the script

You have a problem. A mental, and in deed, a physical block about projecting yourself. But you've been asked to answer questions about your company's policy on sabbaticals for a radio debate. There's a mountain of information you want to convey and you dread being tongue tied, and gobbling your way through with on-air gaffs. Maybe you've actually got an excellent speaking voice and are planning a move into live news presenting but for some reason you can't for the life of you read a God damned script. Or perhaps you're an enthusiastic music fanatic who has been asked to do a late night show on a new digital channel and you're dead scared of doing a 'Smashie and Nicey'.

Live presentations. Be they announcing, interviewing or simply being interviewed, they're not an easy business. Don't worry, there is a way around all this internal trouble and strife, though it will mean examining the tenuous links between your mind and your body. But fear not, veteran broadcaster and BBC World Service Presentation Trainer Alec Sabin, has some helpful advice that draws on both his 13 years as a senior announcer at the Beeb, and his earlier incarnation as a jobbing actor in TV drama, soaps and the theatre.

"A wonderful voice is not born, it's a muscle and can be trained", he enthuses. "But first you need to take your concentration away from your voice and to put it into your material. People with no broadcasting experience tend to be very dull or tense when they read, they simply can't lift the copy of the page."

So he tells them to think about the context and background of the copy, just as HE does when presenting. "For example when I'm talking about say Afghanistan I think about that part of the world, where it is geographically, and that actually informs the copy."

"These levels of psychological involvement in the copy can make it work. It's all part of turning the material into conversation, to find your personality through your voice by letting it speak for itself."

Pronunciations are an obvious cause for concern but the real boo boo is to "then screw up the rest of the sentence too." Luckily that didn't happen to Alec when he woke up one morning ten years ago and unwittingly referred to Waco in Texas as Wacko in Texas.

Unsurprisingly he encourages you to smile and enjoy reading. With those who find this difficult he suggests they practice reading the script as if they were telling a joke, a children's story, or simply as gossip. Another technique is to intersperse talk or ad libbing on a topic familiar to you with what's on the page. The point, he says, is to try to keep the same easy confident style when you read the script.

But of course any confidence you gain from mastering these exercises can rapidly disintegrate once you are faced with the dreaded task of broadcasting live, with the 30 second count down reducing your perfected voice to a mere meow. As Alec admits, all too often our tone betrays us by "operating on a subliminal level communicating things we don't want told."

"The key is to turn that nervous energy into good energy, to remain calm within when stressful situations occur and relax 'into your script'." He brings in techniques normally used in drama training such as head and shoulder rolls, and breath support and control to release bodily tension; and voice warm ups to get rid of any nasal resonance. Sitting in the correct position as though your head is pulled up out of your shoulders, like a puppet, will release tension in the throat. Alec himself does yoga and though he feels his BBC clients would benefit from "meditation and rolling around on the floor", he feels they are a "little uptight" for that.

But hey guys, YOU can do it!