Speech of the Month, December 2024 - Mishal Husain

When I heard Mishal Husain delivering her farewell message on Today, I was immediately transported back to October 2013 when she made her first appearance on the programme. I remembered feeling nervous for her; how was she going to hold her own around fierce, stalwart colleagues like John Humphrys and Justin Webb? And how could a genteel woman like her possibly roast politicians in the way we’ve come to expect? 

Well, as this review from the time demonstrates, my misgivings were misplaced. While never attempting to copy the style of her colleagues, she’s proved herself more than worthy of the job. In fact, she’s easily one of the top five news presenters working in the UK. God knows why the BBC has let her leave. 

Here are the broadcasting techniques that Husain applies to brilliant effect. And it’s not just aspiring news presenters that can learn from them, we all can.  

She’s unflashy

Like me, I’ve no doubt that on occasions you’ve been irritated by certain presenters’ needs to show off. They could be interviewing someone you really dislike: Prince Andrew, Matt Hancock, Vlad Putin, but because they won’t let Prince Andrew speak or, if they do, they constantly interrupt and then jump from one point to a ‘Yes or No?’ accusation, it all becomes a bit tiresome. The interview is all about them rather than the interviewee and / or the topic and, in the end, you start thinking, ‘Oh give poor old Randy Andy a break, will ya?’ And the whole thing backfires because of the presenter’s ego or the burden they’ve unnecessarily placed on themselves to arrive at a particular admission / reveal.

With Husain, this never happens. She has no compulsion to hog the floor and showboat. Rather, she lets the guest speak, she never interrupts, she keeps schtum as the guest prevaricates and leaves a pause after they’ve given an insubstantial / lame non-answer. She lets the listener decide how satisfactory (or not) the reply is.

She’s precise

She’s supremely prepared for interviews. And while this means that she can, mid discussion, throw out a killer fact or statistic, it also means that if the guest wants a robust discussion and isn’t trying to conceal anything, then they can have a really interesting dialogue, which is great for the listener. But Husain is also precise with the small stuff, the detail. If you’re unsure how a word of place name should be pronounced, she’s the one to take your steer from. So, while her co-presenters are pronouncing Kyiv as ‘Keeve’, Husain’s the one who’s giving it its correct two syllable ‘Ky-iv.’ 

In the world of work, I strongly believe that the correct pronunciation of names matters. People with foreign or unusual names appreciate them being pronounced correctly. It shows respect. I like it when I’m given a delegate name list a day or two before giving a workshop so I can get on top of any that are unfamiliar to me. 

She’s crystal clear

If you can’t hear her voice in your head, then do listen to her Today farewell message… (You might need to refresh your screen.)
 

Much of her speech clarity comes from pitch and speaking with Received Pronunciation, which most of us can’t really copy. But what we can do is, like her, slow down as we speak, make sure we finish the word we’re saying before racing to start the next one, and allow a beat between sentences. And maybe even breathe in that beat. I know, radical, right? This is really simple stuff, yet it massively boosts clarity. 

The big work is in breaking the ‘racey’ habit you might have picked up or have always had. It’s a fact that some accents - Liverpool and London - are far more fast-spoken than Edinburgh and Leeds.