Talking about Antony Hopkins

Two days ago I blogged about Pauline Boty, someone who is forgotten because she died too young. Antony Hopkins, who died early last week aged 93, outlived too many of those he influenced. It doesn't help that search engines assume that "Antony" is a mistyping and point users to a certain Welsh-born American actor.

Hopkins introduced a generation at least of BBC radio listeners to music without talking down on the one hand or assuming an ability to read or play music on the other. There have been obituaries in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph but nothing so far in The Indy or on the music blogs I follow. Shamefully, there has not been much from the Corporation, which has not outgrown the attitude it acquired at the end of the twentieth century of fearing to be thought elitist. This was said to be the reason for its cancellation of Hopkins' Talking About Music in the first place.