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June 12, 2009

And now for a BBC reporter who is completely different

By Alan Burke

MARBLEHEAD — During the wee hours in the British Isles a voice from America can be heard on BBC Radio 5. In calm, even soothing tones, the voice helps explain the world to listeners. Sometimes it helps describe America. And there have even been times when it delves into the secrets of the North Shore.

Which shouldn't be that surprising because that voice comes from an attic room in a historic house on Franklin Street in Marblehead.

Rhod Sharp, 55, speaks with the accent of a working-class Scot (born in Perth). "I'm a member of the proletariat," he cheerfully explains. Yet, he's a Marbleheader now and, despite strong British ties and his BBC job, he's anxious to stay.

As a young man, Sharp found his way into the world's most prestigious radio network at just the moment when the signature style of the British Broadcasting Corp. — male, upper-class, neutral on everything and mocked mercilessly by the Monty Python troupe — was being flushed down the loo.

Over the years, he climbed the ladder, at one point becoming the foreign duty editor at the BBC and gaining enough clout to suggest a new kind of radio program. "Up All Night," a broadcast to those on the midnight shift, was a chance to involve the corporation's underused foreign correspondents.

It also combined two of Sharp's keenest interests, a passion for radio and a love for America. In fact, this was a show he could do while living in the States, a country he had fallen in love with many years before.

Sharp smiles, however, at the suggestion that he's a modern day Alistair Cooke, the late BBC reporter whose "Letter from America" explained the former colonies to the folks back home for more than half a century.

"There was only one Alistair Cooke," Sharp says. The world is different today. For one thing, there are lots of British reporters here. Yet, few get to say so much, uninterrupted, as Sharp. His overnight program on BBC Radio 5 lasts four hours (1 a.m. to 5 a.m. in Britain), without commercials. It features guests, including those BBC reporters calling in from all over the world.

Radio fans across America, including some Marbleheaders, have found the program on the Internet. Podcasts are available at the BBC Web site (www.bbc.co.uk\fivelive).

"We do a few long news stories," Sharp explains. "And some lighter stuff." That includes a single nightly call-in segment and visits from Dr. Karl, an offbeat character who answers audience questions on science.

Once, Sharp did his own story on Halloween in Salem.

He estimates a million listeners in the United Kingdom. Because of the time difference, he can do the program between 8 p.m. and midnight from a one-man studio in his home. Special equipment helps make this remote broadcast possible. "The signal travels thousands of miles," Sharp says, "but it sounds like you're in the same room."

For his part, Sharp is just plain grateful to be able to do his program from Marblehead. "I'm lucky to have very tolerant bosses."

Sharp's admiration for America encompasses Marblehead particularly. He arrived here in 2001 after a brief sojourn in Harvard — a dry town. He jokes that he came to Marblehead "in search of beer."

A lover of history, he bought a house older than his previous home in London. "The oldest house we've ever lived in." Flush with the street, it hides an expansive and beautifully cultivated backyard. Sharp celebrates the fact that historic buildings in America are so well-preserved, while in Britain their counterparts are too often preserved as a pile of stones.

Now in the process of seeking American citizenship, Sharp says, "That came about because of Marblehead. People have been so nice here."

His affection for this country came early in life, after winning a scholarship to Princeton in the 1970s. "I was thrilled," he says of his arrival. "I realized America was going to be quite fun."

He spent time in San Francisco when it was still in the afterglow of its hippie era. In fact, even after he'd launched his BBC career (in 1976), Sharp temporarily abandoned radio to return there in 1980. It was a productive time if only for the fact that there he met wife Vicki, also British, but decidedly not working-class.

Sharp even developed a sophisticated interest in baseball. The volumes on his book shelves include Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" and Bill James' "Baseball Abstract." In the past, he's participated in a fantasy baseball league for U.K. enthusiasts.

One of his prized possessions is a ball signed by Bobby Thompson, whose walk-off home run in 1951 sank the Brooklyn Dodgers and clinched the pennant for the then New York Giants.

It's no surprise he should have it. "Thompson," Sharp notes, "was born in Scotland."

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