Tord Alvar Quan Lidell MBE (11 September 1908 – 7 January 1981) was an English radio announcer and newsreader for the BBC and compere.

Lidell was born on 11 September 1908 in Wimbledon Park, Surrey, the third child and younger son of Swedish parents.

[5] He enrolled at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated with a second class degree in classical honour moderations in 1929,[1] and also read French.

[5] As a boy, he studied piano, piccolo, cello and singing and was a noted actor at Oxford,[1] performing these musical instruments in amateur orchestras.

[6] Lidell selected his second birth name Alvar for his professional career as it was easier for British listeners to understand.

[11] It was during the Second World War that the BBC allowed its previously anonymous announcers and newsreaders to give their names – to distinguish them from enemy propagandists.

[17][18] On 3 March 1943 he reported for duty with the Royal Air Force in North London as an intelligence officer (some of the time at Bletchley Park,[19][20]) but returned to the BBC on 28 February 1944.

[15] Lidell became a regular reader of news bulletins for the BBC Home Service and the Light Programme on 5 February 1951.

[31] He died of cancer eighteen months after its diagnosis at Michael Sobell House, Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood on 7 January 1981.