Now for something completely different: a world without BBC continuity announcers

At first the men sported bow-ties and the women wore ball gowns. Later, the announcers who filled the gaps between BBC programmes disappeared behind globes, balloons and Brazilian martial art warriors.

But, until now, the live links delivered by professional continuity announcers have remained the connection between the 21st-century multi-media Beeb and the post-war era when the likes of Sylvia Peters became household names.

However, the profession that launched Michael Aspel and Judith Chalmers appears to be reaching the end of its days. The BBC is planning to replace live links with pre-recordings in October and lay off half of the 15 or so announcers who are left at the Corporation.

A BBC spokeswoman confirmed that it was looking at reducing the number of announcers and was in negotiations with trade unions about "the best way forward". "We are looking at ways of using our announcers more effectively; because of new technology it means reducing the number of the them," she said.

However, the broadcasting union Bectu has promised to fight the cuts if they involved compulsory redundancies and warned that the BBC could be left exposed in the event of unexpected problems.

"Continuity announcers add to people's experience of watching television and the reason why they have them live is in case something goes wrong," said Luke Crawley, Bectu's senior BBC official.

"It will be embarrassing if a tape fails to go out and they have nobody to fill."