The Third way
When my colleague Charles Moore first began accusing Radio 3 of becoming ‘babyish’, and talking down to us as if…
Strong-minded women
You might think the main storyline in The Archers is all about Helen’s affair with dastardly Rob. (What does she…
Uncomfortable truths
‘It put a lot upon us,’ said Christopher Jefferies’s aunt. ‘The ripples went on and did not stop for a…
Mint condition
New year new ideas as we woke up on Monday morning to find ourselves in Lagos with Evan Davies trying…
We will remember
Perhaps the most moving programme of all amid the huge range that will mark the coming centenary of the Great…
A well-spent 40p
Is it time to scrap the licence fee? That’s a question we’re going to hear more and more about in…
The President’s devotions
Just in time for Advent, that season of preparation, of getting ready, of making sure we are in the right…
Letting us down
As I listened to Robert Peston early last Friday fluffing on about the Revd Paul Flowers and the possible effect…
Squirming at Screwtape
A surfeit of anniversaries this week reminded us that on the day of President Kennedy’s assassination, C.S. Lewis (born 1898)…
Tavener’s lament
Best line of the week came on Monday from the composer John Tavener, and was given added poignancy by the…
All is forgiven
It’s hard to stay cross with Radio 3 for long. Just when I thought the network had stretched my loyalty…
Machines and us
This year’s Free Thinking festival at the Sage in Gateshead has been asking the question, Who’s in Control?. Oddly, or…
Ring of confidence
You’ve probably already read or heard somewhere that the inspiration for Grayson Perry’s current series of Reith Lectures on Radio…
Women on top
Boy, we’ve had to wait a long time for this. But last Thursday morning something unusual happened on Radio 4;…
Finding a connection
Why are we still listening to the radio in 2013, to an outdated technology that has hardly changed in manufacture…
All change
This time round in the autumn shake-up of the schedules it’s Radios 2 and 3 who are on the frontline…
Take five
Five women, five very different stories of arriving in the UK, often unwillingly and always alone. How did they cope…
The human factor
‘He was a natural broadcaster,’ said Nick Higham, after the death last week of the rugby player and sports broadcaster…
Stoppard territory
How many listeners, I wonder, actually tuned in to Darkside as it went out on air on Radio 2, after…
Eavesdropping
It must have sounded like such a great idea. To gather a group of thinkers, agitators, experts, intellectuals and media…
Speed limit
Of course there’s a future for digital radio, it’s just that we’ll probably be listening to it online, or on…
Digital dilemma
Will digital radio ever really take off? We were supposed to be switching over to digital-only reception in 2015 (three…
A different truth
Every so often a programme comes along that completely alters the way you think about something you thought you understood.…
Celebrity triumphs
The licence fee is both a blessing and a curse for the BBC. The clue is in that nickname —…
Bedtime stories
It had begun to look as if Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime had been taken over by the zealous publicity-hungry…
