Radio

Phoebe, Roy and Hayley looking much too moody to appeal to the next generation Photo: BBC

There is something rotten in the town of Ambridge. First Adam Macy was left in a coma after confronting some thieves. Now David and Ruth Archer have had livestock mutilated and a barn set on fire. John Yorke, the show's acting editor and former EastEnders producer, has promised to make the Archers “darker and bigger”. But if he thinks farmageddon will attract a new generation of listeners, he’s sadly mistaken.

Current fans are unimpressed, and a… Read More

The British Broadcasting Corporation is an advert for national institions (Photo: GETTY)

Boris Johnson was absolutely right to criticise the statist and defeatist attitude of the BBC. But although the newsrooms might be biased to the Left, that is not true of the wider organisation. In fact, the BBC is more conservative than either side of the political spectrum likes to admit.

First, the BBC is patriotic. Our country is a source of endless fascination for the broadcaster. Shows like Coast or Great British Train Journeys just wouldn’t get made by on other channels…. Read More

Evan Davis thinks there's too much religion in Thought for the Day (Picture: REX FEATURES)

Evan Davis has called for Thought for the Day to be opened up to secular contributions. The Today programme presenter thinks that the show is discriminating against the non-religious. Davis probably thinks this would strengthen the role of secularism in society, but in fact the opposite is true.

Thought for the Day is one of the better things about the Today programme. In comparison with some of the indulgent and irrelevant slots that fill up the… Read More

Richard Dawkins: fanatic

Who is to say that the internet is not the Devil's work? It daily corrupts the concentration of billions: idle hands are very welcome in cyberspace. Wanton flesh and dishonest money are its staple items of trade. It immerses us in a seething babel of irrelevance, promises sociability while creating alienation and, so far from being "clean", has destructively enlarged global demand for electricity. And if you want more evidence of Satan at work, just look at the agents he has hired to do his work. What is it about computer professionals that discourages dissimulation? My current adviser says he i… Read More

Mark Thompson, the current director general of the BBC

Not since Malcolm McLaren ran for Mayor of London has there been such an attractively irreverent whack-job candidacy for a top job as Quentin Letts' mischievous tilt at the BBC. McLaren, who knew a thing or two about adversity, might have been hobbled by his choice of running mates: I was to be his cultural commissar and Damon Hill, the Formula One World Champion, his traffic minister. But Letts is unencumbered by inappropriate personnel. Instead, his support comes in the cheerful costume of sweet reason.

One of the… Read More

Jennifer Vyvyan plays the Governess in The Turn of the Screw

Not everyone remembers Jennifer Vyvyan, but she was one of the biggest names in British singing from the 1950s to early 70s – largely through her involvement with Benjamin Britten who wrote leading roles for her in operas like Turn of the Screw, Midsummer Nights Dream, and Gloriana, but also because she was at the heart of the Handel revival that restored his operas to the stage for the first time in modern history. She made famous recordings with Britten, Beecham, Boult and others. And no soprano sang… Read More

London is not full of quail egg-munching toffs

You should always be wary of disagreeing with a former Prime Minister (unless it’s Gordon Brown, of course). But can I just say, Benjamin Disraeli, that when you said London was "a nation, not a city", you were talking absolute bilge?

The idea gets trotted out all the time, most recently because of BBC Radio Five Live’s move to Salford. The entire network will soon decamp up the M6, as part of Auntie’s efforts to appear in touch with the whole country. The implication is that London is cut off from the rest of the… Read More

Jim Naughtie and John Humphrys in the Today studio (Photo: Roger Hutchings)

To quote the song from which Lady Gaga took her name: radio – someone still loves you. Lots of people, in fact. A study has found that listening to the radio boosts our happiness by 100 per cent, and our energy levels by 300 per cent, much greater increases than we get from watching TV or surfing the web. Those of us in Team Marconi rather than Team Logie Baird won’t be surprised by this.

First the pictures are better. Romping through the fields of your… Read More

Prince Philip's birthday present (Photo: PA)

Flying back from Nice last Friday afternoon, we were bumping down along the Thames flight-path when suddenly, almost exactly above the Houses of Parliament, there was a blinding flash and a monumental bang.

The automatic pilots flew on undeterred, while the understandably unnerved passengers swore blind it was a bolt of lightning, and what’s more, that it had actually passed though the aircraft’s cabin. But of course they hadn’t sussed the more probable reason: it was a rogue blast from the cannon firing the sixty-two gun salute celebrating nonagenarian Prince Philip’s birthday in Hyde Park just below. Perhaps the… Read More

There's a lot more choice underground (Photo: Alamy)

The movement to save BBC 6 Music was a well-mobilised, effective piece of anti-cuts protesting. Not use to having political affronts to their small pleasures, middle-class indie dads arose from their sheds to save a public service that stopped them from having to make the menopausal transfer from Radio 1 to Radio 2.

The BBC's U-turn means that John Peel's legacy is safe in his son Tom Ravenscroft’s eclectic world music show and Jarvis Cocker’s unruffled Sunday afternoon ramblings. But the fairytale of 6 as the avant-garde wing of BBC being saved by arts-appreciative public… Read More