The home lives of Radio 4 Royalty
Post categories: #MyXmasOn4, Christmas, Radio Times, Xmas
12:01, Thursday, 24 December 2009
It went like this. I called the nice people in the Radio Times press office and asked if I might have a pile of Christmas double issues for a special project on the blog. They arrived in the internal post the following day and I started sending them out to important Radio 4 people. A handful weren't able to join in - they were on holiday already or recording in remote parts - but ten agreed to help me out and, once they'd received their copies of the magazine, enthusiastically circled their Christmas listening directly onto the pages of the radio section (you can't miss it, it's right at the back). Some added notes (and Fi Glover did the whole thing using blue sticky notes).
You can see all the pages on Flickr. I haven't counted them properly but there are at least 300 selections from the Radio 4 Christmas schedule plus a few from the other networks. It's a genuinely fascinating selection and a real insight into the holiday habits of Radio 4 Royalty. And in many cases you can click right through from the cutting to the programme's page on the Radio 4 web site - handy if you'd like to listen again to the ones that have already gone out. You can also add your own comments or notes to their selections. Here are some highlights, with links to the scribbles themselves:
- Julian Worricker, You and Yours presenter, chose Spitting in Russian on New Year's Day, about Roger Law's visit to Moscow to track down the Russian version of Spitting Image.
- Evan Davis chose Martha Kearney's UK Confidential on 30 December, calling it "real history."
- Quentin Cooper, Material World presenter, chose Boxing Day's Archive on 4 about the lost episodes of Doctor Who.
- BBC Radio boss Tim Davie chose today's first episode of The News at Bedtime, which has been chosen by several of the others too.
- Eddie Mair, PM legend, chose Rob Brydon's Pick of the Year (as well as a bunch of programmes from Radio 2 and Radio 7 - cheeky).
- Libby Purves, Midweek presenter, gave an unqualified 'wow!' to the New Year's Day dramatisation of Keats' Lamia. Can't wait.
- Fi Glover, from Saturday Live, liked the idea of 29 December's Bright Young Things, a series of short stories about 'the perils of youth'.
- Mark Damazer, the boss, wasn't the only one to choose this afternoon's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. "Christmas begins here, " he says.
- Tim Bentinck (David Archer) chose Bill Nighy's Educating Rita on Boxing Day, not least because he wonders if Nighy can better his own performance in the same role on stage earlier this year.
- Kirsty Young was, she promises, wrapping presents while listening to this morning's Woman's Hour with Jane Garvey.
Please feel free to add your own notes and comments to the pages on Flickr, or as comments here on the blog. And if you're on Twitter, tell the world what you're listening to on Radio 4 over Christmas and the New Year using the hashtag #MyXmasOn4. Happy Christmas!
Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog
Comment number 1.
At 16:01 24th Dec 2009, Paul Murphy wrote:Fantastic work Steve.
I hope you'll be adding iPlayer links to the selections as they enter catch up.
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Comment number 2.
At 20:22 24th Dec 2009, kleines c wrote:On the contrary, Paul, I suggest that Steve takes a break over Christmas.
I feel bound to point out that Radio 4's royalty are poorly represented by its star presenters, producers and managers.
The best that they can hope is that those who listen can make some sense of what is broadcast.
We listeners are the true royalty of Radio 4, and when we are usurped, you will have failed us.
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Comment number 3.
At 23:28 24th Dec 2009, TV Licence fee payer against BBC censorship wrote:Paul, "kleines c", might have been better to have lined to the actual 'show page', for example;
That way not only can people access the Flickr pictures via the first link but can access the details of the programmes via the link on the actual programme and as that page also has links to any iPlayer content...
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Comment number 4.
At 11:20 31st Dec 2009, Steve Bowbrick wrote:Thanks for your feedback on this little experiment Boilerplated, Paul Murphy and kleines c. I have added links to all the programme pages from the flickr pics - using flickr notes. So listeners can click through from the Radio Times scans to listen to the programmes directly (where still available). I think this is an idea we could develop. Watch this space! And happy new year!
Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog
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Comment number 5.
At 12:56 1st Jan 2009, TV Licence fee payer against BBC censorship wrote:In reply to comments @ #4
Sorry Steve, but that is not how to do it! Readers should not be forced to go to another (third-party) website to find URLs of the programme pages, link to the BBC from within the BBC please. Your job, amongst others, is to promote the BBC, not some third-party website...
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Comment number 6.
At 12:11 4th Jan 2010, Steve Bowbrick wrote:@Boilerplated You raise an important point. These are pretty fundamental questions:
Should the BBC be investing in its own (already rather large) web site and in the increasingly expensive business of bringing audiences to us when those audiences are demonstrably elsewhere (eight out of ten top UK sites are social nets or portals)?
Should the BBC aspire to duplicate the functions of perfectly good third-party web sites? For instance, on Flickr we can add notes to pictures (and encourage users to do so too) - a feature that doesn't exist on the BBC site and would be hugely expensive to build?
Is there something inherently inferior about page impressions for BBC content on third-party web sites? Or should we be less fussy about where audiences encounter our stuff? Given, for instance, that literally millions of Facebook users will never encounter a Radio 4 web page, should we give up on those users or reach out to them directly?
And besides, every Radio Times page on Flickr contained one or more links back to a programme page at bbc.co.uk - surely a productive use of a third-party site?
You can probably tell that I'm in favour of putting Radio 4 content where our audiences (and potential audiences) are. I'm going to get hold of some numbers for the Xmas Radio Times experiment. I'll publish them here. I don't expect it to have been a huge hit in its own right (there was no budget for the exercise - just my time) but we'll certainly learn from the exercise.
Steve Bowbrick, editor, Radio 4 blog
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Comment number 7.
At 17:40 4th Jan 2010, TV Licence fee payer against BBC censorship wrote:#6. At 12:11pm on 04 Jan 2010, Steve Bowbrick wrote:
"Should the BBC be investing in its own (already rather large) web site and in the increasingly expensive business of bringing audiences to us when those audiences are demonstrably elsewhere (eight out of ten top UK sites are social nets or portals)?"
I think you've missed my point, by all means link to the images on Flickr but my comments were in relation to the URLs on this blogs page, and more particularly the links for the named shows, those links should have been to the BBC's show page or at least schedules pages and not Flickr. It would have been nice to have a link to the show page, or at least the relevant schedule page, not just to a picture of some part-page scanned from the RT!
"Should the BBC aspire to duplicate the functions of perfectly good third-party web sites? For instance, on Flickr we can add notes to"
As I said above, it is fine to use third party websites to offer additional content but core links and content that are related directly to BBC a web page/article should be hosted by the BBC - why - what if a companies IT department has removed access to the third party site, what if the person reading simply prefers not to access such sites, I am myself very reluctant to visit some sites due their privacy policies and/or use of tracking cookies and the such.
"pictures (and encourage users to do so too) - a feature that doesn't exist on the BBC site and would be hugely expensive to build?"
What is so expensive about an image map and a list of textual equivalents (for web accessibility reasons), both have been part of the HTML standard for years, if the BBC's website CMS doesn't allow the use of such HTML the same functionality could be built into a flash image surely - and the BBC already use 'clickable' Flash images on certain web pages...
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Comment number 8.
At 18:52 5th Jan 2010, Jem Stone wrote:@boilerplated The core links to all Radio 4 programmes and schedules over the christmas period are of course kept at the BBC site
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/schedules/fm/2009/12/25 (xmas day)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/schedules/fm/2009/12/26 (boxing day) and so on.
Steve was just trying to experiment with different ways of showing listeners some ideas for planning their listening over christmas. I hope you appreciated it :)
Every Radio 4 blog post of course has numerous links to similar programme pages on the BBC site (and other interesting/relevant links away from the BBC subject to our guidelines :)
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