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It was quite like old times last Sunday. Up before dawn, staggering around a BBC newsroom looking for coffee to wake me up before going into the studio. I did this for 12 years when presenting the Sunday programme for Radio 4. That production was rather more exhausting.
The Old BBC North Building in Manchester
It was produced in Manchester (now its done in Salford), and I would travel up by train the day before, work until 10.30pm on scripts and interviews, be up and in the office at 5.30 am, broadcast from 7, and be on the train down south again by 9am. Often track repairs meant that we had to go on a bus between sections of railway line. I would get back home for a late lunch and fall asleep in front of the fire. (Susannah Reid knows what it is like.)
All this so I could sit alone in a studio and talk to my guests, nearly all of whom would be almost 200 miles away in London. I loved presenting the programme, but not the travelling, or the isolation. The production team of Radio 4's Broadcasting House, and its presenter Paddy O'Connell, have it rather easier. For a start they live near their work and their programme does not transmit until the civilised hour of 9 am - and they operate from a newsroom which has other people in it. I spotted my former Sunday colleague Ed Stourton preparing to present the World This Weekend.
Broadcasting House
Then they actually see many of their guests, such as the paper reviewers. Ever the groupie, I managed to share a tangerine with the great Tom Hollander, whose Rev series is about to come back on air. I would have talked to Camilla Cavendish of the Sunday times, who had cycled in to Broadcasting House dressed as if she was going to compete in the world cycling championships, but she was too busy talking to an Admiral.
I was there, at the programme's invitation, to see how it interacted with listeners and whether their correspondence was taken seriously and really made a difference.
Paddy O'Connell
I also wanted to discover if Paddy really was as nice and friendly as he sounds on air. (He is, quite puts me to shame).
This is our Feedback report.
Also this week I talked to BBC Arts and Entertainment Correspondent Colin Patterson about his Alan Patridge moment on the Today programme, and whether there is any point interviewing stars like Bono, who rarely say anything significant, particularly when they are on a red carpet. Many of our listeners think such interviews are a waste of time.
Please do continue writing to Feedback, not just about programmes but also about policy and anything else to do with BBC Radio. Nothing is off limits, even salaries, so do write in and say I don't get paid enough! (I do, I do!)
Roger Bolton
Roger Bolton presents Feedback on Radio 4.
