Editor's Note: You can listen to Feedback online or download it here.
I wish there was another Radio 4.
I don’t mean that I want to get rid of the network which employs me. I love it, most of the time, but I do wish it had some real competition.While unbridled competition can often result in a fight for the lowest common denominator, monopoly can be the enemy of experimentation.
This is dangerous territory as I want Feedback and its presenter to go on for ever, so does my bank manager, but I have real sympathy for those who wish to try something out of the ordinary. The problem is where can they do it, without alienating loyal listeners?
This may seem a daft question, after all Radio 4 is never off the air (although in the middle of the night it carries the World Service). However a close look at the daily schedule shows that there a large number of building blocks which dominate it and are difficult, if not dangerous, to move.
For a start there are the news programmes; Today, World at 1, PM, the Six O’Clock News and The World Tonight. That’s six hours of the day gone already, and all of them are produced by a separate Directorate, whose agreement is necessary before the Controller can make any changes. Remember what happened when Today replaced Ed Stourton with Justin Webb? Such were the prolonged negotiations between the departments involved that it reached the gossip columns before anyone had told an outraged Ed.
Then there is Woman’s Hour. It would be suicidal to trim its duration, anyway can you imagine having to face down Jenni Murray, Jane Garvey and their passionate supporters?
How about The Archers then? Er, don’t go there. Governments would fall. Gardener’s Question Time? You see the problem. It’s a bit like a news bulletin. For everything which is put in something has to be taken out.
So when Radio 4 decided to commit to 600 editions of the drama series Home Front, to be transmitted over the next 4 years, there were a limited number of options. In the end the Controller decided to create a space for the 12 minute programmes by trimming You and Yours, much to the displeasure of its passionate supporters. However, you will have spotted that 600 divided by 4 is 150 editions, leaving 100 days a year or so when You and Yours could be restored to its original length.
But then Mohit Bakaya, Radio 4’s Commissioning Editor for Specialist Factual Programmes saw an opportunity to try out some programme ideas which he had been keen on for some time. So You and Yours remains at its new, shortened, length. I talked to Mr Bakaya in this week’s Feedback. You can hear my interview with him and the rest of the programme here.
Also this week the comedian Jake Yapp did a version of Feedback in 60 seconds. It is a little too close for comfort, but very funny. Duly chastened we will resume our work on your behalf. After all you pay for BBC Radio, Feedback , and of course Mr Yapp, and have every right to say what you think of him, me and anything on the BBC.
I’m sure you will continue to exercise that right, vigorously.
Roger Bolton
Roger Bolton presents Feedback on Radio 4
