James Runcie appointed as BBC Radio 4’s new Commissioning Editor for Arts

He will work with in-house and independent programme makers, artists and external partners, to identify new ways of exploring arts and music on Radio 4, ensuring the station’s high quality arts content continues to reflect the contemporary and emerging arts scene in Britain and internationally.

Runcie is an acclaimed writer, director and literary curator, known to many as the author of The Grantchester Mysteries, adapted for television as Grantchester (ITV/PBS). Most recently, he has been the Head of Literature and Spoken Word at Southbank Centre and the Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Festival.

Having started his career as an administrative assistant in Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Runcie worked in radio drama for BBC Scotland before moving to the Scottish Arts Council, The Royal Shakespeare Company, and then to the BBC’s Music and Arts TV team.

Award-winning Runcie has significant BBC and independent sector experience as a director and producer and his credits include Hilary Mantel: A Culture Show Special (BBC); Off By Heart: Shakespeare (BBC); Civilization: Is the West History? (Channel 4); Andrew Lloyd Webber: A Passion For The Pre-Raphaelites (ITV); How Buildings Learn (BBC); and the Bafta and Rose d’Or nominated J.K. Rowling… A Year In The Life (ITV). Runcie received an RTS award for his film Miss Pym’s Day Out (BBC), which was also nominated for a Bafta, and won Tric Scotland awards for Watching Waiters and Mrs Lynch’s Maggot.

He has served on the Literature Panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain and has been a member of the Management Committee of the Society Of Authors. He writes for numerous national publications and has appeared regularly on Radio 4’s Saturday Review over the past 15 years. Runcie’s play Dr Johnson goes to Scotland will be performed this autumn in theatres in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and The Great Passion, written by him, was last year commissioned for Radio 4 and will be broadcast in 2017. Runcie is also a visiting professor at the Bath Spa University.

James Runcie says: “Working in the arts should be an adventurous, engaging and joyful activity and I hope to bring enthusiasm, energy and imagination to this unbelievably exciting opportunity at Radio 4. Among my many aims and ambitions is the desire to develop new ways of thinking, foster the pleasure of discovery, and celebrate all that is best about the human need to create and find meaning.”

Gwyneth Williams, Controller Radio 4 & Radio 4 Extra, says: “I am delighted to welcome James. I look forward to working with him to inspire and invite the best in the world of the arts, both here and around the world, to come to Radio 4.”

In May 2016, Runcie will join the small team of Radio 4 commissioning editors - Mohit Bakaya (Factual), Jeremy Howe (Drama, Fiction) and Sioned Wiliam (Comedy) - who work with Controller Gwyneth Williams.

This appointment follows the departure of Tony Phillips, Radio 4’s previous Commissioning Editor for Arts earlier this year.

Notes to Editors
Radio 4 is the UK’s largest commissioner of intelligent arts audio and the station’s unrivalled arts output forms an integral part of the schedule, ranging from special commissions to one-off features and regulars such as Front Row, Wireless Nights, Poetry Please, Soul Music and Open Book.

Recent high-impact arts commissions on Radio 4 have included: We British: An Epic In Poetry, a day of poetry on Radio 4 exploring British history and identity through poems; Open Art, a creative collaboration with Artangel for emerging British artists; and The Listening Project, capturing the nation in conversation, curated and archived by The British Library.

The appointment of James Runcie as Radio 4’s Commissioning Editor for Arts is part of the BBC’s ongoing commitment to arts programming, with more arts on the BBC than ever before, which was announced as ‘the greatest commitment to arts for a generation’ by the Director-General in 2014.

The BBC aims to provide the broadest range and depth of music and arts programmes across television, radio and online. These have included landmark seasons on dance, film, theatre, poetry and initiatives like Get Creative to get the public participating in arts. In 2016 a major new initiative, Get Reading, was announced which celebrates great authors and their works and includes the BBC Shakespeare Festival, a season on children’s literature, Get Reading Weekend, a digital and social media campaign from BBC Learning and specially-commissioned programmes across BBC TV, Radio and online.

The BBC also creates non-commercial partnerships with the arts sector that go beyond broadcast, from sharing expertise to widening public engagement in UK arts. The BBC aims to provide original, fresh discussion and perspectives and is the biggest investor and creator of original arts and music programming – offering the public access, nationally and globally, to the greatest writers, performers and thinkers in a way that no one else can. BBC Arts

LZ