Is the Office of PM Beyond PR?

Some jobs just can't be done. Circumstances, events and a changing world simply make them undoable.

This week, David Yelland and Simon Lewis ask whether one such job is communicating on behalf of the Prime Minister. Not just this Prime Minister, but any Prime Minister.

After only five months, the PM's Director of Communications, Tim Allan has quit. He's the fourth person to hold the role under Sir Keir Starmer.

The old levers of PR clearly aren't working and there seems to be a general bafflement has to how to get the public onboard.

Put simply, is Downing Street now beyond PR?

On the extended edition on BBC Sounds, how Buckingham Palace is rapidly changing its PR game. Widely criticised for being too slow to react to the scandal around Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the Palace is going on the front foot - with two statements that would've been inconceivable just months ago.

Plus there's nothing like a formal letter from the Government to put you in the mood for love. That's the hope anyway. In France, all 29-year-olds are being written to - to remind them of their duty to have babies. As you might expect, there's been something of a backlash.

Producer: Duncan Middleton
Editor: Sarah Teasdale
Executive Producer: Eve Streeter
Music by Eclectic Sounds
A Raconteur Studios production for BBC Radio 4