I have a lot of time for Julian Worricker, but the BBC has even more. He is the “go-to guy” for my station of choice, Radio 5 Live. Whenever someone is away, sick or otherwise unavailable, they bring in Worricker. He trundles along, does the job, and goes away again. Or, more probably, hangs around and does the next show, too. The man must sleep on a camp bed in the corridor. He has his own show, or at any rate one with his name on it (Sunday, 10am), but his informed tones can be heard on everything bar match reports and the obituaries programme Brief Lives (Sunday, 6am).
And, speaking of obituaries, it is over on Radio 4 this coming Friday (11am) that we find Worricker widening his sphere of influence further. In The Obit Writers, the BBC’s man for all reasons will be talking to newspaper obituaries editors, discovering what makes a great story about dead people. There are also some great water- cooler moments to relish, such as the chaos that erupted at the 2004 meeting of the International Association of Obituarists when news was received of the death of Ronald Reagan, and none of those assembled had written an obit! It all serves to act as an introduction to a bold new Radio 4 initiative that will doubtless become a national talking point: the introduction of an obits programme of its own, to be presented by Matthew Bannister from Friday, Feb 10. With this sort of bold, innovative programming, Radio 4 continues to set the benchmark by which radio is judged. Huzzah!