Six times in the past week a Radio 4 show has stopped me in my tracks. I’ve put down whatever I was doing and started listening intently. On Monday it was Josie Long’s gorgeous appreciation of Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight in the captivating The Exploding Library. On Tuesday a surprisingly entertaining necropsy of a jaguar in Wild Inside, and later the historian Niall Ferguson’s Tory take on JRR Tolkien on Great Lives. On catch-up, Jon Ronson’s Things Fell Apart, a riveting In Our Time on the Battle of Trafalgar, and on The Language Exchange the poet Daljit Nagra’s encounter with the Natural History Museum fly enthusiast Erica McAlister.
Of course there have been bum notes too. Michael Buerk’s The Moral Maze returned on December 1, with such appalling sound it had to be pulled. Conspiracy theorists might be wondering if it was sabotage: that morning Buerk, 75, had been all over the newspapers after a Radio Times piece in which he claimed: “In the wider world — and, it has to be said, in some parts of the BBC — more and more is being put off limits . . . Freedom of speech is seriously under threat.”
Meanwhile, in a Daily Mail piece headlined “Radio Woke is beyond a joke”, the former home secretary David Blunkett lambasted the loss of “the priceless companionship” of Radio 4, now “every aspect of the station seems obsessed with preaching at me”. Libby Purves, a Times columnist and former R4 presenter, wrote that he was “right to speak out”.
So Radio 4 is taking some flak. This matters because 10.7 million of us (average age 57) listen to the country’s most popular speech station for a weekly average of 11.4 hours. The flagship station enjoys the largest budget in BBC Radio’s stable and uses it to offer more variety than any rivals. But is it, under Mohit Bakaya, the controller since 2019, losing its golden touch?
My short answer is no — but my longer answer is more complicated. The flagship news shows, Today, World at One and PM, sound steadier vessels. Much of the factual commissioning across podcasts and documentary strands (Intrigue, I’m Not a Monster, The Great Post Office Trial) has been excellent. Chris Mason and Emma Barnett have reinvigorated, respectively, Any Questions and Woman’s Hour.
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Despite what Buerk claimed, there seem to be welcome efforts on shows such as PM and Woman’s Hour to engage with, not swerve, polarising identity politics. Many of the subjects that I flagged above — Trafalgar, Tolkien — are hardly “woke”.
But, and this is important, when did a new comedy format on Radio 4 last make you laugh out loud? Or a drama warm your cockles? Here Blunkett has a point.
The Reithian remit is to educate and inform but also, crucially, to entertain; too much of Radio 4’s drama feels like cod liver oil commissioning, sternly administered to do you good. There are the comedy stalwarts (I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, Just a Minute and The News Quiz), and Jon Holmes’s The Skewer is sharp topical satire. But where are the fresh format ideas? The Now Show has been running since 1998, The Unbelievable Truth since 2007, The Museum of Curiosity since 2008 and The Infinite Monkey Cage since 2009. Across the 6.30pm weekday slot and late at night there seem many repeats and conversational formats when jokes are craved.
In fairness, Radio 4’s comedy commissioners are grappling with a less monolithic media landscape. Once, R4 was one of the few starter platforms available for emerging comics, now there is TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Chortle. Would a young star like James Acaster choose to do a Radio 4 show over a borderless Netflix special? A comic with a panel show concept could take it to the BBC and navigate its lengthy commissioning process or just make a podcast, and remain uncensored and in complete control.
In this context, is it any surprise that R4’s forthcoming jolly yuletide offerings — Sandi Toksvig’s Hygge, Dead Ringers, a Tim Vine chat show and a Christmas special of the likeable Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam sitcom, Conversations from a Long Marriage — seem so safely skewed to an older audience.
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The new year may bring changes. It needs to. No announcements yet, but recently Radio 4 saw pitches for a new presenter-led Saturday evening show, in the slot where it always feels a surprise to still discover Loose Ends, now with an average listener age of 65. More controversially, it also tendered for programme ideas to replace Saturday Live. Radio 4 tells me the incumbent programme teams producing both shows won those tenders for 2022. That seems a potentially missed opportunity to inject fresh life and humour. But what do you think? Where is R4 on your dial? Broke, woke, or just right?
Clair Woodward’s radio picks for the week ahead
Sunday
Drama: Howl’s Moving Castle (Radio 4, 3pm)
Robert Bathurst and Julia McKenzie star in this adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’s fantasy classic (which was also adapted as a Studio Ghibli film). John Cleese discusses his musical loves with Michael Berkeley in Private Passions (Radio 3, 12 noon). In Sunday Night Scala (Scala Radio, 8pm), Darren Redick presents a programme of music by female composers.
Monday
John Grant’s Beautiful Creatures (Podcast)
The engaging musician talks to guests including actor Paul Rudd and musicians Kristin Hersh and Linda Thompson. Ten-part series The Hackers (Radio 4, 1.45pm) opens with a look back at the Phone Phreaks, early hackers who manipulated the phone system with basic technology. Adrian Dunbar reads from On Seamus Heaney, by Roy Foster, in the Book Of The Week (Radio 4 FM, 9.45am)
Tuesday
Michael Caine — Heroes (Audible)
Caine explores exceptional true stories of personal endeavour, looking at those who have risked their lives to save others, from the Piper Alpha oil rig to the Bosnian wars. The advertising guru Rory Sutherland picks Johnny Ramone in Great Lives (Radio 4, 4.30pm). The Documentary (BBC World Service, 8pm) looks at the scammers who are offering people free money.
Wednesday
Ruby Wax — Talking Human (Radio 4, 11pm)
Ruby is joined by Ash Ranpura, a neuroscientist, and Buddhist monk Gelong Thubten to talk and swap experiences about being happy and being human and the effect of Covid on our mental health. Mark Radcliffe joins with folk shows in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales (all on BBC Sounds) for picks of the year in The Folk Show (Radio 2, 7pm).
Thursday
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The Last Days Of Maradona (Spotify podcast)
After Diego Maradona’s death in 2020, a legal investigation began into the circumstances surrounding his care. Thierry Henry takes a look at what happened. In The Concert (Classic FM, 8pm), John Suchet travels to Liverpool for a festive exploration of the city’s musical talents. Free Thinking (Radio 3, 10pm) looks at the influence of Aldous Huxley’s books.
Friday
Harsh Reality (Wondery podcast)
The true story of the controversial 2004 British reality dating show There’s Something About Miriam, which revealed its star, model Miriam Rivera, was transgender in the final episode. In Who Do We Think We Are? (podcast), Prof Michaela Benson and her guests discuss what it means to be British in a country where citizenship and migration are constantly in the news.
Saturday
The Console (Scala Radio, 5pm)
Luci Holland, a composer, arranger and video-game fan, looks back on 2021 in the world of gaming, featuring music from key releases and award-winners, such as Bafta winner Spider-Man: Miles Morales, by John Paesano. Archive On 4 (Radio 4, 8pm) is a tribute to the documentary guru Piers Plowright, who died in July, with contributions from friends and fans, including Melvyn Bragg.