There is no shame in appealing to the middle class, the head of Radio 4 has argued, rejecting critical comments about his station from the new presenter of Woman’s Hour. Mark Damazer, controller of the BBC channel, was responding to the comments of Jane Garvey, who replaced Martha Kearney on the programme.
Ms Garvey had said there was a “massively middle-class bent to every programme on Radio 4. Find me a programme that isn’t like that.” But yesterday Mr Damazer said “intelligent” speech programmes were likely to appeal to people who defined themselves as middle class, a social category which is constantly growing.
Mr Damazer, who installed Ms Garvey in the Woman’s Hour role last year, accepted the challenge to find a non-middle class voice. He cited Kirsty Young, the Desert Island Discs presenter, who left school without any qualifications. He said that although Sue MacGregor, 66, had been a contender for the role, Ms Young, 39, was regarded as a more appropriate choice to help the programme appeal to a wider audience.
The controller recognised that the station had more work to do. Mr Damazer said: “I resist the notion that Radio 4 is only for posh people in the South of England. The country is infinitely more middle class than it was 30 years ago. Audiences want intelligence, cleverness and wit. But if Jane is saying we also need a wider range of voices from across the UK then I agree.”
Mr Damazer promised more programmes in the style of Lenny and Will, in which comedian Lenny Henry looks at how Shakespeare is performed around the country.
Advertisement
Ms Garvey, educated at a private school, has proved a controversial choice on Woman’s Hour, attracting criticism from feminists after asking whether women really want top jobs.
Older listeners have complained that Radio 4 is running too many documentaries about rock and pop music. But Mr Damazer said that much of this year’s schedule would look back 40 years to 1968, the highpoint of the “sex and drugs and rock’n’roll” era.
There will be plays, documentaries and discussions exploring the impact of the counter-culture on politics and society. The Vietnam war protests and the 1968 Prague Spring and its suppression will be the subject of special programmes.
Mr Damazer wants a new, accessible focus on science. Radio 4 has gained access to a project in Geneva where physicists hope to re-create the conditions of the universe, one billionth of a second after the Big Bang. Andrew Marr will present a special report from the contol room when the Large Hadron Collider is switched on, beginning the world’s largest particle physics experiment.