Radio
The right noises
Michael Vestey
In her radio appearances since becoming the new controller of Radio Four, Helen Boaden has made all the right noises. Interviewed for the World at One last Fri- day she said she loved Radio Four, that the network was 'a state of mind ... intelligent, questioning, open-minded, witty, provoca- tive, warm, enthusiastic and funny' and she would make sure listeners were given pro- grammes reflecting that.
On Radio Four's Broadcasting House on Sunday morning she added that she would `manage through enthusiasm not reproach'. She was not a foot-stamper and shouter though sometimes her husband described her as having 'marching into Poland syn- drome'. So she is not without humour, at least. Her predecessor, James Boyle, often sounded defensive and dour when inter- viewed. He, too, professed admiration for the network when he took over only to turn much of it on its head later.
Boaden refused to reveal what plans she had for Radio Four, though in order to get the job she would have explained in some detail to her appointments board what she had in mind. Perhaps she'll be good enough to let us know soon. She might start by reversing some of Boyle's changes, returning the World at One to 40 minutes and running the repeat of The Archers afterwards, scheduling that worked perfect- ly and was popular. This would at least allow her to dispose of some of the awful quizzes on at 1.30 p.m.
She might also address the weak and often banal comedy programmes that prompt me so often to switch off, though I fear that to buy the best comedy writers is beyond Radio Four's budget. There is also scope for sharpening The Message on Fri- day afternoons, a poor substitute for the old Sunday morning Mediumwave media programme. It is probably too late to pre- vent it but she might like to rethink the shifting of the lively Loose Ends from Sat- urday mornings to the evenings. It will lose audiences at its new time just as, I suspect, the Moral Maze has done since it was mys- teriously moved to an evening spot.
I hope, too, she will remember that it is only unnecessary change that annoys listen- ers, when they can't see the point of it. Her predecessor moved programmes all over the place and was obsessed with attracting people who were non-Radio Four listeners. It seems to me that if the network isn't for you then so what? Its public service remit is not to chase ratings but to broadcast pro- grammes not heard elsewhere. In this it succeeds simply because there is no com- mercial competition; independent radio couldn't possibly afford to match it.
One good thing about Boaden is that she has been a broadcaster herself, on Woman's Hour and File on Four, and it shows in her confident and relaxed manner in front of the microphone. So many BBC executives sound shifty, tense and guarded when they're on air which is often why they've ended up on suits row instead of in the studio. But we will have to see; some of those who've come into contact with her regard her as a bossy Birtian but as she's an intensely BBC political animal this might have been merely tactical. Now that Birt has gone, the cry has gone up around the Corporation's echoing halls, 'Let my peo- ple go.' She can throw off her Birtian shackles and run barefoot through the lib- erating world of Dykeism (Greg, that is) with joyful shrieks of 'Freedom!' She can liberate Poland instead of marching into it.
We don't know officially, as the BBC won't say, who else was on the short-list for the job but I can't say I was impressed by the man reported in one newspaper to have been a rival candidate, Graham Ellis, exec- utive editor of Any Questions and Any Answers. I heard him on Feedback (Friday) defending Jonathan Dimbleby's haughty manner with a listener on Any Answers. The listener had phoned to wonder why so many Muslims travel through other Muslim countries, to seek political asylum in Britain. When the caller tried to make the rather bland point that, in some parts of the world, Muslims didn't seem to get on with Christians, Dimbleby, bristling with self-righteous political correctness, sneered that his history lesson could be countered and his views were abhorrent.
Sounding smug and patronising, he actu- ally used the weasel words, 'regarded by some people as being ... abhorrent'. Per- haps they would but a complainant to Feed- `I go to Chequers at the weekend.' back wanted to know why someone shouldn't put such a question. There might be good reasons for Muslims to travel vast distances to come to a Christian country; he didn't think the questioner deserved to be abused.
Ellis, however, said tetchily that Dimble- by was right to cut him off as what he was saying was capable of giving offence to Muslims. He wondered what a Muslim liv- ing in the West Midlands might think if he'd heard it. This was a feeble perfor- mance and it illustrates how much of a muddle the BBC is in with its political cor- rectness. Praise be to Allah that Ellis isn't the new controller.
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