Radio
Losing its nerve
Michael Vestey
This week's Radio Times tells me that Radio Lives, the biographical series, is 'por- traits of great names in radio and television' (my italics). This was news to me but explains the recent puzzling choice of sub- jects for this six-part run on Radio Four (Thursday): Dame Freya Stark, Liberace, Russell Harty and, this week, Professor A.J. 'Freddie' Ayer. One does not normally associate these four primarily with radio. Dame Freya was, of course, an intrepid explorer and writer; the ghastly sequinned Liberace is surely best remembered, or winced over, as a television pianist with a candelabra and creepy brother George hovering like a butler; Russell Harty was a television chat show host and entertainer; and Ayer was a colourful philosopher who appeared often on television.
So what has been largely an excellent series about radio people has now been broadened to take in television personali- ties. I can't believe the producers have run out of those who made their name in radio. If they have, they need only open Humphrey Carpenter's book The Envy of the World, marking 50 years of the Third Programme and Radio Three, which was published in the autumn. It's full of dead radio luminaries from Sir William Haley, the Director General who created the Third, to Hans Keller, the mercurial pro- ducer, and many others. I apologise in advance if Radio Lives has already done Keller, as I've not heard every programme since the series began some years ago, but, if they have, there are many other past names from Radios Two, Three and Four who would be suitable.
Subjects don't have to have been per- formers; they could be producers and senior management, people who made an impact on broadcasting but not at the microphone. What about the late Andrew Boyle, editor of the 1970s mould-breaking World At One? His presenter, the wonder- ful Falstaffian Bill Hardcastle, was an earli- er Radio Lives portrait a few years ago but Boyle, too, would make a riveting pro- gramme. He wrote some excellent biogra- phies (Brendan Bracken and Lord Reith), as well as the non-fiction A Climate of Trea- son that smoked out Sir Anthony Blunt as a traitor. There was never a dull moment at his World At One. Boyle was a delightfully vague man on the surface but the pro- grammes, PM and the World This Weekend, were ahead of their time. There was con- stant tension between the young turks of Wato, as it's known, and the more correct newsroom.
They don't really make them like this any more, sadly. Hardcastle worked so hard, presenting, at one time, both the World at One and the 55-minute PM the same day, that he once fell asleep half-way through a live interview. He had a waspish sense of humour, telling me once, after I'd been involved in some trivial internal dispute, 'You're a bit of a shit, Vestey. That's why I like you.' When he died, the shock was enormous and I've never stopped missing him.
If, as I fear, Radio Lives, like so many other radio programmes, is going the bi- media way, its title will be a misnomer. Long before this present management, I noticed that radio was losing its nerve in the face of competition from television, appointing presenters who were well-known faces on the screen, and ignoring many radio broadcasters. Soon every programme had to have its television anchor. This trend has continued, with some notable excep- tions, and will increase when most radio programmes are produced in Shepherd's Bush under the television mantle.
Coming back to Russell Harty, it's been suggested that some of his friends were unwilling to talk after the recent Brian Redhead programme. I find this attitude extraordinarily precious when you think that Redhead was happy to dish out criti- cism of others on radio and doubtless would not himself have complained about his Radio Lives profile, if he'd been in a position to. You can't expect radio biogra- phies to ignore flaws and just mention the talents. I remember one about Jack de Manio dwelling somewhat on his drink problem. It couldn't be avoided because it contributed to his decline as a broadcaster. It didn't alter the listener's affection for him; if anything, it added to it. I see that the new editor of Today is a television man, Jon Barton, currently in charge of the One O'Clock and Six O'Clock News. I'm sure Barton is perfectly able but is there really no one in radio considered capable of the job? It's pretty much a slap in the face for those at Broadcasting House, especially as Today is described by the BBC as its 'flagship programme'. It's true a radio man has replaced Barton but the lunchtime and early evening news are hardly 'flagship' programmes like the Nine O'Clock News.
Presumably, Barton, who also becomes supremo of the World At One, PM and the World Tonight, will be preparing for the exciting day when these programmes are being produced in the same offices as their television counterparts but in a junior capacity. He might have to wait longer than expected as the bureaucratic chaos at the BBC has led to the discovery that the new premises are too small to take everybody, as the Health and Safety people had to point out. Some things don't change.
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