Feedback

On the morning after the night before, Roger Bolton talks to the BBC's Head of Newsgathering, Jonathan Munro, about the corporation's election coverage, responding to audience complaints about bias and over-aggressive interviewers. Also, listener Marcia Hughes gets to the heart of Radio 4's Soul Music with producer Maggie Ayre. And audio addict Anthony Frost explains why his all-consuming passion...

Now Article 50 has been triggered, Roger Bolton speaks to BBC News Editor James Stephenson about whether the BBC can move on from broadly balancing remain and leave sentiment in its discussion of the Brexit process. With Radio 4's Midweek programme at an end after 35 years, presenter Libby Purves is Roger Bolton's latest guest for our Open Mic interviews about the careers of some of your favourite...

Roger Bolton puts listener questions about coverage of the Westminster attack by Khalid Masood, to the Deputy Editor of BBC News, Toby Castle. And Roger reports from the Nations and Regions Media Conference in Salford on the important BBC radio headlines from the event. While there, he talks with the Editor of The Archers, Huw Kennair-Jones. Huw answers listener questions on all manner of subjects...

Roger Bolton hears listeners' responses to BBC Radio's coverage of the Westminster attack. Also, following a letter from more than 70 - mainly Conservative - MPs to the BBC which called the Corporation's coverage of Brexit pessimistic and skewed, BBC Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed discusses his role in uncertain economic times. This week, a documentary took listeners inside a hospital in northern Is...

Radio 4's forum for audience comment.

This week a storm of controversy has surrounded Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray. Many listeners feel a newspaper article she wrote breached the BBC's guidelines on impartiality and compromised her presenter role. Others supported her right to free speech. We hear from listeners on both sides of the argument. John Humphrys has also attracted criticism. During a Today programme interview he sugg...

Roger Bolton hears listener concerns about satirising Donald Trump in a news programme, and considers how far writers can go when dramatising real disasters. Every Friday on the World at One, reporter Jonny Dymond has been documenting the movements of Trump's first 100 days in office with a wry twist. While some listeners have enjoyed the touch of humour, others have said it's out of place in what...

Listeners have been voicing their concerns about a significant shake-up to Radio 2's schedule including time changes, the moving of beloved presenters and an apparent lack of diversity. As the new schedule comes into effect this weekend, Head of BBC Radio 2 Lewis Carnie answers a range of audience questions - from his side of the Brian Matthew story, to ensuring Radio 2 will fill the space left by...

Roger Bolton asks if journalists are stuck in cold war thinking about Russia, and discovers if Radio 4's interactive drama Hashtag Love was truly interactive. Following National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's resignation this week and stories of alleged Russian involvement in the US elections, some listeners have suggested that reporting about Russia follows only one narrative line - presenting...

Roger Bolton hears the comments and concerns of listeners on the past week's radio broadcasting and raises their issues with those involved in making the programmes. As In Our Time prepares to celebrate its 750th episode, Roger Bolton talks to the programme's presenter Melvyn Bragg, who reveals how he ramps up the pressure to achieve the best live programme and talks about the programmes that have...

Roger Bolton asks if interviews with President Trump supporters require more care - or even censorship. And listeners give their reaction to the announcement of a new Today programme editor. Earlier this week, the Today programme interviewed Frank Gaffney. Introduced as a former government official, Gaffney was invited to discuss his support for Donald Trump's ban on immigration from seven predomi...

Roger Bolton hears from listeners who claim the BBC may be out of step with popular opinion, and staffed by people from privileged middle-class backgrounds. Following Radio 4's recent series The New World, Commissioning Editor Mohit Bakaya and one of the presenters, Jo Fidgen meet some of those listeners to discuss their thoughts about the series and its ideological starting points. GF Newman's Th...

Roger Bolton follows up the issues that are concerning listeners and asks if the BBC Reality Check team can combat the spread of 'fake news'. With audiences across the world getting caught out by viral stories, and dodgy statistics and shocking facts beginning to have a direct impact on politics, the BBC is responding with concrete efforts to tackle the growing phenomena of 'fake news'. The corpor...

Roger Bolton investigates the demise of Detective James McLevy, protagonist of the much-loved and long-running Radio 4 drama. Also, many listeners want to know why the former Cabinet minister Michael Gove got so much airtime this week, with lengthy interviews on the World at One and a 15 minute special on The Pursuit of Power. The programme goes behind the scenes at a recording of The Kitchen Cabi...

The editor of Today defends his programme against audience accusations of sexism in its coverage of Donald Trump's obscene comments, and a listener goes behind the scenes at Radio 5Live. When the Today programme ran an item on so-called "locker-room banter" following Donald Trump's comments about women, it prompted an angry reaction from the guest who had been invited to discuss the story on air....

With the US presidential elections less than 3 weeks away the BBC's North America Editor, Jon Sopel talks to Roger about the challenges of covering a campaign dominated by personalities rather than policies. He responds to listeners' suggestions that the BBC has been too focused on Donald Trump and too soft on Hillary Clinton. The Radio 4 documentary Body Count Rising argued that modern fiction is...

Roger Bolton hears listener views on BBC radio programmes and developments. From next year, users will need to login and give their postcode to access BBC iPlayer, iPlayer Radio and some mobile apps. The BBC says the move will enable it to offer a more personalised service - tailoring content to individual preferences. Some Feedback listeners and concerned the information gleaned will be used to c...

Roger Bolton discusses audience views on BBC radio programmes. The news coming out of Aleppo in Syria becomes more horrific each day but, while the human suffering of civilians caught up in the conflict is undeniable, hard facts about what's happening on the ground are very difficult to come by. As in everything else, the BBC's duty is to remain duly impartial in its reporting. But some listeners...

Roger Bolton with views from the audience on BBCX radio programmes and issues. Sir David Attenborough's two part documentary series for Radio 4, The Waterside Ape, delved into the developments on the aquatic ape theory - the idea that our human ancestors evolved not on the wide savannahs of Africa, but alongside water. It's a contentious idea and some scientists have claimed it played fast and loo...

Roger Bolton asks if BBC coverage has been biased against Jeremy Corbyn, putting listener concerns to Political News Editor Katy Searle. Have radio programmes looked too much at Jeremy Corbyn's personality at the expense of his policies? In the week that the Chair of the BBC Trust handed in her resignation, the draft BBC Royal charter was released. Chairman of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer...

It's the first of a new series, and one of the big stories over the summer was the Olympic Games in Rio. But are Radio 4 news bulletins the place for sports coverage - and did the BBC go too far in championing Team GB? Feedback listeners have their say, and Roger Bolton puts their thoughts to Editor of Radio 4's Six O'clock News, Dominic Ball. The long-awaited trial of Helen for attempted murder h...

Roger Bolton hears the questions and concerns of BBC radio listeners. This series, one issue has been top of the Feedback agenda - impartiality. The surge in questions and comments from listeners was initially sparked by the EU Referendum coverage, with concerns that striving for impartiality meant the BBC did not sufficiently scrutinise the campaigns and determine which conflicting claims were ri...

Is it right to refer to a politician using just their first name? It's a question posed by some Feedback listeners after reporters referred to the new Foreign Secretary as simply "Boris". They are asking why he appears to be an exception to the rule and, more pertinently, if this note of familiarity softens the tone of interviews. And are this year's Proms getting a shake-up? Having celebrated its...

The unpredictable and fast-moving political landscape post-Brexit continues to dominate the headlines and listeners remain divided over whether the BBC's coverage has been as "duly impartial" as its Charter requires. The "political earthquake" caused by last month's vote has presented special challenges to BBC Radio News - not just in terms of balance but also because of the sheer speed with which...

Following the confirmation that the UK had voted to leave the European Union, BBC Radio 5Live cancelled their planned schedules and extended their phone-ins after being contacted by thousands of listeners. But some Feedback correspondents question whether the result merited the such comprehensive coverage and why some sports coverage was shelved. Other listeners have also queried the benefit of he...