BBC Radio 4

Feedback

Society EN ↓ 485 episodes

Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations

Author

BBC Radio 4

Category

Society

Podcast website

www.bbc.co.uk

Latest episode

Jul 9, 2026

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Episodes

07/11/2014 07.11.2014

Dramatic storylines and racy relationships are continuing to cause a stir among Archers fans. Now the actor who plays the sausage king Tom Archer has been deposed, some listeners are threatening to switch off altogether. There were 103 episodes of Hancock's Half Hour recorded in the 1950s. However, 20 episodes are missing from the BBC archives. Now, five of them have been brought back to life in n...

31/10/2014 31.10.2014

Russell Brand was invited onto Radio 4's Start the Week to join a discussion on Revolution. But was he out of place on the panel of experts? Some listeners saw it as little more than blatant promotion of his latest book. The programme's editor, Rebecca Stratford, explains the thinking behind her decision. Surround sound has long been enhancing mainstream cinema, and it's now made an appearance in...

24/10/2014 24.10.2014

Lord Heseltine has been criticised for his use of the word 'handicapped' on Radio 4's Any Questions. But should Jonathan Dimbleby or the programme's producers have stepped in to correct him? Radio 4's Peter White, who's also the BBC's Disability Affairs Correspondent, gives his take on the evolution of terminology -and the minefield of words to avoid. Moral Maze presenter Michael Buerk also came u...

17/10/2014 17.10.2014

Have political interviews become a monotonous drone on your radio? Newsnight Editor Ian Katz believes most are simply "boring-snoring". 5 live Breakfast presenter Nicky Campbell and Today's John Humphrys fought their corner in a Masterclass at this year's Radio Festival in Salford on "The Art of the Political Interview." Three Feedback listeners also went along and put their questions to Radio 4's...

10/10/2014 10.10.2014

Good news. You now have 30 day to catch up on radio programmes using iPlayer. Andrew Scott, the General Manager of radio and music for BBC Future Media joins Roger Bolton to discuss the changes. Musician, writer, broadcaster - Jarvis Cocker can seemingly turn his hand to anything. But can he combine his intimate late-night delivery of Radio 4 programme Wireless Nights with the full force of the BB...

03/10/2014 03.10.2014

Has a summer of tough foreign news had you switching off the radio? The Editor of the Today programme, Jamie Angus, talks to Roger Bolton about his plans to bring a greater range of approaches to telling international stories. The aim is to give audiences a broader view of life in countries which are more often in the news for conflict or disaster - but is it sugar-coating the news for listeners?...

08/08/2014 08.08.2014

On 4th August 1914 Britain entered World War I. The BBC marked the date with a variety of programmes exploring the history of the conflict and by broadcasting commemorative ceremonies. Many listeners were moved by the coverage, others questioned whether it was too jingoistic, while some wonder whether the level of analysis is sustainable for the next four years. Also this week, Roger Bolton meets...

01/08/2014 01.08.2014

Listeners' views on the BBC's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continue to dominate our inbox. There are allegations of bias on both sides - the BBC coverage is accused of being too pro-Palestinian and too pro-Israeli. But how easy is it to accurately report the conflict on the ground from within Gaza? Roger Bolton speaks to the BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet. Also...

25/07/2014 25.07.2014

Last weekend many radio listeners were looking forward to catching up on all the programmes they'd missed during the week using the BBC iPlayer. But they found programmes were mysteriously unavailable. In some cases they remained so until Monday afternoon. What went wrong and should the BBC have done more to communicate about the problem? Roger Bolton speaks to the BBC's Mark Friend, the Controlle...

18/07/2014 18.07.2014

On Thursday, the BBC announced 415 jobs losses from its news department. The job cuts are to save money after the last licence fee agreement left the BBC needing to find £800 million in efficiency savings. But what do the cuts mean for radio news? Roger Bolton asks the BBC's Director of News, James Harding. And amid accusations of bias on both sides, Roger speaks to the World News Editor, Andrew R...

11/07/2014 11.07.2014

The editor of The World at One answers listeners' complaints about his programme's interview with the actor Nigel Havers, there's Radio 4's new comedy series about cancer survivors, and the dos and don'ts of eating on the radio. Feedback received many emails this week from listeners who question The World at One's decision to interview actor Nigel Havers about the integrity of his aunt Baroness Bu...

04/07/2014 04.07.2014

This week on Feedback, Roger Bolton discusses accusations of false balance in the BBC's climate change reporting with BBC Trustee Alison Hastings. Also in the programme, if the BBC director general Tony Hall has made a commitment to more female presenters on radio; two of 5Live's top women - Victoria Derbyshire and Sheila Fogarty - are leaving and are being replaced by men. Is Radio Bloke making a...

27/06/2014 27.06.2014

Lots of emails this week from listeners angered by BBC radio's lack of coverage of what was claimed to be a 50,000-strong demonstration against the coalition's cuts - even though it started just outside Broadcasting House. Was it, you wondered, evidence that the corporation's news coverage isn't as impartial as it claims? Also under discussion - the "N word". Is it ever acceptable to use it on the...

20/06/2014 20.06.2014

Fans of Radio 2's Alex Lester, the self-professed Dark Lord, are in open revolt at the news that he's being moved from his midweek early morning slot to the weekend. They're also angry that his old slot is to be filled with repeats. In the first programme of the new series, Roger Bolton talks to BBC Radio 2 Controller Bob Shennan about his decision to reduce the station's live broadcasting through...

25/04/2014 25.04.2014

With The Archers taking a dramatic turn this week (switch off if you don't want to hear a spoiler before the omnibus on Sunday!), listeners question its recently appointed editor, Sean O'Connor, about whether he's making their favourite programme too tabloid. Are some characters undergoing personality transplants? And why, on Good Friday, were some Archers listeners left upset by what they felt wa...

18/04/2014 22.04.2014

It's the most popular programme on Radio 4 by far, the flagship Radio 4 news programme, which begins the day for more than seven million listeners. No programme attracts more correspondence from Feedback listeners than Today. This week Feedback puts some of that correspondence to Jamie Angus, who's been Editor of the programme for almost nine months. In his first radio interview, Jamie deals with...

11/04/2014 11.04.2014

Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations.

04/04/2014 04.04.2014

In a dramatic episode of The Archers at the end of last week, Ruth Archer had a miscarriage and sought comfort from her mother Heather. The moment occurred in Friday's broadcast and was repeated during the omnibus on Sunday - Mothering Sunday. Many Feedback listeners felt the timing of the repeat was inappropriate. But others felt the storyline sensitively explored an issue that affects many women...

28/03/2014 28.03.2014

A Today interview is never an easy ride for politicians. But listeners tuning in this week felt Evan Davis's interview with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, too things too far. We hear those views. It's an altogether more civilised affair as Roger Bolton drops in on Radio 3's 'pop up' studio at the Royal Festival Hall in London's Southbank Centre. For the past fortn...

21/03/2014 21.03.2014

How does Radio 4 decide when to change the schedule? The death of Tony Benn last week disrupted some listeners when an Inspector Rebus drama was cancelled in favour of a documentary about the Labour grandee. Then, on Monday morning, the advertised Book of the Week was removed to make way for a re-run of Benn's diaries. Listeners have complained in the past about similar changes to scheduled progra...

14/03/2014 14.03.2014

Is anyone at the BBC listening? This week we'll be talking to John Humphrys about whether liberal bias at the BBC has put it out of step with public opinion, and whether anything is changing. And there's a tale of sabotage and sacrilege in a Lincolnshire abbey. In an interview with this week's Radio Times, John Humphrys admitted the BBC had, in the past, been wrong in its coverage of immigration a...

07/03/2014 07.03.2014

Amidst a sea of glitz and glamour at last Sunday's Oscars, one other moment stood out. It was BBC arts and entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson's appearance on the Today programme, live from the red carpet. Colin's attempts to grab the attention of U2 singer Bono, live on the programme has been the talk of Twitter, media commentators, and BBC 5Live. But some Feedback listeners were not amuse...

28/02/2014 28.02.2014

Listen to this week's Feedback with the lights on because we're talking horror. Radio 4 has just broadcast an adaptation of The Exorcist, the 1971 novel which tells the story of the possession and battle for a little girl's soul and became an infamously head-spinning 1973 film. With demonic possession and very strong language, Radio 4's version was hardly a bedtime story, despite its 11pm slot. So...

21/02/2014 21.02.2014

The Today programme says its "fair, balanced and impartial" in its science coverage. The statement came in response to comments after interviewing former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lawson, a climate change sceptic, alongside Sir Brain Hoskins, Professor of Meteorology and Director of the Grantham Institute of Climate Change at Imperial College. Today was the cause of further frustration on M...

14/02/2014 14.02.2014

Should the Today programme have invited Lord Lawson, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer and now chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, to comment on climate change? On Thursday morning, as the floods across Britain continued to make the headlines, Feedback listeners poured scorn on a Today programme discussion between Lord Lawson and Sir Brian Hoskins, a government climate change advi...

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