Feedback

BBC Radio News is becoming too tabloid. That's one of the accusations from some listeners who think the coverage of celebrity affairs and accusations of sexual abuse by former entertainers is given disproportionate time in comparison with 'serious' updates from Syria, for example. This week, Roger Bolton visits the BBC Newsroom in the shiny, one-year-old New Broadcasting House in London, to find o...

The news of Nelson Mandela's death reverberated around the world on Thursday evening. But by Friday morning it dominated not only the news but also the normal schedule across BBC Radio 4. Many listeners were frustrated by the coverage which they say was just too much, and at the expense of important national news about the worst storms for a generation and the Autumn Statement. And the coverage co...

Did Radio 4 devote far too much airtime this week to the marital strife of a cook and an ad man? That's the view of many Feedback listeners who complained that the BBC became more gossip-mag than public service broadcaster in its coverage of Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi's very public divorce. Also, why has Radio 4 been asking sailors how they get their weather information? Does this signal t...

There are irritants aplenty this week as listeners tell us about the Radio 4 programmes that have driven them to distraction. Many of them wrote to ask why Radio 4's Book of the Week about the life of former French president Mitterrand used French accents that rendered it more 'Allo 'Allo! than serious biography. And many other listeners are infuriated by the repeated use of just four piano notes...

Radio 4's Mastertapes returned for a third series last week, with John Wilson talking to musicians about a career-defining album in front of a live audience. The series began with Robbie Williams discussing his debut solo album Life Thru a Lens. But would the programme be more at home on a music network like Radio 2 or 6Music, rather than Radio 4? Roger Bolton talks to the series producer Paul Kob...

Was last week's edition of Radio 4's Profile programme sexist? Some Feedback listeners have accused the programme of just that after a profile of the new Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, featured numerous references to her cooking and baking abilities. In this week's Feedback, the Editor of Profile, Richard Knight, defends the programme. Roger Bolton also speaks to Ric Bailey, the...

The last of the Reith Lectures was delivered earlier this week. Grayson Perry's series of four lectures on the world of contemporary art has had, in the words of their Commissioning Editor, 'by far the most response ever for a series of Reith Lectures'. Feedback has received many letters of congratulations for Grayson Perry but some listeners question whether the programmes have been in keeping wi...

Has Radio 4 been taken over by corrupting influences? Author G F Newman's The Corrupted has aired every weekday for the past two weeks in the Afternoon Drama slot, usually the place for one-off plays. Some listeners are not happy about it, especially with the sexual and violent content of the drama that some feel goes too far for broadcasts during half term. We talk to Radio 4's Commissioning Edit...

In this week's Feedback, Roger Bolton speaks to the BBC's Director of Editorial Policy and Standards, David Jordan, about 'due impartiality' in climate change coverage. And writer Morwenna Banks explains why she chose radio to tell a powerful story of friendship in the face of breast cancer. Her Radio 4 Saturday Drama Goodbye starred acting heavyweights Olivia Colman and Natascha McElhone as Lizzi...

Does the BBC still need to balance climate change science with sceptical views on the other side? After the World At One gave airtime to a climate change denier, Bob Carter, Feedback listeners questioned whether this was impartiality gone mad. We speak to Professor Steve Jones, who wrote a report for the BBC Trust on the impartiality and accuracy of the BBC's science coverage, about where to draw...

This week the BBC Director General Tony Hall unveiled his vision for the future of the corporation. At its heart is technology. A new app called Open Minds will draw programmes from across the BBC's speech radio output and Radio 1 is to lead the way in becoming an audio-visual network with its own video channel on BBC iPlayer to host exclusive interviews and performances. We speak to the Controlle...

In the last programme in this series of Feedback, we bring you a special edition devoted to one of the most divisive radio subjects - comedy. Recorded in front of an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe, Roger Bolton puts questions from listeners in the room and at home to a panel of comedy movers and shakers. Roger is joined on stage by Radio 4 Commissioning Editor Caroline Raphael - the woman who de...

On Monday evening, just as England bowler Stuart Broad was reaching the peak of a devastating spell, listeners to Radio 4 Long Wave were ripped from the action. They were plunged into the seven o'clock news followed by The Archers. Radio 4 Network Manager Denis Nowlan explains what went wrong. Last week we announced that The Archers is to have a new editor - Sean O'Connor will take over in Septemb...

Was the BBC's HardTalk too hard on Baritone Thomas Hampson? When Sarah Montague interviewed the opera star on the World Service and BBC News programme, opera fans around the world took umbrage. We hear from the listener whose complaint went viral and made him an overnight hero in the opera world. Plus, is the World at One able to maintain its reputation for hard news during silly season? Roger Bol...

The 119th Proms season is in full swing and in Feedback this week Roger Bolton meets Roger Wright, the Director of the Proms. We put listeners' questions to the Director, behind the scenes at the Royal Albert Hall. Roger Wright is also the Controller of BBC Radio 3. And he might have something to say if his network took one Feedback listener's suggestion seriously. We hear his novel approach to to...

Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations. George Alexander Louis is not yet a week old and already his name is known around the world, thanks in no small part to the BBC's coverage of the royal birth. But was it all a bit too much? Many of you think the BBC went baby mad. Operation Dropout mobilises as Roger Bolton meets the man who looks into those awkward silences ca...

This week the BBC announced that the Today programme is to get a new presenter - a female one. Mishal Husain will join the Today line-up in the Autumn and, along with Sarah Montague, will take the ratio from 1 in 5 female to male presenters, to 2 in 6. Feedback listeners welcome the announcement. But it's not all jubilation. We hear reaction to the BBC's Annual Report. Some of it made for "grim re...

Last week Roger Bolton spoke to the acting editor of The Archers, Julie Beckett, about the decision to put the moment of revelation in the Matt and Lilian saga in The Archers' digital-only offshoot Ambridge Extra. After the interview aired we received a deluge of complaints - more than about the coverage of the death and funeral of Baroness Thatcher. Listeners were "incandescent" with rage about b...

Is the BBC impartial? What does impartiality really mean? Questions posed in the latest review by the BBC Trust. The Breadth of Opinion report is part of the Trust's rolling programme of impartiality reviews and looks at how the BBC covers immigration, Europe, and religion - three areas listeners regularly write to Feedback about. We speak to the review's author, Stuart Prebble, to find out whethe...

Is any discussion too adult for Radio 4? When the Moral Maze took on the subject of internet pornography, Feedback listeners were diametrically opposed on whether the discussion went too far. Roger Bolton talks to Moral Maze producer Phil Pegum about how and why he chose to tackle the subject, live on air, and when he has to intervene to rein in contributors. Plus, Jazzer from The Archers and acti...

This week Quentin Cooper presented his last edition of Radio 4's long-running science programme Material World. The Editor of BBC Radio Science, Deborah Cohen tells Roger why it was time for a change. In the wake of our interview with BBC Trustee Richard Ayre about the BBC's loss of £98.2 million, we air your views on the decision to bring in outside investigators at further cost. There was anothe...

It's a year since the BBC introduced an improved complaints procedure. And the BBC Trust, which exists to protect the licence fee payers' interests, has just reported back on the new system. Their public consultation shows that most people now think the system is working well. But some Feedback listeners still think there's room for improvement. Roger Bolton speaks to BBC Trustee Richard Ayre, who...

In the last of the current series of Feedback, Roger Bolton is joined by Gwyneth Williams, the Controller of Radio 4. She responds to listener questions on topics ranging from the coverage of Baroness Thatcher's funeral to Paul and Lillian's love affair in The Archers. Earlier this week the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, was interviewed by John Humphrys about UK borrowing figures - b...

The measles outbreak in South Wales has been near the top of the national news agenda for weeks. Time was that, whenever the MMR jab was mentioned, so too was the alleged connection to autism. Now, BBC reports state baldly that any suggested link has been "totally discredited". Are they right to be so categoric? Roger discusses the issue with the BBC's Medical Correspondent Fergus Walsh. What make...

Over the top eulogising or overly critical? In this week's Feedback, listeners are divided over the BBC's coverage of the death of Margaret Thatcher. We talk to the Head of the BBC Newsroom, Mary Hockaday. And do you need to know what's on BBC One when you're listening to Radio 4? We put your frustrations about the latest high-profile cross-TV and radio campaigns - BBC One's The Village and Radio...