Read this: 10/07/2020 Radio 4 Feedback

BBC sounds music Radio podcasts, there's something in the air, I think it's the smell of cordite is a community of the UK and beyond will stand up and fight against these proposals if the BBC board decided to save a show in the past describe it as a unique BBC product that it can do the same again is that listener Up In Arms about cats just announced in BBC local radio, that's what are there any XL to what is the current throughout the corporations output? Will you the list and licence prepare any say in what happens and Radio 4 history show says that Cleopatra was carried to Julius Caesar in a duvet not a carpet really Alaska the presenter of homeschool is what is evidence for saying that and how is Sugar made it from commission to completion in a trial we made the show incredibly quickly to the fastest thing.

I've ever made in my career that we got a phone call on a Friday

And remember Italian 94 superior to the football played in that particular world cup did we make the listeners in are out of your comfort zone feature a really uncomfortable by making them listen to a documentary about that competition would have liked it.

If they could have Focus a little more on those big cultural differences between and now listen to the final score a little later in this edition of feedback last week the BBC announced that BBC England needs to save 25 million pounds in operational costs before 2022 BBC Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland will also have to make savings 450 jobs across radio TV and online.

In the nations and regions will be cut from a staff of around 3000.

That's 15% in English local radio around 139 job losses are expected and its simplified radio schedule introduced in March in response to the challenges presented by Covey is to be made permanent meaning each station will have just 3 daytime shows and it show will have just presenter any issues with two hosts will lose one of your reactions to the proposed Steven I'm disappointed that the cutbacks in schedule and program due to covid has been made permanent the cuts to BBC local radio the loss of up all night on Radio 5 and a lot of news briefing on Radio 4 etc as a licence.

I don't mind paying for an increase in a fee if the services are maintained or increased but feel aggrieved at paying more for an inferior service Paul Schofield Gloucester

The end of March I contacted you regarding the cancellation of Johnny Coppins acoustic music show on BBC Radio Gloucestershire in response to the concerns and I and correspondence of made on this and related changes Chris Birds hinted that these changes will likely to be only temporary.

We did indeed interview Chris bumstead of audio for BBC England who's in charge of the 39 local radio stations.

This is what she said on the 12th of April just three months ago about the disappearance of some much love local music shows is from using programs will be coming back then that was introduced to cope with a unique set of circumstances the likes of which you can I have never seen before that's what we did.

This is not saying that this is a schedule.

We are going to be having when everything gets back to normal again.

Paul Schofield is I'm convinced.

I've heard the Jolly show, it's now permanently cancelled these shows are vital to local musicians to get their music heard particulier time when there are no live.con Stevens Wrexham what are my favourite shows Rachel Lancashire on the wire was taken off air in March along with several other specialist shows I feel to see how you justify such decisions that are on the client to consult on his proposals.

Where is the accountability shows should not be judged solely on our audience numbers social media likes retweets the depth and quality on the wire.

It's not created overnight.

It's built by passionate broadcasters a dedicated team who care about music and see the true value Public Service Broadcasting John smyly to BBC cannot do more than turnout in middle of the road national programming and of the lowest common denominator of society, it is not deserving of its title of the British

Incorporation and the mandated licence fee I've always been a big supporter of the BBC but the organisation must take care that cats cost in the face of reduced government funding that it doesn't lose the support that has built up over many years we asked for BBC executive was available to come onto the program to discuss these issues, but no one was available BBC England if they could confirm reports that radio Lancashire on the wire and Radio Gloucestershire Johnny Coppin acoustic music have been permanently cancelled and if so, what music would continue to be presented elsewhere on BBC local radio we also asked how these decisions have been reached and whether listeners have been consulted we were given this statement the BBC faces huge financial challenges and I local services are not immune to these pressures.

We have set out proposals to retain the successful changes made at the beginning of the

19 pandemic to weekday daytime local radio schedules fully committed to providing local content including community and specialist music programming and I'll talk about what their schedules could look like the results of their discussions with a keen interest meanwhile.

I'm delighted to be joined by Jim Waterson the immediate editor of The Guardian journalists huge financial challenges the BBC talks about they are real are they are very real and in many respects date back to the fateful decision in 2015 over a long weekend outgoing director general Tony Hall struck a deal with then Chancellor George Osborne which resulted in not only the BBC taking responsibility for the over 75s licence fee but also meant that they were going to have to at some point in post cuts this has been exacerbated by the pandemic which is hit the BBC's commercial income and the end result is that there is a lot.

Of money that needs to be found somewhere and the days where you could just slowly cut and cutter are going and that's why I was saying hold shows disappearing and large numbers of jobs going prices, but at the same time local journalism is in Crisis as well.

It's not just the BBC is that what happened to local newspapers and local commercial radio well local news across the board is in is in a pretty dire state the Old local newspapers where you had a near Monopoly on local advertising that went with the internet suddenly the business model for them doesn't really work well commercial local radio is in a similar terrible space a lot of local radio stations have been merged to create sort of cuisine national networks by companies such as global the end result is that where as previously a mid-sized city in the UK would have had a a newspaper employee dozens of people there a local BBC station and maybe one or two commercial stations now they'll be lucky.

The BBC station has a few presenters in the local paper has a few reporters.

This is paradoxical, isn't it? Because we've heard from Downing Street and from a certain extremely powerful person that play centuries out of touch about the country and the politicians are out of touch with what's happening out there that they need politicians and the BBC to reconnect with local areas and at the same time is Finding itself cutting back.

There's any logicality is there is something here that is slightly out of the BBC's control aside from the finances and the imposition on its finances made by government.

There is the fact that consumer habits have changed to the extent that a lot of people are going to get their local news from some unmoderated local Facebook group which is buzzing with conversation and information all day long and the extent to which they are going to in any realistic world tune into the local radio station might be something that frankly has just been lost that these are things.

Attract older audiences, there's only I think 7 million people in the UK who listen to a BBC local radio station in Any Given week, so that's about 10% of the population.

So you do have the things undeniably needs to reach people and provide local news, but perhaps some of the new schemes like the local democracy reporter scheme which they subsidize might be providing people with the information about the expense of having a program host on a local radio station doing what's on my list are really concerned about his local culture and some of them specifically care about local food music and they say it is going to provide that if local BBC local radio stops providing it BBC says it won't stop but these programs that focus on that are do seem to be disappearing.

So where does anybody have that real local culture the thing with something like a regional folk? Show is it probably has relatively low listeners, but my goodness they care and it's the sort of stuff that only the BBC

Slide but at the same time you can imagine the BBC bosses are going what they're really worried about is younger audiences who just aren't consuming any BBC content at all.

They are desperate all cost to get those people to buy into the concept of the licence fee and if they are looking at the demographics, then they are fighting against and they're trying to work out right if we going to send the money somewhere do we spend it on the BBC Three comedy that might bring in people who would otherwise be watching Netflix or do we continue to serve them loyal audience who love that one folk show that goes out on a night of the week if there was unlimited money in the world.

They could do both.

I don't know where you necessarily get the balance right, but they can't do both and so it's quite a hard decision to make but the difficulty here is the people will be paying a licence with the same.

They care about what they care about likely to be taken away and I still have to pay the licence and they'll say I'm not being consulted.

I can vote for the candidate every five years or whatever if I have shareholder theory and we can go to a shareholders meeting here on the BBC that keeps saying it belongs to me.

What can I do about this? So does that really happened accountability problem here the BBC is fundamentally in the current environment largely accountable to the government you know you are looking at the prospect of the new general facing up to the imposition of a new BBC chairman.

He'll be appointed by the government within the next year.

There is a clear Desire within Downing Street to cut the BBC down to size and the desires of those and are shaping a lot of this with the BBC nose is going to be a hard Landing the issue with individual shows frankly as far as I can see the main thing that the BBC response to is MPs getting very upset and calling executives in front of select committees and giving them a hard time.

We're actually see the moment there to show where an MP might appear on is under threat suddenly.

There is a lot of select committee enquiries and

Able to find a bit of cash to keep him going in some form if you're a fan of a particular show on the radio Lancashire or something the number one thing to do is to find a way to annoy the executives in our publicly that they recount that seems to forget about the only way of accountability is not done through formal surveys it seems too large to be done through has it going away enough my thanks to Jim Waterson the media editor of The Guardian and please do let us know your thoughts about that interview and anything else to do with BBC Radio network or local this is how you can get that you can send an email to feedback at bbc.co.uk the address is feedback PO Box 67234 London se1p 4ax you can follow activity on Twitter by using at BBC R4 feedback or you can call us and leave a phone message on 03.

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BBC Radio listeners to step out of their comfort zones and listen to a program that would normally be on there this week.

We have an igloo it from Colchester in Essex and Arjun blazer from London and what would be your top TV programmes if you were stranded on that mythical desert island number one with the Today programme number two would probably be one of the comedies.

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue all the Unbelievable Truth and thirdly just had a bit of variety.

I'd go with the brain of Britain and what about you your 3 choices probably have to have p.m.

With me because that's pretty much a daily part of my routine.

Mediashow is another one that I always try to catch and if I'm going onto the player to catch up.

I'd like to find old episodes of the Union that's a favourite of mine was broadcast on Radio 2 on Saturday evening.

BBC sounds it was called passion penalties and Pavarotti and perhaps you could describe the program for us what it was about it was a pretty broad.

Look at a really tournament for a UK football as it turned out it told the story of Italia 90 from the perspective of players and historians and journalists and all in all kind of contextualize.

What went on to explain the significance it had for the UK going forward to that rhyme with what you heard.

Yes, I think it was it was a study of Italia 90 the Italia 90 World Cup chronicling both on the pitch highlights, but also creating social political context of times around in the World Cup and also football in general at that time.

I'd like to take you back on the creation of the World Wide Web Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister for the last time after 11 and 1/2 wonderful years to Albert Square looking forward to listen to The going to get something rather be ok.

Yes, I did I said she was looking forward to it.

I remember very very bad so I remember the key moments.

I wouldn't look this up.

I wouldn't have found it so I was looking forward to what about you? Did you enjoy it? I didn't realise how important and what are turning point Italian

Was for a football and even for for Society to some extent.

I really enjoyed it.

I don't want to make too much of your age, but were you born in 1990 before my time before the Premier League of course, but this was a moment where soccer looked itself instead of this is pretty dreadful.

Can't go on as it is and things changed in that case convincingly so if anything if it's one that I have the programs it would be then I think it's skirt around the issue is a little bit so the beginning there was some exploration of you know the whole Egan is an issue surrounding it and the tragic events of the end of the program.

There was some talk about how you know football now a middle class sport even in the first prime minister to declare that he was.

Now and then Tony Blair leaves are similarly game sometimes just cursory analysis of these issues, but not enough in-depth looking into how exactly things change why they changed more deeper interviews which listen because there was lots of music as well as interviews and archive as well.

I did actually I mean I agree with that was quite a head on look there wasn't much opportunity to look at some of those big issues like racism really done with a bit more unpacking but I really appreciate it to the use of soundtrack in the background.

I didn't appreciate the with long section about the actual records that were made for the tournament, but the dress.

Highlighted the culture of a time for me and I felt it was a really good way of evoking the time but also just laying down that point about how much does they did a really good job of kind of immersing you in 1990 and what about the presenter than ocean Gabby Logan did she do a good job in your view presenter and if anything I was thinking as I was saying to program.

How it could have easily got perhaps Gary Lineker to put on the programs and he was part of that tournament but part of the BBC in sport coverage trying to push more women to be on sport channels for example Match of the Day FA Cup coverage you tend to have from England women's footballers on the penalty think it is great and Radio 4 panel shows probably can take her leave out of that book.

I was certainly pleased to hear female voices.

I did think it was going to be more bloated than it was and between Amy Lawrence and female voices in a way that I don't think we would have felt was normal at the time.

Will you go to Radio 2 for such as again as this persuaded you to go across the radio too well to be honest not really it took me out of my comfort zone.

You know if I can't stop listening to the terms of listening to Radio 2 which is outside my comfort zone as a bit of a football fan, but I'm not sure if I would go back to live Radio 2 about you and I will make you more likely to go to radio too.

I mean just demonstrated.

It's not just music.

No, I would like to look out documentary.

What kind of long form interviews and stories I suppose so yeah, I really do think I would look to see what other topics are covered in London and to an igloo it from Colchester and do get in touch if you would like to be put out of your comfort zone.

Homeschool history is a series of 15-minute programs aimed at teaching young children in the comfort of their own homes possibly accompanied by their parents suitable for podcast you might think what you doing at 9:30 on Radio 4 on a Monday morning bit of a risk here is what some of you thought of shark from West Yorkshire I really enjoy homeschool history, you would have been doing their love of this year.

I feel as if I might be a bit old for it, but the combination of human information at the same time as perfect to Duncan it's informative and fun.

It's not patronising.

I only wish I'd had a history teacher like Greg Jenner when I was at school or homeschool history of the work of Greg Jenner who's made this genre his home with the Horrible Histories series and your to me podcast did you originally make this for Radio 4 at 9:30? I'll be honest.

We we didn't it was meant to be a podcast for children for families and

How intended it to be on first couple of episodes and I think at some point someone ready for sit or can we have it in the schedule and suddenly we were making the radio show and then of course it was scheduled just after Andrew Marr start the week.

If you've known that originally would have done it slightly differently.

I don't know that's a good question isn't it? I think perhaps I might have slightly changed my tone of voice a little bit probably not we designed it for the audience we designed for which you know young children and their families in 1649 King Charles the first was put on trial and found guilty of treason and that's the biggest crime.

There is it's even worse than licking all the biscuits or someone else can eat them not only did the country part ways with Charles as their King and he was executed at home now.

Not at school because of the coronavirus.

There will be that audience but

The responses from adults really enjoyed it.

Are you in my thoughts of the music and the questions at the end and all the things that you put in there for children who might might have a less of an attention span then adults alienate.

I mean one of the things about history that surprising to maybe adult listeners, is that although we have to in jokes we are doing silly sound effects with the Ring with plain bits of Little Pop tunes because every script is co-written with an expert who has a PhD along with my two co-writers Emma and Gabi who were very funny what quite surprised about homeschool history, even though it's 15 minutes long as we're actually squeezing and sometimes really exciting new university level knowledge and putting it into a design for 7-year olds but actually it goes out and at this before this is new Karen lipsedge as a university lecturer I have been really impressed by this creative approach of reducing.

Chunks of historical information into bite-sized child-friendly nuggets however, I thought further learning could also include references on the BBC website to other websites where further information could be found including Museum collections historical animations on YouTube etc things a lovely idea the simple truth, is that we made the show incredibly quick the fastest thing I've ever made in my career.

We got a phone call on a Friday we made the first episode on the Wednesday you know it within 4 days.

We had written and recorded the first episode and then we went can break next be to get 12 of them.

So it's actually quite hard to find resources to look at them trust them so that they are accurate so that they are doing what we want to be doing a lot of the time on the show correcting myths and misco Ms all we were trying to inject some new ones into things and if you then looks online for something to point towards that might include the mistakes and the error.

The article might not be confirming what you just said Mike Arnold home School history on Radio 4 is quite amusing and educational for kids but today's Cleopatra episode stated she sneaked into the palace to see Caesar wrapped up in a duvet quilt in ancient Egypt it was a truly children know what a carpet is like a Scandinavian quilt in ancient Egypt was that a mistake so we have several sources for this for the best sources plutarch and I like to see you there and plutarch quotes is famous of course and has been interpreted by Hollywood as a carpet or rug and it's not a rug or carpet.

It's actually bed linen is a bed bag.

It's a bag in which you keep your bedding, but it can also be translated as a cover it or something goes on top of you when you're in bed.

Do you mean the duvet and you go? Yeah? It's done McPhillips for Sheffield I've been really enjoying the Monday morning history programs.

However one aspect was puzzling me and it seems the BBC has replaced PC with BCE in order to raise any offensive reference to Christ Watford gonna say why don't we all think of this before why do millions before she says rather sarcastically? Why do you see why not just say b c and a d the simple reason is that BC is more accurate historian the train to use BBC ID because bcad is wrong because Christ was probably born 4 b.c.

Or 6 BC and so there was a sort of oxymoron and paradox that Jesus Christ being born 4 years before Christ doesn't make much sense and so we use before common era BCE which obviously points to Christ as the measuring stick so it's not anti-christian.

Christ it's just saying the year in which he was born is actually unknown up for Debate and we therefore using arbitrary agreed-upon points which is severe because you do 3 BCE to BC 1 BCE to 1 CE there is no Year Zero so the mass of a very confusing it's also very helpful sometimes to remind you that in global history and as a global History podcast there Argos multiple faiths multiple ways of measuring the world of measuring time, so I'll show is not rejecting Christianity of course.

It's not but we are saying that there are ways around the world of people measuring time and they have different cultures and different faiths and so before common era is a way of just reminding herself of the presenter of Histories and that's it for this week next week.

I'll be talking to Alan Davie controller Radio 3 a large part of the summer schedule should have been dominated by live Proms some will go ahead but without.

Turn orders, what is the point will also be talking to TMS test match special.

So please get writing until then keep safe keep separate goodbye.