The Radio 4 Blog Feed

Five days, fifty eight minutes

2010-11-05T18:25:13+00:00

Seismic events. An upheaval in the British political landscape. Radical change in the destiny of parties and political careers. The challenge - to capture the complex, fast-moving, five-day narrative of those events in just 58 minutes.

There was no shortage of material. Transcripts of the many hours of interviews that took place with the protagonists - with Cameron, Clegg, Mandelson, Balls, Ashdown and many more. Many more hours of recorded interviews with the people who were there, in the room as the negotiations that led to the formation of the coalition took place.

As a writer, as you absorb that mass of material, what you have to have is a filter. A way of selecting from that mass of messy reality the things what will help you most in the creation of your script - that artificial construct you have promised to deliver in three weeks time. In my filter there were four layers.

Essentials

This is the easy bit. The must haves, the things that have to be there. The resignation of Gordon Brown. David Cameron's acceptance speech on the steps of No 10. The big events give you the milestones. That moment as your plane taxis from its stand and then turns to align itself with the runway - when, for a few moments, you see those long lines of lights that lead from where you are to the vanishing point, to the climax of that thundering charge down the tarmac.

Essential inessentials

I know. An oxymoron. A statement carrying an internal contradiction. But they exist. These are things that are utterly inessential to the forward progression of the narrative - but that carry an emotional, dramatic or symbolic meaning that makes them absolutely essential to your script. Gordon Brown about to face the cameras to make his last ever speech as Prime Minister. He borrows a red tie from Alistair Campbell. Peter Mandelson gives a final piece of advice. Sue Nye, Brown's faithful assistant, puts the advice into action - and adjusts the knot of Brown's tie. How many layers are there? The need, in these final moments to wear, like a badge of honour and an assertion of identity, the party colour. That last service from Mandelson, the ultimate, Machiavellian courtier. And then that moment of intimacy as the errant knot of Brown's tie is straightened.

Issues

Dangerous things for the dramatist. The seductive allure of bringing to the centre of the stage that big bass drum marked 'issues' and then banging it hard with the biggest blunt instrument you can find. In writing drama there are commandments, carved in stone, etched with awesome authority, stern injunctions you ignore at your own peril. One is simply this - show don't tell. It's for the audience to decide what the issues are. Your job is to embed the ones you think are important in the story, the actions, the characters.

People

The infinite variety of human behaviour. Even better, human behaviour in extreme situations, under huge pressure when the things they do and the decisions they take will have massive implications for themselves, for the people around them and for the future of the country. David Cameron facing the Conservative Parliamentary Party knowing he must bring them with him into a coalition that, only months before, would have seemed inconceivable. Paddy Ashdown deciding to put his weight behind the deal. William Hague making jokes to defuse the tension in the negotiating room. Brown insisting on calling his potential partners 'the Liberals' and not the Liberal Democrats. On these brief fragments of human conduct does the destiny of nations hang. And what delicious drama it all makes.

Matthew Solon is writer of Five Days in May

Listen to Five Days in May on BBC Radio 4 this afternoon at 1430.
Elisabeth Mahoney reviewed the play in The Guardian
The picture of Number 10 Downing Street is from the BBC's picture library.
Discussion of the play has begun on the Radio 4 messageboards
Nick Robinson wrote about the deal that brought the coalition into being on his blog during the Summer.

Overkill? Roger Bolton on Radio 4's election coverage

2010-05-14T12:25:00+00:00

Editor's note. This week's item from Radio 4's Feedback programme concerns the network's extensive coverage of the post-election drama in Westminster, 'busting' the schedule and coverage of the Liberal Democrats. Did Radio 4 get it right? Tell us what you think in a comment below - SB

"Deceitful weasels", "double crossing two faced shysters who would sell their mothers for political gain", "untrustworthy and treacherous."

That is how some gentlemen of the press described the Liberal Democrats for their negotiating tactics before they formed a coalition with the Conservatives. When David Cameron and Nick Clegg gave a press conference together in the garden of No 10 Downing St they were described as being like Morecambe and Wise.

You would not of course expect BBC journalists to give vent to such feelings but it had been a long night, or rather a succession of long nights.

I hope BBC News doesn't have to make overtime payments any more because instead of being tucked up in bed for the weekend, after the usual exhausting election night and the frenetic campaign which preceded it, the Beeb's journalists were still out on the streets of Westminster six days later, as cabinet posts were finally being allocated.

So it was thrilling but exhausting for them, how was it for Feedback listeners? Did they enjoy it as much as the reporters?

(Having worked on BBC election coverage in the distant past I was just plain jealous of those involved in the action. There is something thrilling about being with politicians who don't know if they will have a job tomorrow and have no more idea of what the result of the election will be than anyone else. Time stands still, personal fortunes change by the second. History is made in front of you).

Even the most poker-faced parliamentary candidate finds it difficult to disguise their emotions. Now they know their fate and everyone has had some sleep, we brought together a panel of listeners to discuss their views with the deputy Head of BBC News, Steve Mitchell, who is also Head of News Programmes.

In the Broadcasting House studio with Mr Mitchell were David Lloyd and Emma Blamey. Samera Haynes Khan was in a BBC Manchester studio and Brenda Steele was on the phone from the Black Isle, just above Inverness.

David Lloyd began our discussion with a comment about the leaders' debates:

Feedback is now off the air until July but please keep in touch. We read everything you write and we are keen to come back all guns blazing.

Roger Bolton presents Feedback on BBC Radio 4

Listen again, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join Feedback's listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
The picture, from the BBC's picture library, shows Harold Wilson leaving Downing Street with wife Mary during another dramatic period in Westminster, in 1974.
Radio 4 head of Scheduling Tony Pilgrim wrote about the network's extensive election schedule changes on the blog yesterday.

Schedule busting for election 2010

2010-05-13T08:19:51+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/programmes/schedules/fm

When to stay with the story and when to leave it and get back to business as usual? This is the question we have been asking quite a lot at Radio 4 over the past few days. And as many of you will know, on a number of occasions we have stayed with the story, extending news coverage and displacing scheduled programmes.

We do not do this lightly. Part of Radio 4's appeal is that, while complex, its schedule does not change shape very often. If you want to you can plan your listening for just those slots or programmes that you know will be there, according to the radio listings or as part of your regular habits. So finding that a news programme has been extended and what you thought you were about to hear has disappeared can be an upsetting experience.

But providing quality, distinctive news and current affairs coverage is a key part of what Radio 4 does. If the 'current affair' is as historic and unique as that which has evolved in Westminster since last Friday, it's expected that Radio 4 will be sharing and examining it with its listeners.

Yes there are rolling live news services available, and it is right that they stay with the big stories continuously. And yes we have a number of news sequences and other programmes on Radio 4 where we can look back at what happened an hour or two prior to coming on-air. Sometimes this is not quite enough.

We do our best to keep the key planks in place - though even The Archers might one day have to be delayed if there is something seismic launching at 1400 or 1900!

It won't happen very often, and we hope that most of the election-linked disruption to the schedule is behind us for the time being. Much of what we have displaced in the past weeks has had an airing elsewhere in the schedule, and is available on the iPlayer.

But we are a UK-wide, mass audience station. Just occasionally it will be right to bust the schedule, to help our listeners to remember "the moment I heard the news that...", and to help them do that together as one.

Tony Pilgrim is Head of Planning and Scheduling at BBC Radio 4

The Radio 4 schedules for FM and LW are on the Radio 4 web site. Changes to the schedule are always highlighted on the web site.
You'll also find a useful online radio schedule on the Radio Times web site.

The making of Radio 4's election night highlights

2010-05-07T19:09:35+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/today

Editor's note: listen to the 15-minute montage of Radio 4's election night coverage below - it's a real rollercoaster - and it was delivered minutes after the programme went off-air. I asked Hugh Levinson, who made the montage with colleague Tom Brignell, to tell us how they did it - SB.

Our mission: To boil down the election night's programming on Radio 4 into a single snappy podcast with all the highlights, ready for download the next morning. Simples!

Except for the fact that the studio we were using in the Radio Current Affairs department isn't really equipped for this task. A massive engineering feat by colleagues Jonathan Glover and Masood Ilyas got it into working order. I had perhaps foolishly agreed to stay up all night to make the podcast, as had studio manager Tom Brignell.

We had a foolproof plan to get through the wee small hours. We'd take it easy during the day on Thursday, roll up just before the start of the programme at 10 p.m., relaxed and ready to go. Somehow it didn't work out that way. Both of us worked a full day before we even got into the studio. However, as seasoned radio professionals, we'd ensured we were supplied with the appropriate resources. Namely a large bag of chocolate caramel shortcake and enough coffee to give Rip Van Winkle palpitations.

Then the fun began. I sat in one room, listening to the coverage from Jim Naughtie and Carolyn Quinn. I frantically scribbled notes - 50 pages by the time 6 a.m. rolled round - and marked up sections for Tom to cut. The only problem with this brilliant plan was my handwriting, which is apparently illegible to mere mortals like Tom. Somehow, he managed.

I was listening out for the magic moments: the breathless atmosphere of the counts at key marginals: the tearstained interviews with failed candidates: and of course the bit where Jim Naughtie talked about a horse getting into a polling booth. Around 3 a.m. I started to flag and was close to hallucinating, but perhaps that was just the bright lights of the set on the TV election special.

Some dramatic results and a spellbindingly unusual interview with Nick Griffin helped pull me through towards dawn. As 6 a.m. rolled round, Tom and I compressed the 8 hours down to a super-snappy 15 minutes. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun.

Click here to play the election night highlights.

Hugh Levinson is an editor in BBC Radio Current Affairs

The election night highlights package is part of the Today programme's daily podcast. Download the audio in MP3 format, subscribe to the podcast here or listen again to the whole of Radio 4's election night coverage, if you have a spare 480 minutes!

Election day looms

2010-05-05T19:13:52+00:00

Radio 4's election - like yours - is almost over. The BBC's election rules state that, from 0600 tomorrow, all discussion of the parties and their campaigns must stop until the polls close. On the blogs and messageboards this means we'll be asking people to stop leaving comments of a political nature during that period. Some forums and threads will be closed. The online guidelines are here.

In the meantime, I urge you pop over to the PM blog and listen to this hilarious item: Carolyn Quinn gives Eddie Mair a tour of Radio 4's election night studio - a facility that Eddie speculates "they must have spent hundreds of pounds on."

Tonight's PM saw the last of Tim Harford's enlightening ElectionWatch items - in which Tim disassembles the key campaign numbers and claims - from charter schools to opinion polls to net migration and national debt. You can hear all 23 of them on the More or Less web site. More or Less proper returns on 21 May.

One of the highlights of Radio 4's campaign (don't listen to me: ask Twitter) has been the three-nights-a-week treat of the Vote Now Show, a twist on the Now Show format involving commentators and reporters of all kinds as well as all the usual comic suspects. My favourite items were interviews with Robert Peston - on banks, a hung parliament and who really runs Britain - and Mark Kermode - reviewing the party political broadcasts, both of which were caught on video. Watch Peston here and Kermode here.

Another highlight of Radio 4's election coverage has been Today's panel of eight floating voters. Listen to the last of their contributions, from this morning's programme.

Politics junkies will have relished the extended editions of the World at One. I especially enjoyed 'Martha's lunch party' (with its Beatles theme tune and home baking) - this is the kind of stuff that has the current affairs addicts wishing it was an election all year round. Today's lunch guests were Tim Bell, Philip Gould and Tom MacNally.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

Radio 4's election night coverage starts at as soon as the polls close tomorrow evening and carries on until it neatly segues with the Today programme Friday morning.
Tonight's Vote Now Show is the last one. Listen to this week's editions on the Radio 4 web site or subscribe to the podcast (which will cleverly revert to the Friday night comedy after the election).
Tomorrow's PM is the special 'non-election edition', full of non-election content, much of it suggested by listeners. Like an oasis in the midst of all this election stuff for you election-phobics.
The photo shows the red sofas at TV Centre on which Martha's lunch club has taken place daily.

Electionwatch: testing the politicians' numbers

2010-04-30T17:02:44+00:00

We're nearly there - less than a week to go - but the More or Less election team still needs your help.

Our job is to explain the numbers being thrown around by all candidates during the campaign. Our presenter (and the FT's Undercover Economist) Tim Harford is broadcasting our analysis on PM and Today. You can find an archive of our work so far on the More or Less web site.

It's been fun. But after weeks of going line-by-line through speeches, combing data-sets and finding functions on our calculators we didn't know existed, we're getting tired.

So here's how you can help: if you spot what you suspect is a rogue statistic - or simply a confusing one - please contact us at moreorless@bbc.co.uk.

What sort of thing should you be looking for? Here's an example which caught our eye on Wednesday.

This is Sarah Montague and David Miliband on Today:

DM: The biggest complaint the IFS have is that we haven't had a spending review, a detailed spending review. And the second biggest complaint is that we haven't set out plans up to 2016 and 2017, i.e. into the Parliament after next. When it comes to the four years... br>SM: They say £44 billion of cuts remain undefined in Labour's plans... br>DM: For 2016, 2017.

We nearly choked on our morning croissants when we heard that one. You can see here (PDF) that the well-respected think-tank the IFS were perfectly clear: they say £44 billion of 'mystery' cuts - cuts Labour has so far failed to specify - will need to be made by 2014/15. (The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, incidentally, have similar black holes on their plans).

During the final PM's debate Nick Clegg said "80% of people who come into this country come from the European Union" - and therefore, in his view, it was dishonest of David Cameron to suggest there could be a meaningful cap on immigration.

But that 80% figure is wrong. Actually, it's about a third. On Friday morning Vince Cable, speaking on Today, said his leader was referring not to all immigrants, but to 'workers'. The Lib Dem press office pointed us to their source, an article in The Economist which included the following claim: "Workers from outside the EU make up just one-fifth of all immigrants when students (who pay valuable tuition fees) are excluded".

As my colleague Oliver Hawkins has discovered, however, the fact that one-fifth of all immigrants are workers from outside the EU does not prove that the remaining four fifths of all immigrants are workers from inside the EU.

What about other types of immigrants, like dependents?

In fact, ONS data show that of all the people who come to the UK to work - who aren't British citizens - 60% come from the EU.

In the same debate David Cameron claimed that Gordon Brown had got his facts wrong on the Conservative proposals to cut child-tax credits: he said they would only be taken away from families earning over £50,000.

As our colleague Stephanie Flanders has pointed out, however, the IFS has called that description of the proposal "incomplete at best and misleading at worst".

All families with an income over £40,000 would lose some of their tax credits (and most families earning over £48,175, who get tax credits now, would lose all of them).

It seems, even at this late stage in the campaign, we need to keep our eyes open. If you can help, please do.

Richard Knight is series producer of More or Less

More or Less is off-air at the moment but you can hear Tim Harford's Electionwatch on Today and PM until the election.
Picture by Lenore Edman. Used under licence.

The leaders' debates on radio

2010-04-25T19:25:00+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006slnx

I hope you are not disappointed by this week's blog!

I would have liked to avoid commenting on the election coverage since many Feedback correspondents are threatening to leave the country if Radio 4 keeps on clearing its schedules for the prime ministerial debates which are being transmitted at the same time on television. It is our correspondents who have a big say in the Feedback agenda, however, and that is what many have written to us about this week.

Several listeners to the first of the debates believe that the party leader who won the television debate was not the same person who won on radio. Like the Kennedy Nixon presidential debates 50 years ago they believe that radio enables you to concentrate on content, while television forces you to consider how well the candidates have shaved, how white and regular their teeth are and if there is any dandruff on their shoulders.

I am not going to be so foolish as to equate either Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg or David Cameron with Richard Nixon, but you get the point.

Other listeners thought that the gladiatorial contests should not be called debates since there was not much interaction going on, with each leader downloading soundbites rather actually debating. Others of a more nationalist disposition think that three leaders aren't sufficient. They want to know why their man wasn't up there on stage.

On the morning after the second debate I put some of those concerns to the deputy Head of BBC News Steve Mitchell:

Roger Bolton presents Feedback on BBC Radio 4

If you have any questions for the outgoing Controller of Radio 4 or for the editor of the Archers please let us know. Both will be coming on Feedback in the next couple of weeks.
Listen again, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join Feedback's listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
Listen again to the first and second leaders' debates (as part of The World Tonight's coverage) here. Watch the first debate at ITV.com and the second at Sky.com
The picture shows the famous 1960 Nixon-Kennedy TV debate. It's from the Wikimedia Commons.

The Vote Now Show team at work

2010-04-20T08:08:28+00:00

This external content is available at its source: http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

When I heard that the Vote Now Show team was writing and editing the programme three floors below me in Henry Wood House (opposite Broadcasting House in the West End of London) I had to nip down and get some photos. The scale of the task is daunting: twelve programmes over three weeks: each written, rehearsed, recorded (in front of an audience in the Radio Theatre) and edited for transmission during a single day.

And yet the team of writers, performers and producers in these photographs looks remarkably relaxed. I took these pictures at about 0930 yesterday morning, just after Steve Punt, series producer Victoria Lloyd and the writing team had gathered for the day's work - armed with newspapers and coffee. The fruit of their labour was transmitted at 2300 last night and, as I write, they're downstairs crafting tonight's episode. Relentless.

Steve Bowbrick, editor, Radio 4 blog

If you subscribe to the Friday Night Comedy podcast (which also includes the News Quiz) you'll receive the Vote Now Show automatically. If you don't, sign up here.
View the Vote Now Show pics on Flickr where you can read the captions and find out who's who.

Radio 4's election bunker

2010-04-05T09:00:00+00:00

Imagine if you will a swan. Now think of the legs pumping away under the surface. Welcome back stage to BBC Radio's Election Night Special.

We know the nation has never been less in love with those who represent us, so the looming General Election promises to be both brutal and dramatic.

And what you see here is the work that's already underway to make sure that drama is captured on BBC Radio in hours, possibly days, after the polls close.

It is the technical stage on which will play out a string of successes, failures, shocks and surprises. If you'll excuse the military metaphor, it is our bunker through which we hope to deliver the results from around one hundred outside broadcasts.

A challenge in itself, made even more challenging when at times the country's Returning Officers are making declarations at the rate of more than one hundred an hour. Nor is the operation confined just to London. We have similar projects underway in Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast to ensure that you, the listener, gets to hear from the most significant players and most telling results no matter where or when that might be.

It's like the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Our mission to boldly go to that key individual who stands up in front of a tired and sometimes emotional crowd and says "I being the returning officer for Trumpton South..."

Glamorous it is not. The showbusiness end is upstairs where, on the night, you'll find Jim Naughtie, Carolyn Quinn and our election number cruncher, Phil Cowley. Phil makes sense of of the numbers, Carolyn makes clear the state of the parties and Jim invariably makes a complete mess of whatever is left around him. They, like us, can't wait for it all to start.

The benches, we think, came from the second series of the Apprentice. The rug looks pure IKEA.

Welcome to what has been alternatively dubbed our 'second home' or 'Martha's Vineyard'. I'll explain. As part of the Election Bunker, we've an annex that'll swing into action once the General Election has been called. As you may have read elsewhere, part of the schedule will change to reflect all the news from the election campaign.

This includes the World At One which will last an hour during the official campaign. As part of these longer programmes, listeners will get the opportunity to question the party leaders. Martha Kearney is, of course, your lunchtime host. She will use part of the programme to host a broader political discussion on what TV-types call 'the soft sofa'. And with so many MP's standing down this year, we hope these red benches will provide a suitable perch for much lively debate.

They might also double as place for those, who in the long hours ahead, might need a lie down.

Rupert Allman is editor of BBC Radio's election coverage

Pictures of the bunker on Flickr.

David Cameron on Woman's Hour

2010-02-18T17:44:55+00:00

Leader of the opposition David Cameron came into Broadcasting House this morning to talk to Jenni Murray. I headed over to meet him as he entered the building and got a few photographs of the big event. The other pictures are on Flickr and you can listen to the interview - the second of the programme's interviews with the main party leaders - here for the next seven days. Gordon Brown is next.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog