On this week’s Feedback we featured Jonathan Dimbleby making an unusual, and, perhaps for him, unique mistake on Radio 4's Any Questions. He attributed to a member of the panel a quote which was not theirs.

Here is the mistake in all its gory glory:
 

 
Now when a fellow presenter hears something like that there is often a moment of malicious glee, followed by a familiar cold tingle down the back of the spine as one realises that it could easily have been oneself making such a mistake.

Indeed I have done so, dear reader, though as a young assistant producer, first on Nationwide and then on Panorama.

In the case of the former I managed to invite onto the programme someone who was in favour of a proposition rather than, as I had been tasked, someone in opposition to it.

I discovered my mistake when the guest arrived with 20 minutes to go before we went on air. I excused myself and, in total despair, left the building and I thought  my career in television, too afraid to face the music, or rather the wrath of the presenter Michael Barratt.

Fortunately, I had gone only a few yards before sense returned and I steeled myself, went back inside and explained the situation to Michael, now with ten minutes to go before transmission.

He was calm, turned his questions around, and conducted a perfectly good interview.

Afterwards, on his way down from the studio, he gestured for me to join him in an empty side room where he proceeded to take me apart. Having done so he put his arm around me, confident that I would never make that mistake again, and took me into the hospitality room where he poured me a drink.

Subsequently he never mentioned the incident to anyone, and I survived. Thank you, Michael.

In the case of the Panorama programme I had just completed my first, and I hoped breakthrough, film for the programme, lambasting the Swansea Vehicle Licence Centre for a series of spending cock-ups and quoting a senior judge’s scathing comments in support. The trouble was he hadn't made them.

They had been made by another judge with whose views he violently disagreed.

He wrote me a scorching letter threatened to take up the issue with the Director General.

I had no defence so I crawled, abjectly, in print, and again survived. I’m glad to say the future rows in which I was involved were based on firmer journalistic ground.

So I have sympathy for Jonathan - or his researcher. I bet that particular error will not be repeated on Any Questions for a long time to come.

Meanwhile on Feedback I talked to Alison Hastings of the BBC Trust about its latest report on impartiality in science coverage and in particular about the concept of false balance, as defined by Professor Steve Jones, eg balancing someone representing an overwhelming scientific consensus with a non-scientist  who takes a different view.

The issue fascinates me because I think that too narrow a range of voices is heard on the air and I think that those who challenged the prevailing consensus should be given the air time to do so. However, as Steve Jones once put it to me. “You don’t need to balance a mathematician who says 2 plus 2 is 4, with a non- mathematician who says 2 plus 2 is 5.

I take his point.
 
Do let us know what you think about Woman's Hour coming south on Fridays, after decades of residence in Manchester, and about two front line women presenters on 5 Live being replaced by men. Not sure that was what the DG intended.
 
Roger Bolton
 
PS Sven was back this week - on Clue. Did you welcome his return or do you think he and Samantha should go off on a long holiday together?

Listen to this week's Feedback.

Dating used to be so simple. Boys meets girl, for a drink or dinner, boy spends all evening working out whether the girl might be vaguely interested – and if he should try to lunge on the way home. Oh for such pre-internet chauvinistic simplicity.

Modern dating is a perilous minefield where you're one step away from farcical failure. Where the norms are a shifting sand of unfathomable nuances.

As Woman's Hour and Men's Hour come together to map today's dating scene, here's a half-baked guide to help fellas navigate this minefield (and allow women to glimpse the unedifying depths of our superficiality). Here is our Man's Survival Guide for First Dates...

1) 45 minutes minimum: the least amount of time you can get away with is 45 minutes. Generally an hour is the polite norm, but if they don't look at all like their photos you can knock off 15 minutes – 'out of date photo tax'

2) Go away from home if it's blind: meeting a blind or internet date in your local pub is the height of recklessness. Meet off the beaten track to avoid running into friends or, heaven forbid, an ex. Only go local if you're willing to play high stakes ex roulette. If they turn out to be A) super-hot and B) seemingly normal, feel free to book a second date at the most prominent table in your ex's favourite restaurant.

3) Daytime is fine: a painless way to meet an unseen date is during the day for a cuppa. This averts that terrible sinking feeling of knowing you've got a whole evening ahead with someone you'd never fancy in a million years – and preserves your evenings to sit at home and watch box-sets in your lonely solitude.

4) Don't text: however much you feel the urge, don't check or send texts during the date – that's what fake toilet breaks are for. If she texts during the date, you're allowed to feel a little miffed. If she texts whilst watching a film in the cinema, you're allowed to go to the toilet and never return.

5) Cough up: the bill is a gender politics minefield. To grab the bill and offer to pay looks like retro male-dominant chauvinism – to sit back and leave the bill in no-man's land looks a bit cheap and not manly enough. So, politely ask if you can pay the bill. However, if she has shown a total disinterest in you during the date – and not asked any questions about you – then suggest you split the bill. That'll teach her (nothing) but make you feel you've escaped with some dignity (miniscule)

Tim presents @BBCMensHour on Radio 5 live – and is also having a go at building his own dating site.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external links

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree".

And in Salford the BBC leadership did a similar thing.

On the banks of the Manchester ship canal has arisen another pleasure dome, the headquarters of BBC North, now home to the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Sport, Radio 5 live, the Religion and Ethics department and much more, and soon to be the base for Radio 4's You and Yours programme.

Just across the canal ITV is building its northern headquarters and independent producers are clustered around, hoping to catch commissioners over coffee.

The architectural merits of the buildings are for others to judge, but of the success of the rejuvenation of this once derelict area there can be no doubt. It rivals the Olympic site in Stratford, East London, in terms of transformation.

And for licence fee payers worried about the cost of the BBC's contribution to all this, land of course is rather cheaper there than in the middle of central London. Most listeners and viewers, I suspect, could hardly care less where programmes are broadcast from.

What they care about is quality and cost.

I hope to explore the true costs of the BBC building projects in Salford and Portland Place at a later date, but what of the quality of programmes coming out of 5 live? If the programmes sound no different, is that a compliment, or evidence of a missed opportunity?

Should the sound and content of the network be different now it is some 200 miles away from its former home?

With these questions in mind I went to Salford and, with some difficulty, because security is tight, gained entrance to the building on the first of whose five floors, 5 live is ensconced.

Once inside the building we were allowed to go anywhere and ask anyone anything.

You can listen to the show in full on the webpage where you can hear also BBC Radio 1's Director of Programmes tell me what the new Radio 1 breakfast show will sound like now that Chris Moyles is leaving to play King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Typecasting?

Happy Listening,

Roger B.

Roger Bolton Presents Feedback

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• Listen again to this week's Feedback, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
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Does the location from which a radio station is broadcast significantly affect its sound and content?

If you are talking about Radio Merseyside or Radio Cumbria the answer is obviously yes. If they don't sound local and deal with local issues, they won't have an audience.

But what about a UK-wide station?

So far it's been difficult to tell as they are all based in west London.

In the autumn this will change as Radio 5 live completes its move to the Salford Quays, a couple of miles from the centre of Manchester.

In Feedback this week I talked to the Controller of the station about what changes he expects to result from the move and whether he himself will be moving permanently to the North West.

Before the move has been completed 5 live has found itself being criticised by its commercial rival Talksport.

This must rankle a liitle since Talksport has just won the Sony award for station of the year, previously held by - yes - 5Live.

The main thrust of Talksport's criticism is about what its rival news considers to be news as well as its obsession with soccer to the detriment of the minority sports the public service network is also supposed to cover.

Of course there is an element of self-interest in these criticisms but they are echoed by some Feedback listeners.

When I met Adrian Van Klaveren, the Controller of 5 Live, I put some of these questions to him.

Leave a comment on the blog or get in touch via the Feedback web site.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
• Picture caption: "BBC MediaCityUK, the new centre for the BBC and other media organisations in Salford Quays, Salford, Manchester"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c67t1

Test Match Special is a favourite programme. I first started listening more or less forty years ago. I remember not only the wonderful Arlott and Johnston - but Alan Gibson and Don Mosey and Alan McGilvray and EW Swanton. Like many others I turned down the TV commentary to listen to TMS - unless Richie Benaud was on TV duty.

That is a bit harder to do now as Sky (who do a very good job I rather think) and TMS are not in perfect sync. Alas.

Of course everyone with an interest in cricket and/or TMS knows of the Brian Johnston corpsing moment - or should that be corpsing minutes. I was listening live at the time. But I have other favourite moments. I do this next bit from memory - and someone out there correct me if this is wrong - but I recollect a New Zealand batsman in the 1970s (perhaps Bev Congdon?) making two successive huge hundreds. John Arlott asked Trevor Bailey what were Congdon's weaknesses. Trevor Bailey replied... "He loses concentration when he gets to 170." Very fine.

Why is TMS so good? Because it is about metaphor and simile - about literature and art, about weather and place - about food and drink - as well as about a great game (though not necessarily a better game than baseball - but that's another story). And we are always looking for the perfect balance between the sporting ingredients and the other delicacies that surround the cricket. Everyone has a different opinion about what that balance should be... and it is an art form. We must not miss a ball but it would be a mistake not to let the team go off piste.

We are in good nick at the moment. The programme of course is now online and on 5 Live Sports Extra but it will long stay a defining part of R4's culture. It will not be a sports commentary programme alone. I am going to see the TMS team on Saturday morning at the Oval. Let us hope the match is still alive at that point. I have an Australian wife and my children have Australian passports and some of them will be with me. I do not know whether I am impartial. I would not wish to fail the Tebbit test. So I shall pray for Freddie's knee.

• 5 Live's Test Match Special page and details of how to listen in Jonathan Agnew's Oval preview.
• Adam Mountford, Alison Mitchell, Mihir Bose and Oliver Brett contribute to the Test Match Special blog and producer Adam Mountford has his own.
• Dozens of great Ashes moments from 5 Live's archive.
• Subscribe to the Test Match Special podcast and embed the Test Match Special widget.
• Follow Jonathan Agnew on Twitter.
• A page of 'gaffes and giggles' from Brian Johnston's web site.
• Dave Podmore's Ashes, a comedy about 'the game's laziest bits-and-pieces player' starts tonight at 2300 on Radio 4.
• The picture is from the BBC's picture library and shows (L-R) Alan McGilvray, Trevor Bailey, Freddie Truman, and Henry Blofeld in the Test Match Special commentary box at Lords in 1981.