Radio 4’s controller Mark Damazer has announced a few changes on Radio 4 from today, many of which were signposted in his recent Mediaguardian interview.
The most interesting has to be the 90 minute adaptations of recent(ish) plays. It’s been a while since there was a regular drama slot for pieces over an hour, aside from one-offs or Radio 3 plays.
The obituary show he’s promised sounds like a direct lift from Five Live where they’ve had an obituary programme over weekends for a while. It’s disappointing that The Film Programme is being shifted to Fridays. On one hand, it often duplicated things that were going to be reviewed in Saturday Review, but on the other, an earlyish slot on a Saturday evening is good for deciding what to see down at the multiplex that evening.
Dovetailing The Message with Feedback is fine, although we’re obviously going to lose editions of The Message as a result. I don’t especially like the programme, but it’s about the only serious media programme on TV or radio. (OK, so there’s The Desk, but it has a much wider scope with an international dimension. It doesn’t really get into the nitty gritty of British media situations).
What amazes me is that these new programmes and changes are being announced now, even though some of them won’t occur until this time next year.