NEW year, new starts. On radio as elsewhere. This week saw Emma Barnett jump from Radio 5 Live to Radio 4 to take over presenting Woman’s Hour, while BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty stepped into Barnett’s old shoes on the mid-morning 5 Live show.
Munchetty sounded at home straight away. She’s an empathetic host who interacts well with her guests and listeners. It’s worth noting that as she is followed in the schedule by Nihal Arthanayake, 5 Live now has British Asian presenters hosting six hours each weekday. Arthanayke did joke that they were the only two Asians in the building during their handover on Monday, right enough.
The challenge for Munchetty will be how she deals with the harder-edged political interviews which Barnett majored in during her spell on 5 Live. Barnett has clearly taken that desire to Radio 4. On Tuesday she asked Robert Halfon, the Tory chair of the Education Select Committee, if the Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson was “fit for purpose,” given Westminster’s latest U-turn on school openings. Halfon didn’t answer that, but he did state that the government’s handling of the issue had been a “huge shambles”.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, actors Rosanna Arquette and Caitlin Dulany came on to talk about the #MeToo movement on the anniversary of the Harvey Weinstein trial. The Wednesday programme was not without some bumps, though. One guest, Kelechi Okafor pulled out and took to Twitter to complain of her treatment on the show prompting a statement from Barnett.
Read More: Farewell Graham Norton
Still, already there is a sense of the new ambition of the show. And there remains room to talk about subjects like naked rambling. Even if it’s not really the weather for it.
One more new starter this week. Midge Ure turned up on Scala Radio as the guest presenter of The Space, playing Debussy, Satie, the Yellow Magic Orchestra and the Chieftains.
The playlist was safe but pleasurable and if Ure isn’t a demonstrative host it just gives us more room to enjoy the music.
Listen Out For Low, Radio 4, Sunday, 3pm. Part of Sunday’s celebration of David Bowie five years after his death, Sean Grundy’s drama investigates the singer’s Berlin years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel