Since the Home Service was relaunched as Radio 4 in September 1967, the station has established itself almost as the ‘heartbeat’ of the BBC. The chance to direct, shape and enhance such a treasure-house of programmes — ranging from Farming Today to ElvenQuest via Something Understood, Classic Serial and The World Tonight — must be endlessly fascinating. But therein lies the challenge. Radio 4 does sparkle with its intellectual brilliance, its flashes of humour, its ability to make sense of the moment through its reporters, interviewers and the editorial wizards who pull the news together in seconds. It can, though, also appear sometimes like a mammoth container ship travelling ponderously across the oceans from Shanghai to Felixstowe — incredibly useful, full of riches, but on a course that cannot be changed without a lot of warning. How does the Controller make her (or his) mark on such an institution?
As Gwyneth Williams, who has been in charge now for 15 months, explains, ‘The challenge for me is to explain, to highlight what’s there.
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