For 25 years, Melvyn Bragg and his guests on Radio 4’s In Our Time have discussed most things from antimatter to Zoroastrianism. Their conversations have attracted a live audience of two million, and provide the BBC’s most-listened-to weekly podcast.
At 9 a.m. today, In Our Time will broadcast its one thousandth episode. How has the BBC’s flagship intellectual programme achieved such success and longevity? By doing something the corporation rarely does: respect listeners’ intelligence.
In Our Time’s success should be a lesson to broadcasters to stop dumbing down
Across the BBC, there seems to have been a fiat not to commission anything that might be called elitist. The Today Programme is a watery version of its former self and lacks political clout. Glance at the BBC news website or app and you will find vapid stories and typos. One used to be able to rely on BBC 4, but the channel has become a retirement home for repeats of arts documentaries, Michael Portillo’s Great British Railway Journeys, and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.
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