You lost Aled Jones and Catherine Bott, Radio Three — but all is forgiven

It’s hard to stay cross with Radio 3 for long. Just when I thought the network had stretched my loyalty too far by not only allowing Aled Jones to decamp to Classic FM but also saying goodbye to the great Catherine Bott, I had a comeback conversion. I’ll explain how that happened later. First, we should bewail the loss of Bott, who made The Early Music Show her own, with her enthusiasm, her practised authority, her ability to convey insights without being ponderous. She drew us in to share her passion for music and composers we’d never even heard of, let alone felt any desire to hear. Without her the programme will suffer (it’s been cut down from two shows a week to one), just as The Choir has sounded lost without Aled’s adventurous ears and conversational ease.

Bott, too, has been lured to Classic FM, where, according to the station’s website, she’s launching ‘one of the biggest non-fiction series in the history of British radio’, a boast that might be difficult to live up to.