Feedback

There is to be a new chairman of the BBC, and several high profile figures have been linked with the position.

In Feedback this week Roger attempts to try and find out how much power the new chairman will have, and whether he or she will be accountable in any way to the licence-fee payer.

Journalist and broadcaster Anne McElvoy talks about her attempts to get political opponents to actually listen to each other in her new Radio 4 series of, Across the Red Line.

And two British born American listeners review the Americast podcast, how does it compare to US election coverage?

Presenter: Roger Bolton

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4

The BBC’s Medical Editor is once more reporting from the Covid front line. Roger Bolton asks Fergus Walsh what lessons he has learned from covering the first wave.

What is code switching? The BBC Radio 4 programme of that name raised some questions from Feedback listeners, Roger asks a linguistics academic to explain.

And Nancy Sinatra puts on her boots again. Did she walk all over our listener reviewers?

Presenter: Roger Bolton

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4

An in-depth interview with the Controller of Radio 4, Mohit Bakaya.

He has been in charge of Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra and Radio 4 podcasts for almost a year, and before that had been a commissioning editor at the network since 2008.

He responds to listeners’ questions about The Archers, Desert Island Discs, Woman’s Hour, coronavirus coverage and his plans for the future.

Presenter: Roger Bolton

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4

The BBC’s head of statistics discusses the reliability of figures broadcast for coronavirus infections and deaths.

Was the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini a suitable subject for Radio 4’s Great Lives series? The programme’s presenter Matthew Parris defends the decision.

And two amateur reviewers give their verdict on an episode of Woman’s Hour.

Presenter: Roger Bolton

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4

Now that the Archers have started talking to each other face-to-face Alison Hindell, the Commissioning Editor in charge of Ambridge, answers listeners' criticisms of the programme during lockdown, and responds to a range of audience views on Radio 4 drama.

Producer Sarah Shebbeare discusses her World Service documentary The Death Row Book Club in which an innocent man survived 28 years in solitary confinement. Anthony Ray Hinton who is black spent most of his time on death row in an Alabama jail where he set up his own book club, one of whose members was a Ku Klux Klansman.

Presenter: Roger Bolton

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4

Is there any point in Radio 4 broadcasting comedy programmes such as the News Quiz without a studio audience and with all the panellists in different places?

The executive in charge, Julia McKenzie, joins Roger Bolton to discuss comedy under coronavirus restrictions, and whether Just a Minute will return now that its legendary presenter Nicholas Parsons has left the stage.

And the BBC';s Director of Radio and Education, James Purnell, discusses the recently announced plan to improve representation of minorities in radio and answers questions from a listener who suggests that improving diversity of class at the BBC is just as important.

Presenter: Roger Bolton

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4

The outgoing Editor of Radio 4’s Today Programme is heading off to a monastery in France. Has three years of editing the BBC‘s flagship radio news programme led to her taking the veil?

Sarah Sands reflects on her tenure and brings an ‘outsider's’ view of Today and the BBC - and explains she’s going on retreat to write a book.

Presenter: Roger Bolton

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4

Is it worth the BBC holding the Proms this year without an audience present? Controller of Radio 3 Alan Davey discusses the value of the Proms without Promenaders.

Test Match Special is back, also without crowds of spectators, and with the commentators in safety bubbles, TMS Producer Adam Mountford explains how they are muddling through, and reveals who upset the England team with their impromptu concert.

And two more listeners turn amateur reviewers of a programme on 6 Music. Will they travel outside of their comfort zones?

Presenter: Roger Bolton

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4

Was Cleopatra secretly carried into her first audience with Julius Caesar wrapped in a duvet rather than a carpet? Radio 4’s Homeschool History claims a duvet is nearer the truth than Hollywood’s version. Presenter Greg Jenner outlines his evidence.

Two Feedback listeners review a Radio 2 documentary about Italia 90. Did it take them out of their comfort zones?

And will these latest cuts to the local radio budget prove too much for the service to bear?

Presenter: Roger Bolton

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4

Is the study of crowd control a suitable one for scientists? Radio 4’s The Life Scientific thought so but some Feedback listeners disagreed.

Did the Rethink series which brought together three BBC radio networks deliver on its promise to explore new ways of thinking after the coronavirus crisis?

And two listeners living abroad who enjoy Radio 4, review and give their verdicts about a programme on Radio 3.

Presenter: Roger Bolton

Producer: Kate Dixon

Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4