I gave up listening to Today once I acquired a digital radio and discovered the old comedies on Radio 4 Extra, which are a much better way to start the day.
It's not just that the news is so depressing these days: I find I was moaning about Today in Liberal Democrat News years ago.
One of the many problems with Today is John Humphrys. Too often his interviewing his based on his prejudices, which became tedious years ago.
It is tempting to attribute this to his age, but I suspect he has always been like that. So let's just say that the team of presenters needs to be refreshed and Humphrys is the first candidate to stand down.
Anyway, Humphrys' longevity in the role reminds me of a story about Alistair Cooke and Letter from America.
When I was a teenager Cooke was regularly held up as an example of a great broadcaster, but he always struck me as on old bore.
It seems the BBC agreed with me. Legend has it that in the 1970s an executive was dispatched to New York to take Cooke to dinner and broach the subject of his retirement.
He bottled it, with the result that Letter from America ran until a few weeks before Cooke died in 2004 at the age of 95.
It sounds an apocryphal tale, but John Osman names the BBC man involved as the producer Alastair Osborne.
Jimmy Young, Bruce Forsyth, Terry Wogan, Melvyn Bragg, Laurie Taylor, John Humphries. All more than mere journalists or presenters. They are 'media personalities' or 'celebrities'. It goes to their heads rather and means they are unable to retire humbly and let someone else have a go. It's beyond me why a man in his mid 70s with all of the trappings of wealth that have come his way would want to keep working in the way he does.
ReplyDeleteHumphries has become too absorbed in his celebrity status and leaving Today would be a massive existentail crisis. That said, he´s lousy value for money for the TV payer. 600k quid a year is 500k wasted plus blocking younger talent. He´s had his go, his interviewing won't get any better (it can't get much worse). Sadly, like some African despot, he´ll probably die in office.
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