Latest news about BBC Radio 4

BBC local radio switches to news-led AM output

BBC local radio stations will switch to a more news-led service during breakfast and mid-morning shows, opening phone lines and airing expert advice for local communities between 6am and midday. The move comes as the BBC announces the extra measures it will be taking to offer more information and content during the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. Under the umbrella Make A Difference, every local radio station will join up with local volunteer groups to help co-ordinate support for the elderly, housebound or at risk, making sure people know what help is available in their area...

Audio and Radio Industry Awards 2020 – Winners

The winners at the Audio and Radio Industry Awards 2020 have been revealed at an event at the London Palladium. The BBC took home 17 awards including Emma Barnett for Best Speech Presenter on BBC Radio 5 Live, Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James for Best New Show, The 1Xtra Breakfast Show with Dotty forBest Music Breakfast Show and Elis James and John Robins for Funniest Show on BBC Radio 5 Live. Bauer Media radio brands were recognised on the night with Absolute Radio winning Gold for their coverage for Mental Health Awareness Week as well as their regional station Forth 1 who won Best Local Radio Show...

RAJAR Q4 2019: London and national brands round-up

Coverage of the general election helped 5 Live, Radio 4 and LBC each add half a million listeners across 2019. 5 Live is up from 4.9m to 5.4m in the Q4/2019 RAJAR listening figures, while Radio 4 has added a similar amount, rising from 10.4m a year ago to 10.9m now. LBC, including new digital station LBC News, posts a record high of 2.7m listeners (up more than half a million year on year), while talkRADIO is up more than 40% from 12 months ago to now have 433,000 listeners a week – another record high for the Wireless station...

Manveen Rana joins The Times for daily podcast

BBC Radio 4 Today reporter and BBC News journalist Manveen Rana is joining The Times and Sunday Times to host a new daily podcast. News UK and Wireless Studios are working together on the new show, called The Stories of Our Times, which will be available each weekday at 6am. Times columnist David Aaronovitch will also be hosting the podcast once a week. Rana is joining from the BBC where she is an investigative reporter for Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC News, including Panorama and the News at Ten...

Shortlist out for Audio and Radio Industry Awards 2020

The shortlist for this year’s Radio Academy’s ARIAs have been announced at an event at News UK headquarters in London. Presenters getting nominated include Chris Evans, Greg James, Stephen Nolan, Zoe Ball and Frank Skinner. Bauer leads the Commercial Radio nominees with just over two dozen, whilst we count that News UK has around 15. Global isn’t mentioned due to not submitting any entries once again this year. The rest of the shortlist includes newspapers, independent podcasts, independent producers and presenters, along with a few local radio stations including...

John Humphrys joins Classic FM on a permanent basis

Classic FM’s new Sunday schedule for 2020 includes former BBC Radio 4 host John Humphrys presenting a weekly programme and the end of the Classic FM Chart. From 5th January, John Humphrys will be on-air each Sunday from 3pm to 5pm sharing his own stories and reflections on his favourite composers and their music. Charlotte Hawkins, who currently hosts that slot, will present a new Sunday night edition of Smooth Classics at Seven, keeping her Young Classical Star feature but in a new time slot...

Greta Thunberg to guest edit BBC Radio 4's Today programme

The Swedish activist will interview leading figures in the fight against global heating - Greta Thunberg is to swap leading the global fight against the climate crisis for the more stressful experience of directing a group of high-profile BBC presenters, after being announced as one of this year’s guest editors for Radio 4’s Today programme. The environmental activist will take control of an episode of the BBC’s flagship radio news programme at the end of this year, speaking to leading figures in the fight against global heating and hearing from indigenous, frontline activists...

Kenneth Branagh returns to Radio 4 in Stalingrad

Kenneth Branagh, Greta Scacchi, Mark Bonnar, Ann Mitchell, Doon Mackichan, Kenneth Cranham and more star in a dark and honest account of the epic battle of Stalingrad by celebrated war reporter and author, Vasily Grossman. Two part drama based on war reporter Vasily Grossman’s account also stars Greta Scacchi and Mark Bonnar. Anton Lesser reads Grossman’s private journal - translated into English for the first time - in a Book Of The Week special. Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, Stalingrad is a prequel to Grossman’s novel Life And Fate which was adapted by Radio 4 in 2011 and featuring many of the same acclaimed cast.

Matt Lucas and David Walliams return to BBC Radio 4

A special edition of Little Britain, called Little Brexit, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this week. It’ll be the first time in almost 10 years that Matt Lucas and David Walliams will be back on the station, where it first broadcast in 2000. Little Brexit will broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 31 October at 1830 and will catch up with many of Matt and David’s characters to see how the hottest topic of modern British history is affecting their lives. Characters we’ll be hearing from include Dafydd, Vicky Pollard, Emily Howard, Marjorie Dawes, Mr Mann, and Lou and Andy...

RAJAR Q3 2019: London and national brands round-up

Zoe Ball has lost another 364,000 listeners to her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show in the latest radio listening figures from RAJAR. It means more than a million weekly listeners have switched off since she took over the breakfast show from Chris Evans in January. In the period 24th June to 15th September 2019 (Q3/2019), Radio 2 breakfast had a weekly reach of 7.902m – that’s down from 8.266m in Q2 and 9.047m in Q1.While Zoe is still the presenter of the UK’s biggest breakfast show, the figures are the lowest for the slot in a decade – since...