To think that no-one can adequately replace Melvyn Bragg on In Our Time?

[Sausagenbacon]

...and my heart sinks to think of what hip young thing the BBC will replace him with.
I think I'd rather the program was cancelled.

I'm not a fan of the pompous mb at all, especially after he started writing novels about older men having relationships with much younger women

I agree. I think we’d be hearing too much of her personal opinions. She’d forget that she wasn’t the ‘expert’ in this case, but merely the facilitator.

How about Frank Gardner (that correspondent who was so badly injured in the Middle East)? Someone who hasn’t got a ‘flavour’ of their own.

Oh I love Ffrank Gardener.

Rajan? No thanks. He's a gabbling, arrogant twit who ruins every programme he is on.

Mary Beard. Rory Stuart.

I know what you mean but I’m judging him only on his broadcasting record. I salute him for refusing to dumb down. God,, that is so rare I’ll put up with a bit of pomposity.

I am heartily sick of the crap documentaries we mostly get now which seem to have been made for children. The over-explaining, the endless repetition, the silly presenters pretending to discover things, the apparent need to fly all over the world to show us things for 20 seconds which they could have found a photo of and saved the money.

Rory would be ace - brilliant suggestion!

His broadcsting record was part of the problem, he loved the sound of his own voice, the bbc is full of pompous over confident men

I would have thought lots could replace him tbh. He's been sounding like his voice is struggling for a while now.

Sadly, I don't think the BBC has the will to make decent history programmes any more.
The recent ones, like 'i'm dead to you' , are insufferable. The god-awful bbc idea of humour has to be shoe horned into everything now.

I’d like to hear more of Michael Wood doing anything: in our time; sewing bee. I’d even watch love island if he was presenting.

I like the idea of Mary Beard, Tim Harford, or David Olusoga. Dame Sue Black would be awesome, but she’s quite busy already.

Alexander McCall Smith might be an interesting choice, although he’s not young. How about Clive Myrie or Kathy Klugston?

I don’t know why people seem to think MB has an outsize brain.

He’s reading off cue cards which have been prepared by a team of researchers, plus the experts he’s interviewing aren’t allowed any prompts at all, so he often comes across on air as better prepared on their subject than people who’ve spent decades working on it.

A friend of mine was on it years ago, and said that she and the other two experts (discussing a major early 20thc author) were so rattled by the whole experience that they went straight out for a stiff drink afterwards even though it was about 10 am.)

Frank Gardner would be a good choice, @CoffeeCantata

Clive Myrie is a great suggestion, and I like the idea of Rory Stuart suggested by PP. Tim Harford would be a no from me - I find he's becoming rather smug and patronising as he gets older.

Not Clive, much as I like him on what he does already.

But a veteran journo, yes. They have the right skill set and would be able to keep their own personality and ego out of things. Some are really well qualified academically.

Rory Stewart is my favourite suggestion up to now on here, and the fact that many people might not have heard of him is a point in his favour for this gig.

My husband was on IOT twice and it was nerve-racking, but he thought Melvyn did a good job. That was a decade ago!

He’s a pompous, boring windbag. He makes what could be a really interesting programme mind numbingly dull.

Agree on Michael…but I think we may both have failed to register his age. He must be nearly as old as MB. His boyish looks have lasted well though! But he’s always been a great presenter and has charm without the smarm.

I can't bear listening to his pomposity and his broadcasting voice has been substandard for years.

I’ve been struggling with MB’s voice/speech for a while, although he always had wonderful gravitas.

I love a bit of Amol, but he’s got enough on his plate.

Mary Beard would be an interesting choice - I’d like to see a woman in that role. Failing that, anyone but Stephen Fry or Victoria bloody Coren.

if we're going down that route, i prefer Sandbrook's voice.

Kate Adie?

David Olusoga would be good.

not Rory bloody Stewart please.

The thing about Bragg is that he has learned a lot, and he does his own reading before the programme. The invitees give their summaries, and he asks questions on behalf of the audience who haven't had the benefit of seeing those summaries. I want someone who can competently do that.

Agree he can occasionally annoy, and his breathing has got bad (I am surprised they haven't tried to mitigate that on the recording).

How about Prof Brian Cox? I like him on The Infinite Monkey Cage, he doesn’t throw his weight around there.

I agree he's not perfect, but I really think you're being harsh!

I remember when he started on ITV with Second House, an arts review programme that I loved as a young teenager (I was a pretentious little brat!). It had Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells as the theme, and Melvyn was very handsome in those days...so I guess I'm biased. But I've seen a lot of stuff, not only that he presents, but that he's produced and not appeared on, and the standard is high.

He did a great documentary about John Wycliffe, the translator of the Bible. He doesn't ingratiate himself with the audience - no excessive smiling and pretending to be discovering things along with us peasants. That drives me mad! I will take unsmiling pomposity and an honest, academic narration any time of the day over the RADA-audition fake surprise and shock, and sometimes even tears, that history presenters seem to go in for nowadays.

I used to love David Starkey's rigorous, rather scary style, but he's been cancelled.

He has a very doom laden voice, his intonation is like the biggest disaster is about to happen. Cant stand listening to him,w hich is a shame because what he says is usually interesting