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.

A lovely chap...but he has a kind of whistle in his voice which drives me to switch off. Just a personal thing...

I agree. I like him but I find his doomy style off-putting. And as a historian, I'm sure he'd have an opinion on lots of things which he might find it difficult to suppress.

Please God. It has to be the most dreary programme on R4 and MB always sounds so bored and detached.

Just as a marmite choice - Michael Portillo?

i just had an inspired though - Michael Palin?

Portillo??!! hated his politics, absolutely ADORE his train stuff. Yes. I think he would be good.

Palin? possibly.

All these suggestions of other ancient men are no good - they will end up retiring too.

I'm in AWE of the prep that Bragg does for each episode. Reads all the guests' books and is so well informed. I'm not sure that sort of intellectual exists anymore. Too busy spaffing our lives away on Reddit.

Yes, I think Michael Portillo would be great.
I so miss that programme he did on Thurs evenings with Andrew Neil

Can people please stop suggesting old white men, Palin, Portillo, Fry et al? Let’s hand it over to a younger person, possibly as yet unknown, if we have to have it at all. I’ve always disliked the programme and believe other formats could work better. As for Amol Rajan, he is on everything. I don’t want to hear his slightly whiny voice on every programme everytime I put on the radio. I do like him but the BBC have a tendency to over use their talent so we become bored stiff of them, in my opinion.

Hannah Fry would be good. As long as she doesn't do her "I'm so sexy even though I'm an utter geek" voice that she uses on her reels/TikTok/whatever

Genius suggestion of Michael Palin - he is self-effacing and genuinely curious. IOT is the best kind of old fashioned educational radio, it deserves to be in the hands of someone suitable.

Can people please stop suggesting old white men, Palin, Portillo, Fry et al? Let’s hand it over to a younger person, possibly as yet unknown, if we have to have it at all. I’ve always disliked the programme and believe other formats could work better.
So, if you don't like it, why bother making racist comments?

where are the racist comments? they should be reported

Slightly wider selection of new presenter options on the other thread … 😄

care to give us a link?

She's already nearly 80!

And Michael Palin is nearly 82.

How about Elinor Goodman, former Political editor of Channel 4 News? ETAjust found out she is also 82…..

It’ll be Romesh Ranganathan, he’s on everything.

Oh I hope it's not him. I don't think it should be anyone with a comedy background, we have enough of those already.

But he doesn't! As a pp said, he's briefed by a team of researchers, who summarise and reduce the scholarship of each episode's experts into small, readable chunks for him, and he's the only one around the table allowed to consult his cheat sheet/prompt cards. (Also had a colleague who was on it, and complained about the same thing, because MB interrupted her to say a date!)

I think he does a perfectly good job of asking questions, but I'm slightly alarmed that so many people appear to think he's somehow on a par with the scholars he's interviewing because he shows some familiarity with timelines and concepts. He didn't write the books on the topic, he didn't read the books on the topic, nor does he pretend to -- he is quite upfront in interviews about 'swotting up' from his researchers' précis for each week's show!

I assumed he just read the academics’ notes? I don’t think he’s an intellectual titan. I do think he has serious guests and serious subjects and doesn’t patronise the listener. He also seems to enjoy it.

Having done a (no way similar but sort of similar) role, there is no way you can grasp crib sheets without having a thorough understanding of the basic topics in question. You literally can't bluff it for an hour without being very swiftly outed as a slightly dim bellend.

Let's not pretend he's anything other than very fucking clever indeed.

the thing about Bragg is that he is very very good at reading the notes he gets, inwardly digesting for the period he needs the info, and asking questions that arise from what he's read.

He is also aware of when they start to waffle (love love love people who know their subjects well and just want to share that knowledge) and get sidetracked. And yes, sometimes he does abruptly cut them off, but an experienced broadcaster knows when to do that.

I'd do it. I'm not in my 80s.

It would be too similar to what he's doing already, I think. I also wouldn't want him to insert his opinons too much because it should be more about the guests. So not him, I think.

It's a big change, but these things are usually okay once they bed on and we do have a huge back catalogue to listen to too!

Agree. I listen because of the calming soothingness of it all. And the clever people on it. I can find zany history etc elsewhere.