Dame Jenni Murray retiring

[tilder]

Just that really. With best wishes to Jenni on your retirement (you never know, she might read FWR).

Will be interesting to see who picks up the role.

Oops, forgot the link .

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53510485

Best wishes Jenni. (Now go and write your BBC memoirs!)

I shudder to think who will replace her.

Gutted. I love her.

Who would be good? Rachel Burden? Shelagh Fogarty? They've done their time working with Nicky Campbell all these years

I'm sure Jane Fae would be available.

Emma Barnett?

Could be Emma Barnett.

I was very sorry to hear that news this morning.

Has she been pushed/frozen out?

Ah yes all the best Dame Jeni! I have a huge amount if respect for her.

I've loved listening to her as well. Wonderful voice and unashamedly pro women.

I really hope they continue with the programme. With the host similarly focused on women. The clue is in the name after all.

Love to Jenni. xxx

Jane Garvey seems the obvious choice.

Sad to read this news. I'm not sure about Jane Garvey. I subscribed to the Fortunately podcast Garvey does with fee Glover to see if I could get more of a handle on her and even though they're supposed to be being themselves and are free of the usual rules there's not a lot of evidence of feminism there.

Garvey seems to be more interested in home and cooking and cleaning and pedicures than she does in any kind of politics, sexual or national. I get the feeling she'd read a lot of stuff on here and sigh and think we're as bad as the TRAs and go off and bake a cake. She seems to me to be one of the 'can't you all just be reasonable?' brigade.

Emma Barnett has taken a much harder, more feminist line despite a long association with the Telegraph.

The search for her successor is expected to include younger presenters drawn from a diverse pool. Radio 4 has an average listener age of 56 but the BBC hopes to bring that down, and this week it launched a £12 million radio diversity drive to make programmes more representative of the country at large.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/23/jenni-murray-leaves-radio-4s-womans-hour-33-years/

My guess is Munro Bergdof...

Oh I think Jane has been radicalised. By marriage and motherhood. I’d bet a lot of money she’s GC. She’s the one on Fortunately with the feminist outlook. Her willingness to eye roll at Will Self when he came on - and he really didn’t like it - was a good sign imho.

I rather like her because she doesn’t seem to care all that much about being soft and lovely.

I'm 44, so we'll below the average age. Probably not low enough though.

The presenter does need to understand what it is to be a woman though. I listen to hear different people experience similar things to me. So stuff around periods, menopause, misogyny. What it's like returning to work after maternity.

How different women experience life. Issues around DV. Sport. Money. Pensions. Childcare.

I have no problem with part of the material bring about 'womanly matters'. Cooking. Beauty. Hair. I'm interested in that too. Not just that though.

Best wishes Jeni. Your broadcasting has been consistently brilliant over the years and I will miss it immensely. (Part way through your History of Britain in 21 Women and loving it.)

Oh, good luck if you're reading Jenni. I hope you'll feel able to say what you really think now.

I also like Jane Garvey but think she's unlikely to get the gig.

If her successor is Handmaid Jamil I will scream.

Shed, I'd actually got the opposite from listening to some of her podcasts.

Sure she likes pedicures etc but she bloody gets it. She's quite clever at being diplomatic though.

I can tell Fi bites her lip. As she wouldn't be diplomatic..!

Good luck Jenni!

I've been listening to you since I was a teen in the early 90s. I shall miss you terribly.

Neuro, I think she does get it, though not in a full-on feminist way I don't think. But she still says nothing. Still she grills the women who dare to come on the programme far harder than she does the TRAs. And what you describe as her being diplomatic is what I experience as her sitting on the fence, saying nothing, giving nothing away and giving listeners no lead.

I suppose I don't trust her. She hasn't said what she thinks — what we all think — about something as fundamental as the abolition of the category 'woman'. And she's fronting Woman's Hour. How can I trust her or the programme to be honest about anything ever again?

Dear Jenny
Have fun & lots of it! Thank you for being entertaining, lively and bringing a range of topics to my attention. I'm richer for having listened to you.
*
Dear BBC*
DO NOT EXPAND the definition of woman when recruiting a replacement. Thank You.

• She seems to me to be one of the 'can't you all just be reasonable?' brigade.

It's hard to tell with BBC presenters as they have impartial guidelines to follow. She may also want to remain neutral on air so during discussions guests can't accuse her of favouring one side. I've heard Jenny being accused of this on air and it took away from the debate.

Shame Jenny is going as she will be impossible to replace. Can't wait to see what she does next.

The was a couple of little segments on the fortunately podcast that revealed a lot I felt about her true feelings.

Bbc impartiality has a lot to answer for. Yes I agree re grilling of the women, having said that, so many tras refuse to go on air live, so the interviewer's hands are tied.