Well, I was in the belly of the beast last night, doing the Paper Reviews on 5Live. Thanks for all your suggestions and thought I might explain how it actually works.
Basically you are presented with the A4 front pages of most of the daily papers 30 minutes before you go on-air. A few of the papers have some more pages, last night the Indie and Express did. That’s a challenge as I believe most of what is worth reading lies inside the newspaper, not on the cover. Anyway, you select a few stories you want to talk about and then off you go. There is no coercion and no censorship. The only thing I couldn’t talk about before midnight was the details of those being honoured in the New Years List. Didn’t bother me as I oppose the Honours system.
I chose Nanny Statism and the Collapse of the Euro as my topics. I found the host, Jonathan Overend, pleasant and he did not challenge me so I really can’t complain. My co-reviewer, David Banks (former editor of the Mirror) was a pleasant guy who I enjoyed talking with. I got in one dig about the entire public sector needing to take cuts and he did not come back! All in all, it was a pleasant if somewhat insubstantive experience. This time of the year is news silly season and so I hope I get the chance to repeat when we have real news issues to debate. The BBC in Belfast were very accommodating to me and the only problem was I didn’t get home to about 1.30am. Hope that let’s you know how it all works. Tired the morning after!
hope you inadvertently spilt your coffee on the guardian 😀
noted (1hr 53) shaun gadd, was shut down (after stating el beeb is a propaganda outfit, with its own agenda, pushing the climate change scam), immediately by the presenter
… ahhh! every now & again eh! 😀 …
giggling straight after.. at the hilarious “damaging” the ahem! “good reputation ” of the met narrative … what year is it? 😀
is there a link for the Shaun Gadd moment ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b018j8kq/
1hr 53 ish! 😀
Good to know how it went. From what I have seen of Overend as a tennis reporter and blogger, he seems a fairly amiable sort of chap. I tuned in to Radio 5 last night on the laptop and managed to catch your comments about the NHS nanny state nonsense of getting doctors to quiz us all about our way of life and whether we take exercise, smoke, drink etc. Grrr…I absolutely hate that sense of ownership that the NHS seems to feel it can exert over us. The rest of what I heard seemed to be individuals talking very loudly – were they listeners phoning in? – which I found very tedious.
Glad it went well DV. R5L to me is one major part of the BBC that keeps the candle burning for what the BBC is meant to be as a whole.
I’m afraid I conked out before your return after midnight UK time, as I had to get up early for work here in Spain.
I caught that Libertarian nut and paedophile apologist Sean Gabb banging on about policemen should be free to express whatever views they want when not on duty and ex Flying Squad ‘tec John O’Connor acting as the voice of sanity.
I’m glad that with all you’ve had to endure from the BBC over the years, both suffering its bias as a guest and having to listen to it, you’ve ended on a good note with a good part of the BBC.
A very Happy New Year to you and yours. Thanks for doing a great job on this site.
Nice one DV…get close to the heart of the beast and all that 🙂
BTW, I too have a dirty secret to tell you lot. I have been to the heart of the beast myself and lived to tell the tale!
I get the last close up! 🙂
Anyway, I wish you all a very happy new year.
Regards
Mailman