The death of Pope Francis on the 21st April understandably led to a wave of media coverage, but did the BBC get it right? Andrea Catherwood puts your views to Aleem Maqbool, Religion Editor for BBC News, and hears about what it takes to prepare for such a solemn occasion. And what did listeners think of the episode of Witness History that came directly after the Pope's Requiem Mass on the Sunday morning? Listeners talk about Clive Myrie's Music on the Front Line which returned for another series...
May 01, 2025•29 min
In last week's episode we announced that the BBC will be continuing to allow access to BBC Sounds for international listeners until adequate alternative provisions have been put in place. This week, we hear listeners' reaction to the BBC's statement. Elizabeth and Jack are grandmother and grandson, and are also Radio 4 listeners. When Elizabeth got in contact with Feedback to tell us that she regularly sends her grandson recommendations for listening material, Andrea was curious to know more - s...
Apr 24, 2025•28 min
After the news that Radio 3 was to cancel its drama commissions, Radio 4 has come forward with an alternative - a new monthly slot for a long-form 90 minute drama. Andrea speaks to Nicola Baldwin from The Writers' Guild of Great Britain about the new entry in BBC Radio's drama programming. We also hear about this development from Alison Hindell, Radio 4's Commissioning Editor for Drama and Fiction. And continuing the theme of new additions to BBC Radio's schedules, Andrea talks to Tom McKinney, ...
Apr 17, 2025•28 min
It was announced months ago that the 5.30am News Briefing would be removed from Radio 4's early morning schedule due to budget constraints, but the changes didn't come into place until the beginning of last week. For some of those who include Radio 4 within their morning routines, the change has been a rude awakening. We hear your reactions to the replacement in this week's episode of Feedback. Since 2021, Add to Playlist has been taking listeners on a voyage of musical discovery through a never...
Apr 10, 2025•28 min
A Point of View has officially left the airwaves after a long run on BBC Radio 4, with Howard Jacobsen writing and presenting the final episode. Feedback announced the exclusive news on last week's programme, but it was before listeners had time to react. This week, Andrea Catherwood presents your opinions on the end of the Sunday morning single voice opinion slot. We're still getting listener questions about the changes to BBC Sounds overseas, and so this week Andrea talks to cricketer and jour...
Apr 03, 2025•28 min
Andrea Catherwood shares exclusive news of the end of a long-running Radio 4 programme. Frequent contributors and the programme's commissioning editor give their thoughts on the well-known brand as it nears its final episode. BBC Sounds is soon to become unavailable outside of the UK. Listeners from all over the world have been in touch to voice their disappointment about the changes, and we've heard in particular from people in the Republic of Ireland who tune into BBC Radio content from north ...
Mar 27, 2025•28 min
As the news spreads about access to BBC Sounds being blocked outside the UK, we hear more of your comments on the issue. Andrea Catherwood speaks to Radio Cymru reporter Alun Thomas about what these changes will mean for Welsh speakers living abroad. A recent episode of Radio 4's Inside Health about hearing loss intrigued listeners - and then baffled those experiencing hearing loss themselves by including a section that was particularly difficult to hear. After listeners criticised a recent Arch...
Mar 20, 2025•28 min
Ramadan has featured prominently in The Archers in recent weeks with stalwart Lynda Snell joining the Malik family in fasting, and some listeners found the storyline unconvincing, even a bit preachy. Andrea speaks with Dr Cara Courage, co-founder of The Academic Archers. Radio 4’s Today programme interview with Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick provoked a flurry of comments on the presenter’s line of questioning. We hear your views. After Newscast, Americast and Ukrainecast, now there’s Sc...
Mar 13, 2025•28 min
Women listeners are quick to pick up on the total absence of girls from How Boarding Schools Shaped Britain, a documentary series presented by Nicky Campbell. Executive Producer Clare Fordham explains why it focused exclusively on boys and gives an apology for not acknowledging the omission in the programme. BBC Sounds will soon only be available in the UK. The announcement has prompted many shocked overseas listeners to express how much they value this connection to home. Andrea Catherwood talk...
Mar 06, 2025•28 min
Radio 3 is cutting its long-running drama slot, and it's something that has elicited reactions from listeners, playwrights, and actors alike. Andrea Catherwood starts the new series of Feedback by discussing the changes with station controller Sam Jackson. She also speaks to the co-chair of the Writing Guild of Great Britain, Nicola Baldwin, about what made Radio 3 drama special. Recent episodes of Desert Island Discs have been creating big reactions from listeners too - lawyer Nemone Lethbridge...
Feb 27, 2025•29 min
Andrea Catherwood presents the programme that hears your views on BBC audio. This week, the first ever Feedback Forum brings together groups of keen listeners who enjoy all kinds of speech content. Radio 4 loyalists, together with younger listeners who don't own radios, and who get all their content "on-demand", share what they like and dislike from BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. There's a lot of enthusiasm for some of the network's long running favourites. In Our Time has been devoured by young an...
Jan 02, 2025•28 min
Andrea Catherwood announces the results of Feedback's Interview of The Year. "It’s been a long process, beginning right back in January," says Andrea. "We've been asking you all year to tell us about exceptional interviews anywhere on BBC Radio or podcasts that have really stopped you in your tracks, made you think again about something or showed off the exceptional skill of an interviewer." From listener suggestions and comments, the Feedback team compiled a short list of ten interviews, which ...
Dec 26, 2024•28 min
Comedy on BBC Radio 4 generates a lot of discussion in the Feedback inbox, and this year's been no different, especially after the introduction of a new raft of comedy commissions over the last twelve months. Andrea Catherwood talks to to Julia McKenzie, Commissioning Editor for Comedy and Entertainment, and Jon Holmes, comedian and creator of one of those new commissions, The Naked Week - and they respond to listener comments and critiques. And as Christmas approaches, we go behind the scenes i...
Dec 19, 2024•28 min
Andrea Catherwood presents the programme that hears your views on BBC audio. A new series of The Reith Lectures is underway, presented by forensic psychologist Dr Gwen Adshead. She poses four questions about violence and the prison system - and so two listeners who work in prison services and have lived experience of being in prison visited our VoxBox to give their thoughts on the broadcasts. Paula Harriott, Chief Executive of the charity Unlock, and Marc Conway, CEO of Fair Justice, give their ...
Dec 12, 2024•28 min
A raft of scam-themed programming went out across BBC channels last week, with the aim of raising awareness about the hoaxes often found hidden in plain sight. Long running drama The Archers fulfilled the brief wholeheartedly as visitors to Ambridge found themselves hoodwinked into buying fake holiday lets online, with unpleasant consequences. But did listeners think it was believable? Short Cuts, Radio 4's experimental programme showcasing short documentaries is being taken off the airwaves aft...
Dec 05, 2024•28 min
This year there's been no shortage of material for the latest series of Dead Ringers. Andrea Catherwood is joined by cast member Jan Ravens and Richard Morris, Creative Director of Comedy and Entertainment for BBC Studios, and asks if it's still possible to make light of serious matters. In a previous episode of Feedback we heard from John McAndrew, Director of Programmes for BBC News, who defended the recent cuts to BBC News including the axing of HARDtalk and Radio 4's 5.30am News Briefing, am...
Nov 29, 2024•28 min
BBC Radio 3 has unveiled a new online-only stream - Unwind. It's dedicated to calming classical music and broadcasts 24/7 on BBC Sounds. For some listeners it's unlocked the mystery of a good night's sleep, but for others the playlists are more mindless than mindful. Andrea Catherwood puts your comments to Radio 3 Controller Sam Jackson. In a week where farmers shot to the top of the news agenda following changes to their inheritance tax exemptions in the 2024 Budget, Andrea talks to Dimitri Hou...
Nov 21, 2024•29 min
Andrea Catherwood sits down with Director of BBC News Programmes John McAndrew to get answers on listeners' comments following the announcement of cuts - including the axing of long running World Service programme Hard Talk, with Stephen Sackur, the closure of the Asian Network's news team, a reshuffle for overnight bulletins on Radio 2 and 5Live and cutting R4's News Briefing at 0530. Two music obsessives drop into our VoxBox to give their views on Johnny Marr's Great British Groups, a recent s...
Nov 14, 2024•28 min
As the dust settles on the American election, we hear from Ric Bailey, Chief Adviser for Politics in BBC Editorial Policy, about how the corporation has tackled its coverage of an eventful campaigning period, and a momentous result. After we heard from listeners on what seemed like an abrupt end to long-running literature programme Open Book, Andrea talks to former presenter Mariella Frostrup, and Arts Commissioner for Radio 4 Matthew Dodd about its legacy and what the station's future literary ...
Nov 07, 2024•29 min
In this week's episode of Feedback, former Labour Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson adds his voice to the listener comments on Radio 4's short podcast series Surviving Politics with Michael Gove. Radio 2 listeners share their tributes and memories of Johnnie Walker who signed off Sounds of the Seventies last weekend ,after 58 years of broadcasting. A Point of View's American election opinions has listeners offering their views. And Andrea talks to a Feedback listener who drove around in his car to h...
Oct 31, 2024•28 min
In the first episode of the new series, former producer Neil George explains the selection criteria behind Radio 4's obit show Last Word. Suzanne Franks, professor of journalism at City St George's, University of London, helps navigate issues of impartiality when interviewing representatives of opposing sides in the Middle East conflict. And as a new Archers podcast is launched, listeners react to an on-air slip from presenter Emma Freud. Presenter: Andrea Catherwood Producer: Pauline Moore Exec...
Oct 24, 2024•28 min
The future of the BBC depends on renewing its listener base - but younger people are switching off linear radio and focusing on personally tailored forms of media. So how does the BBC compete, and what are its strategies for winning over younger listeners? Andrea Catherwood speaks to Matt Walsh from the University of Cardiff, hears a panel of students discuss their listening habits, and quizzes BBC Sounds commissioning editor Dylan Haskins and Head of Radio 1 Aled Haydn Jones on what they're doi...
Aug 15, 2024•28 min
Andrea Catherwood brings listener questions and comments to the most controversial place in the Feedback inbox - Ambridge. The Archers has been running since 1951, and its distinctive theme tune is one of the sounds the nation most associates with Radio 4. Andrea goes behind the scenes to hear more about how it is recorded, how actors develop characters over their real time lifetimes, and puts your questions to the Editor on the balance between high drama and the maintaining the values of the Ar...
Aug 08, 2024•29 min
Andrea Catherwood brings listeners questions to the broadcaster and journalist Darryl Morris and Executive Producer Jo Meek - makers of Radio 4’s documentary God Next Door. Darryl has spent a considerable amount of time talking to James from Manchester, a landscape Gardner who believes himself to be God and has a number of followers in the local community who share his belief. There’s been a sensational cycle of breaking stories in the U.S. presidential campaign during the month of July. Many Fe...
Aug 01, 2024•29 min
Andrea Catherwood gets under the skin of Radio 4's Behind the Crime, putting listeners' views to Dr Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken, the forensic psychologists who devote each programme to interviewing one former criminal in depth, to unpick how their life experiences contributed to their decisions to offend. The Director of the World Service recently resigned from her post. Liliane Landor talks about the challenges of budget cuts and her concerns for the station's future, while World Service l...
Jul 25, 2024•28 min
Andrea Catherwood brings Feedback listeners' thoughts and views on news and politics podcasts to the BBC's Senior News Editor Sam Bonham and Political Correspondent Alex Forsyth - and asks if this was the first real podcast election. Two listeners enter the Feedback Vox Box to talk about the new Radio 4 comedy series, Geoff Norcott's Working Mens Club. And the comedian himself joins Andrea to respond to the review and talk about the role of the right leaning comic on Radio 4. Presented by Andrea...
Jul 18, 2024•28 min
Andrea Catherwood puts listeners' views on the cut and thrust of the six week election coverage to Jonathan Munro, the BBC's Director of Journalism. The ability to fill time is a key skill for any live broadcaster. Things don't always run smoothly - so what does it take to fill successfully. Dotun Adebayo, presenter of Radio 5 Live's Up All Night is an acknowledged master of the art and shares some of his secrets. Feedback's Interview of the Year has been attracting nominations. This week, many ...
Jul 11, 2024•27 min
Andrea Catherwood discusses the schedule change and original commissions for Radio 4's Book of the Week with Commissioning Editor, Hugh Levinson. The daily racing tips on Radio 4's Today programme have ended after 47 years. The news produced a mixed reaction from Feedback listeners. Tom Kerr, editor of The Racing Post explains why the move has ruffled a few feathers in the horse racing world. Feedback's Interview of the Year is back. We want to hear listeners' nominations for the interview that ...
Jul 04, 2024•28 min
Andrea Catherwood discusses Feedback listeners' views on Radio 4's new satirical comedy, Munya Chawawa's Election Doom Scroll, with Radio 4's Comedy and Entertainment Commissioner Julia McKenzie. The three-part series takes us on an imaginary flick through the mobile phones of political leaders, uncovering spoof voice notes, video clips and messages. Last weekend's Restore Nature Now march in London generated a lot of heat in the the Feedback inbox. Tens of thousands of protesters descended on P...
Jun 27, 2024•28 min
Four weeks into the UK election campaign, Andrea discusses interruptions and impartiality in political interviews with Today presenter Nick Robinson and the BBC's Director of Journalism, Jonathan Munro. Also, we take a dystopian deep dive into Radio 4's Orwell v Kafka weekend. In all, 10 hours of the network's weekend schedule were given over to the two authors - including readings of George Orwell's 1984, a dramatisation of Franz Kafka's The Trial and six half hour discussions hosted by Ian His...
Jun 21, 2024•28 min
