Saturday Live. BBC Sounds website. Jonathan Anderson on This Cultural Life.

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Radio 4's Saturday Live has had a facelift. Actually, it's now only got one face. Adrian Childs is the new presenter and he's all on his own. And that's caused quite a stir in the feedback inbox. Also, loads of you have been baffled by the redesign to the layout of BBC Science. Why mess with it? Well, we might have got to the bottom of that.

And the boy from Macrofelt, who's now the head of the House of Dior in Paris, is nominated for our interview of the year. A very good Saturday morning to you. Adrian Childs here. with Saturday Live. In the next hour, we'll be in the company of the great Michael Rosen, whose A to Z of hope and happiness exactly suits our mood this morning. We'll also have the ghostwriter...

When Saturday Live, that staple of the Radio 4 weekend schedule, returned from a summer break in September, it had a new host, singular. Gone was the cheery double act and in its place the distinctive voice of Brummie presenter Adrian Childs.

Saturday Live has had many iterations over the years. It was presented by Richard Coles and Nicky Beatty until the programme moved from London to Cardiff a few years ago. Well, Richard didn't move with it, so his co-host Nicky Beatty continued with a rotation. of different co-presenters. At the time, I talked to Richard Coles on feedback and to Colin Patterson, who's head of audio for BBC Wales and West of England, about the move and what it meant for the show.

Well, Colin's back and I'll be asking him about this latest version of Saturday Live. But first, here's what listeners think. My name is Andy and we're Sussex. I have been a listener to Saturday Live for some years. I have especially enjoyed it for the spark of Nikki Badey plus her various co-presenters.

With all due respect to Adrian Childs, who I do not dislike and happily listen to on Radio 5 Live, with him presenting on Saturday morning, Saturday Live has become Anodyne, just another programme, sadly. And I, for one, no longer listen. Hello, I'm Vivian Brown from Stafford, Mon Avon. Just so thrilled to find that you've engaged Adrian Charles to present Saturday Live. I've not been to Saturday Live history in the past.

but I'm certainly going to be listening to Adrian. He's just such an intelligent, crowded and popular bloke. Absolutely love him. I was late to the new format with Adrian Charles as I'd been away. but I'm now really enjoying listening. He comes across as genuinely empathetic and humble, more interested in his guests than himself.

Well, Saturday Live has been made in Cardiff for the last few years. And so the man responsible is Colin Patterson, head of BBC Audio for BBC Wales and the West of England. And I'm delighted to say he's with me now. Colin, welcome back to Feedback. Thank you.

Colin, what prompted this change? I mean, I wonder if you felt the programme wasn't working after you lost Richard Coles as a presenter and the programme moved to Cardiff? No, not at all. I mean, as many people will remember for the last time I spoke to you on feedback.

This is a conversation that's been happening for a number of different years, going as far back as 2022, when the decision was made to move a number of different programmes outside of London as part of the BBC's Across the UK strategy. And so Saturday Live was one of the programmes that was earmarked to move and the decision was made to move it to Cardiff. And at that point, there was a conversation with the presenters at the time, which was Richard Coles and Nikki Bady.

And you remember from our previous conversation that Richard made the decision that he wouldn't move to Cardiff, but Nicky kindly agreed to stay on and present the programme during a transition period. And so Nicky's been presenting the programme. uh for the last two years but it was never the plan for her to be presenting the program long term so this isn't about one presenter over another it's a long conversation that's taken place over three years and we've now got to the

position where Adrian Childs has taken up the presenting. I think some listeners might be a little bit surprised to realise that the last two years were just a transition period. Can I ask you why you didn't want Nicky to present from Cardiff? Well, there was more about Nicky as well. So Nicky is London-based, so the conversation was always about trying to find presenters that were based in that location or willing to present from those locations.

The long transition period speaks to how much we care for these programmes and how much we think about them, that we want to get the presenter right. We've spent a long time listening to the audience, including focus groups. And so both in terms of the type of presenter that people wanted to hear on a Saturday morning and also the type of guests and what they valued most about the programme, it's given us a real opportunity to think about what Saturday Live should be.

in the future. And that's hopefully what we're now developing with Adrian. Well, that's really interesting. So you did listen to listeners' comments and do audience research and feedback. And that did play into your decision to change from two presenters on a Saturday morning to just one. of people that have presented Saturday mornings on Radio 4 and we take that right back to John Peel and the days of Home Truths.

We looked at a different range of styles and different people that could do that and ask the audiences about it. We also look to the format. And I think the length of the programme has also changed at various points over the year. So it's now gone down to an hour. So that was part of the decision about do we need two presenters? I think the other thing that's clear...

from the focus groups and the audience research is the things that people value most from Saturday Live is amazing stories that they haven't heard before. And we wanted to create as much room for that as possible. And clearly just with the logistics. of a programme, if you've got two presenters, then that's more airtime. So part of it was about the choice of the presenter, but part of it is about the focus. And as I say, whether it's celebrities or whether it's inverted commas, real people.

What people value most from Saturday Live is amazing stories. The reason I'm a little bit surprised is that the decision to have just one presenter has actually upset a lot of our listeners. I'm Ken Bluestone and I'm from Petersfield, Hampshire. This is the first time I'm writing to BBC Feedback, but felt I had to register my dissatisfaction with the new format of Saturday Live. You have stripped it of all that was interesting in the program, the casual interplay and dialogue between presenters.

the humorous banter with the guests. Even the section on thank yous has become a boring interview instead of the lovely, person-focused, first-person narrative it was originally. Sadly, this part of the Radio 4 programming that was until now A staple of my weekend listening holds no interest. I would be grateful if you could return to the original format and bring the wonderful people back in the studio who made it so special. Hello, my name is Carmen Woodhope.

and I live in Salford in Greater Manchester. I'm writing as a dedicated listener of BBC Radio 4 programmes. One of my favourites is Saturday Live. Until now. There are no bants, no gentle laughter, no insight. I'm begging you, restore my inner calm and enjoyment and replace Agent Charles with someone calm, chatty, confident.

and easy to listen to with a nimble and curious brain. Hi, I'm Nikki Vanderwerp from Farnham in Surrey. I've listened to Saturday Live for years and really enjoy it. I do question your decision, though, to only have one presenter now.

The whole thing has lost the friendliness and natural discussion vibe. This is no criticism of Adrian Charles at all, but I feel the presenters used to bounce off each other really well. Nikki Badey brought humour to everything. I will still listen, but it really isn't as enjoyable as it used to be.

Nicola Vanderbilt speaks for many when she says that the whole thing has lost the friendliness and natural discussion vibe. And we've got listeners complaining that it's more boring in this format, which is clearly not what you wanted.

Well, one person's boring is another person's interesting. And I think, look, we have listened. Clearly, we are in the first two months. So the programme is going to evolve and change over time. Some of this is a reflection on the scale of the program. You know, it has 1.7 million listeners every week listening live. So that's going to be a broad church of people who are going to have different tastes.

to their listening. But as I say, for all of us, for myself, for the programme team in Cardiff, for Adrian as presenter, what you do on week one is not where you'll end up at the end of your first year. So there will be But at the same time, we have sat back, listened and thought about it. And as I say, we have made changes and that is to try and focus on what the audience told us they wanted most. And that's not necessarily.

more from presenters. It is about, on Radio 4, depth, thoughtfulness. And that's not to say that that's not without humour, but the main focus is around people's stories. Adrian Childs is obviously a very well-known presenter, but his presentation style has divided listeners' opinion in our inbox. So there are listeners who think that he's empathetic and humble.

Of course, there are those who just don't like his style, but there are those who like him elsewhere and don't think that he's right for this role. Why did you think that he was the best choice for Saturday Live? What Adrian brings you...

As somebody who's absolutely dedicated to the cause, the amount of time he spends with guests before programs, the amount of thought that he puts in working with a team, getting the questions right, getting the angles right. We've got to think about ourselves in the program.

of BBC radio stations. You've got Radio 2 that's doing big personalities and big guests. You've got the commercial sector that are doing a lot of the same. So what's Radio 4's role in this? And I go back to, again, we spent so much time... talking to people about this and to say, what is it you value most? And the thing they value most is amazing stories they hadn't heard anywhere else. And so what we were then seeking is the person that can best bring out those stories.

That's so interesting because there's been quite a lot of criticism from listeners that all the fun is gone. It's a word that I've seen again and again in listener comments, fun. That fun, that banter that's disappeared from Saturday mornings. And I suppose what you're saying is, look, if that's what you want, go and listen to Radio 2 or listen to a commercial radio station. We're giving you something different now. I don't know whether I would quite put it that way. I think that...

Adrian has a very dry sense of humour. So I would sort of take it with the fact that it's not fun. It's different, you know, and we loved working with Nicky Beatty, who's a fantastic broadcaster. And as they say, this isn't about... one personality versus another. That was always part of the discussion and part of the plan. And Adrian is very different to that.

I think there is a lot of humour in there and there's a lot of fun. And I hope that if audiences stick with the programme, they'll hear more of that in time. You mentioned that Nicky Beatty, the previous presenter, was London-based. The last time you were on feedback, you said that Saturday Live was going to have more of a Welsh feel now that it came from Cardiff. But of course, Adrian Childs isn't Welsh in any way.

shape or form. He's very clearly a Brummie presenter. So have you decided to ditch the Welsh bit? Not at all. I think what I said was that we were open to the Welshness. And I think that, you know, By moving programmes across the UK, it doesn't all of a sudden mean that you're going to be opening with Land of Our Fathers and a rendition of Tom Jones every week. These are about subtle changes.

that improve the representation for audiences across the UK, improves the creative investment the BBC makes to people across the UK for licensed fee payers, allows people to develop their careers.

So those are all the benefits. We have had Welsh presenters on the programme over the last two years, people like Hugh Stevens and Jason Mohammed and Kiri Pritchard-McLean. And again, this is... not an either or this is we want the best people we want the right people and we're producing a range of programs here in cardiff you can listen to hugh stevens live from central square in cardiff every afternoon on six music so

This isn't about one programme and one presenter. It's also, you'll tell from my accent, that I'm not from Wales, and yet I live here, I work here, and I make my life here. And so we can be cliched about it, but it was about having... a Welsh base and a Welsh base production team with all the benefits that I've described.

Colin, new presenters often take a while to bed in and you're probably used to complaints when familiar presenters are changed. So I wonder how you're going to measure success with this new programme. Is it going to be... audience comments and listener research? Is it about ratings? How will you know if it works?

I mean, I think there's probably four main things in my head. One is the verbatim comments. And I would say Radio 4 audiences, as you know, are never backwards and coming forwards in terms of the feedback. So that's certainly one. And we do take that really seriously.

want to be glib about it being subjective. We do genuinely read the comments that come in and take that very seriously. The other two is really about the data. So RAJR, which is the industry standard in terms of live radio listening.

That's one way of measuring it. We also can monitor BBC Sounds statistics in terms of how people are listening online. And I would say that's been very encouraging in terms of growth during the time that Adrian has been on air. And then the fourth is... just broader research we've talked about we've already conducted other surveys with the audiences and focus groups and I think a mix of those four things is how we continue to review it.

Well, Colin Patterson, thank you very much. And of course, you can hear Saturday Live at nine o'clock in the morning on Radio 4 and also on BBC Sounds anytime. Thank you. Thank you. on x and instagram it's at bbcr4 feedback And you can send an email to feedback at bbc.co.uk. And please do go to BBC Science. You can search for feedback, click like and subscribe so you get every episode in your feed and you can listen whenever you like.

Now, last week I talked to the BBC's political editor, Chris Mason. He was responding to listeners' comments about what they called the disproportionate coverage of Reform UK and Nigel Farage on the BBC. It was a very honest and forthright interview, the kind I'm sure... Sound familiar? At Mattress Firm, we understand there are many problems that can keep you up at night.

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He wishes he got from most of the people he interviews. And Chris stressed that we're at an extremely unusual place in politics in Britain today. What has happened in the last 12 months, Andrea, is a change in our politics that we haven't seen in decades.

It is something that I and the team I'm a part of are working our way through every day. How do we calibrate this new politics where you have an insurgent party with a very small number of MPs, but is that... performing consistently in the opinion polls ahead of everyone else, has also got the beginnings of an electoral track record, the by-election and the local elections in England of a couple of months ago, and indeed local authority by-elections since then.

that suggests there is something in that opinion poll performance. We have to reflect that, but it is new and uncharted territory that we are feeling our way through. Well, that interview generated a lot of interest from listeners. because they are making the political weather. So it seems that the more outrageous and controversial politicians are, then the BBC more or less guarantees them a platform, regardless of the harm that their remarks may do.

In my opinion, the BBC's defence that they are just reporting what is going on is specious. You seem to be drawn to controversy just because in your view it will make more exciting viewing or listening, and you hope this will attract more viewers or listeners. regardless of the content of what you are reporting on. Hello feedback. This is Rosemarie Ledbeater from Banbury in Oxfordshire. When asked about the inconsistencies between seats in Parliament and party coverage generally,

Chris Mason suggested that the BBC aimed to report on the changing mood of the people. Yes, I'm sure this is true, but also, Nigel Farage, whether love him or loathe him, is not a boring man. He attracts interest, and sometimes agitation, in what he says and how he says it. Therefore, he is good for the viewing, listening figures. Hello there. This is Oliver Waywell from Stokesley, North Yorkshire.

I was listening to feedback concerning the alleged over-coverage of reform by the BBC and Chris Mason's very polite response to the criticisms. Speaking as someone who has voted for three different parties during the course of my life,

I can tell you with confidence that voters of all political parties believe that the BBC is biased against the party of their choice. This is natural. The viewer is the one that carries the bias, and will quite obviously perceive the BBC's normally neutral stance as negative bias.

If you'd like to hear the whole interview with Chris Mason in last week's programme, it's available on BBC Signs. Now, there has been a lot of comments over the last few weeks about some issues listeners have experienced with the new BBC Signs website layout. Peter Covell from Churchdown. My preferred method of listening to a previously broadcast Radio 4 program is to select it from the schedule in a web browser on Android and listen now.

Until a few days ago, a play icon showed and BBC Sounds offered itself with a close button, which I selected. I then had a time bar with start and end times, a play pause button, 20 seconds forward-backward buttons and the ability to place the cursor anywhere on the time bar. All very convenient. Now BBC Sounds takes over immediately with no time bar. No control over the playing except pause. Useless.

Hello, my name is Shirley Goodwin and I live in Guildford in Surrey. And I'm ringing to say how disappointed I am with the new BBC Sounds layout. It's less clear and it's definitely not user-friendly. thought this would be an improvement. So I'm very disappointed with this. And as a lifelong user of RAIDO4 and RAIDO4 Extra, please can you sort this technical issue soon? I'm Malcolm Shine from Bunk Green in North Worcestershire.

I'd like to know what's the point of the recent update to BBC Sounds. When listening at home on computer, it now only allows me to play or pause. Previously, when listening to a two-hour programme, like sounds of the seventies i could skip the week-old news bulletin halfway through on radio four programs i could jump back to a section i wanted to hear again

maybe for contact details or the address of a useful website. It's clearly a retrograde step and hopefully will be quickly reversed. Hi, I'm Stephen Laney from Croydon. What the hell has the BBC done with the new format of the BBC Sounds player? Where has the slider gone to allow moving forwards and backwards through a program?

This applies to listening live or to an earlier, later or archived program. Subsequently, a few days later, whilst actually listening to feedback, I found out where these controls have been moved to. But absolutely no information was supplied about this. No note, no pop-up window to tell us how this works.

Well, feedback has had so many comments. We asked BBC Signs to look at what the problem could be and also why they had changed the layout in the first place. Here's the response from a BBC spokesperson. We've recently updated the BBC Sounds website so that you can keep listening while browsing other content on BBC Sounds. Previously, programmes would stop playing if you navigated away from the play page, which people found frustrating. I'm sure they did.

A good move, but what about the functions people say they can't find anymore? The ability to rewind live shows or fast-forward through on-demand programmes is still there. These buttons have moved to a new player at the bottom of the page. This experience has been available on the BBC Sounds mobile and tablet app for some time and feedback we have received at BBC Sounds has been very positive. We've now brought that same design to the website for a more consistent experience.

We will continue listening to audiences' feedback to make BBC Sounds the best it can be. So, basically, the website has now caught up with the app. Good to know. But if that's not your experience, well, you know what to do. Do get in touch. The nice people at BBC Signs have got very used to hearing from the feedback team.

Now, competition is hotting up in Feedback's annual search for the best interview across all forms of BBC audio, that's radio and podcasts, to find the one that is most deserving of the title, Interview of the Year. be announcing the winner in a special programme around Christmas, and that winner will be chosen by a panel of listeners.

Well, this week, listener Leslie McCauley got in touch to nominate John Wilson's recent interview with Northern Ireland fashion designer Jonathan Anderson in This Cultural Life. Well, Jonathan has recently been appointed creative director at fashion brand Christian Dior. But as you'll hear, this couldn't be further from his early life growing up in a village near the market town of Maharafelt in mid-Alster during Northern Ireland's decades of conflict.

euphemistically known as The Troubles. Here's why it gets Lesley's nomination. I'm Lesley McCauley from Port Stewart in Northern Ireland. I would like to say how wonderful and engaging the interview with Jonathan Anderson was on This Cultural Life with John Wilson. Welcome to This Cultural Life, the series in which some of the world's leading creative people choose the most important influences and experiences that have inspired their own creativity.

I'm John Wilson and my guest in this episode is... I found the interview intriguing. as Jonathan himself is quite an illusive person, and opening up about his rural background in Northern Ireland was particularly fascinating, as I know the area he grew up in. I wouldn't be where I am today without Northern Ireland. Anywhere where you grew up tells you who...

you want to be or tell you what you want to escape from. It is not often I hear stories from my part of the world included in interviews like this. So I found this particular interview fascinating and relatable. We didn't have high fashion in the house, but, you know, I became quite obsessed by it. You were living next door to your grandfather's farm, weren't you? So, I mean, I presume a lot of the time it was wellies and...

genes and overalls. Yeah, it's a very, very different thing. John Wilson's interviewing skills got Jonathan to open up about his thoughts growing up in The Troubles. You become immune to it. If that means it. You were born into it. You were immune to it. Were you aware of danger and violence? Yeah, of course. You know, I saw many things in life that I wish I never saw. In McAfield, I remember when you went to school and the next day...

the entire street was gone, you know. And the profound moment that the Oma bomb could have almost claimed his mother's life. My mother had gone to return shoes in Oma and... She gets to the bottom part of the town and has a car parked at the other top of the street. And she then went up in the place where you can't go to the top because there was a bomb at the top.

My mother's like, well, I need to get home. Like, I've got my things. And she goes through Woolworths, gets into the car, and as she's driving off, the side of the town that she was in completely... evaporated. There was obvious respect between the interviewee and the interviewer throughout the interview. I loved how John got Jonathan to explain his thought process in designing a new collection, especially when Jonathan said, it has to turn you on.

So weirdly, you know, when you're designing a collection, it's like being in like a debate class. You're kind of debating with each other because you could do a hundred looks in one day of trying different things on. And it might be only two looks where you're like, hmm. There is something there that we feel that we can explore further. And how do you know what that something is? It's just instinctive, is it? I think it's just, you know, I always think, does it turn you on?

His personality came across as someone grounded, logically focused, hardworking and considered. And on a personal level, at the top of the programme, I bill you as probably the most important fashion designer in the world right now. So at that pinnacle, what drives you on creatively? That you never get there, somehow. For me, what drives me every morning is that it can always be better. I would like to nominate this interview for interview of the year.

as I believe it deserves to be recognised further. Well, thank you, Leslie McCauley, for putting that forward. It is an excellent interview and one that I shared with lots of family and friends. And if you hear an interview across BBC Audio, which stands out for you, please do let me know. On next week's feedback, I'm going to be talking to the commissioning editor of Comedy and Entertainment about an episode of Call Jonathan Pye, which was broadcast last Thursday.

Now, you've been contacting feedback in droves to complain that you thought it wasn't suitable for the 6.30pm slot on Radio 4. And also just to warn you that if you are now curious and you want to have a listen, the version on BBC Sounds... isn't the one that was broadcast on Radio 4 because the strongest language and subject matter was edited for transmission. Well more on that next week but for now thank you for listening and for giving us your feedback. Goodbye.

Hello, it's Ray Winstone. I'm here to tell you about my podcast on BBC Radio 4, History's Toughest Heroes. I've got stories about the pioneers, the rebels, the outcasts who define. Tough. And that was the first time that anybody ever ran a car up that fast with no tires on. It almost feels like your eyeballs are going to come out of your head. Tough enough for you? Subscribe to history's toughest heroes.

on BBC Sounds. Hello, it's Ray Winstone. I'm here to tell you about my podcast on BBC Radio 4, history's toughest heroes. I've got stories about the pioneers, the rebels, the outcasts who define tough. And that was the first time that anybody ever ran a car up that fast with no tires on. It almost feels like your eyeballs are going to come out of your head.

Tough enough for you? Subscribe to history's toughest heroes wherever you get your podcast. From unsolved mysteries to unexplained phenomena. From comedy goal to relationship fails. Amazon music's got the most ad-free top podcasts included with prime. Download the Amazon music app today.