Just the Start You Need for Today ; It's the Most Influential Show On Radio 4 - and the Presenters Have Perfected the Art of Skewering Our Politicians

Mail on Sunday › October 04, 2009

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Summary

The NBC news anchor Brian Williams is one of the most influential journalists on US television, something not lost on Barack Obama. In fact, he has become a staple punchline in the President's jokes: 'A few nights ago, I was tossing and turning trying to figure out exactly what to say [in my speech],' he said recently at a dinner for television and radio correspondents. 'Finally, when I couldn't get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked Brian Williams what he thought.' But for every Brian Williams, we have a Paxman, a Dimbleby or a Humphrys, and much as they complain about it, I'm not sure any British politician would have it any other way. Humphrys is now the man who many of us wake up with in the morning, and I have to say I rather like it that way. Much as I dislike his attitude, and much as I recoil from his angry posturing, he really is the best broadcaster on radio, a view shared by everyone who regularly tunes in to hear the Today programme six days a week on Radio 4, as they crawl out of bed to make the rooibos. Like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, Humphrys gets them where it hurts.

His colleagues are not exactly shrinking violets either, with James Naughtie, Sarah Montague and Evan Davis always giving as good as they get when grilling some weaselly politician pumped up on too much caffeine (Davis recently gave David Miliband a good going-over when the doomed Foreign Secretary was seconded on to the programme to explain the Government's pitiful and disgraceful obfuscation over the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber). Even new boy Justin Webb is doing pretty well, although I still can't forgive him for replacing Ed Stourton (sacked by the show's editor for being too posh, allegedly).

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Extract

Just the Start You Need for Today ; It's the Most Influential Show On Radio 4 - and the Presenters Have Perfected the Art of Skewering Our Politicians

Yes, all the presenters sometimes display an air of superiority that makes them seem like old-school Tory grandees, treating civilians (anyone who isn't a politician or an econ...

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