Breakfast with a Red Nose

[Guest]

"Radio 3 Breakfast celebrates Red Nose Day by inviting you to join Rob Cowan in a game of Consequences. Rob and his guest - popular poet and Radio 3 presenter Ian McMillan - will host a special edition of Breakfast as part of this year's Comic Relief.

The game of Consequences is a well known favourite at parties in which each participant adds a line to a structured story, often ending up with hilarious results. Ian and Rob will guide listeners through the process and pick out the sentences at random which have been emailed and texted into the programme. The challenge is that then Ian has to add his own sentence and attempt to make sense of what has gone before. The next sentence is then written by listeners and is picked at random, and so on until the end of the story is reached when the programme finishes at 10am"

I am all for supporting Comic Relief, Children in Need, etc., but is this not going a little bit too far for Radio 3 when it comes to interactivity?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Maybe just for one day?

The trouble is, it might be catching.

[StephenO]

Thankfully I'll miss most of it as I'll be at work.

Not wishing to sound too much like the grumpy old man I'm rapidly turning into, I prefer to support charities quietly and unobtrusively, without the need for red noses, kazoos or embarrassing fun and games. But, if people like that sort of thing and it raises money for a good cause, then why not?

[Cellini]

I don't need to listen to "Breakfast" to get a red nose, it comes naturally from all the booze I drink the night before ...

And I'm spared all the R3 "Breakfast" crap. Breakfast should be accompanied by silence.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Breakfast should be accompanied by silence.

Snap, crackle and pop...

[Vile Consort]

Well that will be worth staying away from. Better put a sticker on the R3 button on the car radio to remind me not to press it - "stop not in use".

[MickyD]

It'll be "Fantasy Concert" next - "text in your dream concert of who you would have liked to see conducting/playing what" - I am pretty sure we are not far away from that and more.....

[Norfolk Born]

....I prefer to support charities quietly and unobtrusively, without the need for red noses, kazoos or embarrassing fun and games....

Same here. 'Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame'.

[french frank]

You can laugh, but you do realise, don't you, that this is to be the new feature of Breakfast - a different comedian each week, joshing with Rob and Sara while choosing their favourite records?

"In a brand new feature for Radio 3's Breakfast programme, well-known personalities from the world of comedy will be joining presenters Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Rob Cowan to pick a few of their favourite pieces of classical music. From today, BBC Radio 3 Breakfast will be further enhanced by a live guest appearance in the studio at 9am each Monday and throughout the week listeners will be able to hear a selection of five pieces as chosen by the celebrity guest."

(I think perhaps there could be a comma after the word 'Monday'.)

[Eudaimonia]

Well, it's what the Trust wanted for breakfast and drivetime, isn't it? It strikes me as a fairly aggressive push to change the demographic. Look on the bright side: I'm sure it won't be more than a few months until they run out of comedians who know anything about music.

[Panjandrum]

Same here. 'Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame'.

One might continue: "Virtue may choose the high or low degree,
'Tis just alike to virtue, and to me."

There is a wider point to make, of course, which is why Nanny BBC believes it has the right to foist its self-righteousness down the listener's throat. I don't remember seeing in the BBC's charter any such clause that it can act as a charity fundraiser, however worthy (or otherwise the cause). In this instance, Radio 3 has gone far beyond its remit, IMO. At least the likes of John Shea and Martin Handley have had the good grace to appear thoroughly embarrassed whenever they have had to seque any of the abysmal trailers, but others of their collegues should be thoroughly ashamed at this appalling degradation of the broadcasting profession.

[amateur51]

One might continue: "Virtue may choose the high or low degree,
'Tis just alike to virtue, and to me."

There is a wider point to make, of course, which is why Nanny BBC believes it has the right to foist its self-righteousness down the listener's throat. I don't remember seeing in the BBC's charter any such clause that it can act as a charity fundraiser, however worthy (or otherwise the cause). In this instance, Radio 3 has gone far beyond its remit, IMO. At least the likes of John Shea and Martin Handley have had the good grace to appear thoroughly embarrassed whenever they have had to seque any of the abysmal trailers, but others of their collegues should be thoroughly ashamed at this appalling degredation of the broadcasting profession.

The farmers playing up again, Panjan?

[salymap]

Who says they have got to know anything about music

[french frank]

Look on the bright side: I'm sure it won't be more than a few months until they run out of comedians who know anything about music.

I was thinking exactly the same thing, though I didn't think they would last as long as that.

The thing about 'changing the demographic' is that you hope that enough new listeners will make up for the loss of current listeners. And as long as they are at least in balance, you don't have to bother about the ones you lose.

At the point that they get Rob and SMP putting in the laugh tracks, we'll know the gamble has been lost. But it just shows how easy it is to be 'distinctive'

Thought process: Red Nose Day ... comedy ... Breakfast Red Nose Day ... eureka! Comedy Breakfast on 3!

[Suffolkcoastal]

Radio 3 is in danger of turning into one big joke, the management seems to be thrashing around from one daft idea to another, the station is becoming a total mess. The trouble is that there appears to be no way of changing them or diverting them from their current path, no way of forcing RW and his team out.