Sunday Breakfast without Martin Handley

[AuntDaisy]

I managed ~40mins of Sunday's Breakfast, then gave in. Apparently it has "... music that captures the mood of Sunday morning" - no sign of fury at Sam J .

The pieces just jump about too much for me & there's far too much chat - it jars.
Soon it will be "Here's the 3rd note of the fourth bar of the final movement of XXX's string quartet / symphony / concerto and we've had lots of Twitter / Facebook comments on what a great job we're doing and a few about cats & humorous toasters".
..and if he asks where listeners are one more time!!! Then another wretched ad., now with added Jools H.

Please, please, please, can we have Martin Handley back. TM did thank him earlier and point out MH would be presenting some evening concerts...

[LMcD]

I managed ~40mins of Sunday's Breakfast, then gave in. Apparently it has "... music that captures the mood of Sunday morning" - no sign of fury at Sam J .

The pieces just jump about too much for me & there's far too much chat - it jars.
Soon it will be "Here's the 3rd note of the fourth bar of the final movement of XXX's string quartet / symphony / concerto and we've had lots of Twitter / Facebook comments on what a great job we're doing and a few about cats & humorous toasters".
..and if he asks where listeners are one more time!!! Then another wretched ad., now with added Jools H.

Please, please, please, can we have Martin Handley back. TM did thank him earlier and point out MH would be presenting some evening concerts...

Things have moved on, I'm afraid, and each of us must decide whether to move along with them or simply exit gracefully. Happily, there are now many ways in which each of us to become his or her own Programme Controller. It seems to be the view of our betters that simply listening to classical music on the radio at the time it's broadcast may be on the way out.

[Pulcinella]

Things have moved on, I'm afraid, and each of us must decide whether to move along with them or simply exit gracefully. Happily, there are now many ways in which each of us to become his or her own Programme Controller. It seems to be the view of our betters that simply listening to classical music on the radio at the time it's broadcast may be on the way out.

More particularly, I'd say: on Radio 3, which rarely tells you what you might be about to listen to.
We (OK, the elite cognoscenti) don't want to suffer R3's choices unwittingly, and are prepared to miss the occasional gem they do put into the schedules.

[french frank]

It seems to be the view of our betters that simply listening to classical music on the radio at the time it's broadcast may be on the way out.

That could be right. The commercial broadcasters had the slogan "Ratings by day, reputation by night" - undifferentiated mass-audience programming during the daytime and specialist, lower reach programmes at the inconvenient listening times. So 'live' listening will be for the high(er)-audience wallpaper programmmes and On Demand for any specialist programmes (if there are any left).

[AuntDaisy]

Wise words, thanks everyone.

[underthecountertenor]

I thought there was less chat, and far less self-indulgence, than there was during the later years at least of Martin Handley’s reign. In his last edition he said something about often feeling in life as if he was on the outside looking in. That was how I often felt when I heard him talking about his personal life (dog, partners, family, conducting and accompanying jobs, famous people he had met etc etc), and when he read out affirming tweets from his fan club. Ok, Tom McKinney did a couple of strings of tweets from listeners which seemed designed only to demonstrate only the reach of the programme (an irritation which I’m guessing is the result of a directive from above), but overall I found his presentation well-judged and relatively anonymous (which I believe is what most people here wish for, whilst apparently being prepared to make an exception for Handley, whose last programme was monumentally, and to my mind inexcusably, all about him).
I also enjoyed most of the music, and didn’t detect any more or less integrity in its selection than before.

[LMcD]

I thought there was less chat, and far less self-indulgence, than there was during the later years at least of Martin Handley’s reign. In his last edition he said something about often feeling in life as if he was on the outside looking in. That was how I often felt when I heard him talking about his personal life (dog, partners, family, conducting and accompanying jobs, famous people he had met etc etc), and when he read out affirming tweets from his fan club. Ok, Tom McKinney did a couple of strings of tweets from listeners which seemed designed only to demonstrate only the reach of the programme (an irritation which I’m guessing is the result of a directive from above), but overall I found his presentation well-judged and relatively anonymous (which I believe is what most people here wish for, whilst apparently being prepared to make an exception for Handley, whose last programme was monumentally, and to my mind inexcusably, all about him).
I also enjoyed most of the music, and didn’t detect any more or less integrity in its selection than before.

Each to his own, I guess - I have no problem with Tom McKinney, but that won't prevent me from greatly missing my 'Sunday morning friend'.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I thought there was less chat, and far less self-indulgence, than there was during the later years at least of Martin Handley’s reign. In his last edition he said something about often feeling in life as if he was on the outside looking in. That was how I often felt when I heard him talking about his personal life (dog, partners, family, conducting and accompanying jobs, famous people he had met etc etc), and when he read out affirming tweets from his fan club. Ok, Tom McKinney did a couple of strings of tweets from listeners which seemed designed only to demonstrate only the reach of the programme (an irritation which I’m guessing is the result of a directive from above), but overall I found his presentation well-judged and relatively anonymous (which I believe is what most people here wish for, whilst apparently being prepared to make an exception for Handley, whose last programme was monumentally, and to my mind inexcusably, all about him).
I also enjoyed most of the music, and didn’t detect any more or less integrity in its selection than before.

you make some very good points and I am with you on Tom - an excellent presenter. I wish all the R3 presenters would stop telling us snippets from their often rather privileged , lives . I don’t want to hear about their London and Home Counties gardens, pets , ski holidays , weekend city breaks etc. More to the point it must alienate the many listeners who don’t have that sort of lifestyle. There used to be a bit of a ban on that in the Beeb because research (and common sense ) revealed that licence fee payers resented paying for it all. I can also reveal that it annoyed some rather poorly paid production and technical staff trotting off to their flat shares in Stockwell.

[underthecountertenor]

Each to his own, I guess - I have no problem with Tom McKinney, but that won't prevent me from greatly missing my 'Sunday morning friend'.

Each to his own indeed. But I thought that the general view hereabouts is that the presenter is just supposed to present the music and not try to be everyone’s friend. Perhaps I’ve misunderstood.
In this case, I can imagine many people (who might be very far from having a cosy, privileged existence in an East Sussex house in the country) feeling excluded from a côterie of friends gathered around Mr Handley’s ‘breakfast table’. That’s really why, questions of taste and preference aside, I’ve never understood the apparent inconsistency of a number of people here making what seems to me to be a glaring exception for him.

[underthecountertenor]

you make some very good points and I am with you on Tom - an excellent presenter. I wish all the R3 presenters would stop telling us snippets from their often rather privileged , lives . I don’t want to hear about their London and Home Counties gardens, pets , ski holidays , weekend city breaks etc. More to the point it must alienate the many listeners who don’t have that sort of lifestyle. There used to be a bit of a ban on that in the Beeb because research (and common sense ) revealed that licence fee payers resented paying for it all. I can also reveal that it annoyed some rather poorly paid production and technical staff trotting off to their flat shares in Stockwell.

Thanks, EH, and I obviously hadn’t seen your post when I wrote mine making exactly the same points. Glad I’m not alone!

[kernelbogey]

...Things have moved on, I'm afraid, and each of us must decide whether to move along with them or simply exit gracefully....

Exiting gracefully....

[vinteuil]

... if I am not interested in the minutiae of presenters' lives (and I am not) I am even less interested in what other listeners are 'up to'. Liz Alker seems to have begun this trend -"And Mrs Bagshot from West Didsbury is out walking her two lovely dogs..." - something more appropriate on hospital radio. Wretched if Tom McKinney is spreading this infection.

[Roger Webb]

you make some very good points and I am with you on Tom - an excellent presenter. I wish all the R3 presenters would stop telling us snippets from their often rather privileged , lives . I don’t want to hear about their London and Home Counties gardens, pets , ski holidays , weekend city breaks etc. More to the point it must alienate the many listeners who don’t have that sort of lifestyle. There used to be a bit of a ban on that in the Beeb because research (and common sense ) revealed that licence fee payers resented paying for it all. I can also reveal that it annoyed some rather poorly paid production and technical staff trotting off to their flat shares in Stockwell.

I had the distinction of being 'banned' by GM for my chiding of her endless boasting of having tickets for the Eurovision finals in Liverpool ( tells you a bit about where her musical sympathies lie?) - she's on holiday now (no doubt we'll get the full run-down on her return), so now it's back to Skellers for a week....I might even try my luck in the Playlist - just testing the water, you understand!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thanks, EH, and I obviously hadn’t seen your post when I wrote mine making exactly the same points. Glad I’m not alone!

Great minds etc . If you work in a publicly funded organisation you have three responsibilities-
1) don’t waste the public’s money
2) don’t hint that you’re having a cushy life (even though you are )
3) reflect the fact that many people aren’t as well off as you by making programmes about them.

The BBC used to full of people who embodied that (to the point of fanaticism to be honest ) . Now. ..not so sure.

[underthecountertenor]

... if I am not interested in the minutiae of presenters' lives (and I am not) I am even less interested in what other listeners are 'up to'. Liz Alker seems to have begun this trend -"And Mrs Bagshot from West Didsbury is out walking her two lovely dogs..." - something more appropriate on hospital radio. Wretched if Tom McKinney is spreading this infection.

Martin Handley seemed to manage to do a bit of that as well, especially when it came to his favourites: “‘A Need to Paint’ has just posted another lovely photograph” etc.