" MY Five favourite...MY round up of European broadcasts.....MY ......

[DracoM]

Rob Cowan, Sarah Walker, Ian Skelley KEEP prefacing many of their items / choices / programmes with the word 'MY favourite etc etc ...' , but increasingly, I begin to wonder.

What input do producers / researchers / advisers really have?

I mean, does Ian Skelley actually listen to more or less every European broadcast there is from which to select 'his' programme mix of what we hear on a Sunday evening?

[oddoneout]

Perhaps they are given a (suitably vetted - choose your filters) shortlist from which to choose....

[DracoM]

Aha! Well, how many questions does THAT beg, I wonder!! So that use of the possessive 'my' is.........erm......approximate?

[Pulcinella]

Come now, Draco; you know that at Radio 3 the emphasis is always on the presenter and not on what's being presented. I mention how annoying this is every time I can be bothered to fill in the Radio 3 website pop-up questionnaire, to no avail!

[arthroceph]

I presume they get "words in their ear", especially from the producer. And then there's timing issue ... will it fit nicely?

So I'd say it's a placeholder .. for lack of another other possessive.

Interestingly in science, the convention is to default to "we" and "our" ... and that is just as false. It really is the senior author saying: "MY"!