3beebies aka Breakfast

[Lateralthinking1]

How about bringing in Edward Stourton to raise the tone? Also give Ivan Hewett a daytime programme. He is one of the younger ones who doesn't sound crass.

[french frank]

I remember being a devotee of Humphrey Carpenter's irreverent and quirky presentation, setting my alarm not to miss him. I think he didn't last long perhaps he was too irreverent about the suits.

Me too. 6pm on Saturdays and his In Tune stints were unmissable. But I was talking to a journalist who said: "He irritates the pants off me!"

A classic episode was when he read an extract from (I think) Ngaio Marsh's Overture to Death. Timed to the second just at the moment that the pistol fired Rachmaninov's Prelude in C# minor chimed in ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't like the references to Twitter. In fact, I probably hate Twitter more than any invention of the past 25 years. It has knocked the hadron collider into second place.

They are just trying to be cool - like a weak teacher who wants to be "in with" the pupils. It's pathetic.

[MrGongGong]

Twitter is nonsense , texting people you don't know ? I guess its a way of wasting time if you have some to spare
the Collider, on the other hand, is a work of staggering genius and inspiration

[kernelbogey]

[....] all this wallowing in nostalgia for old presenters unlikely to make a comeback because they've either retired, moved on, or died[....]

I don't think Radio Three nostalgia is quite what it was on the old boards....

[Crowcatcher]

Just to make sure I wasn't missing any good music, I have just switched from the recording of my beloved TTN and, lo-and-behold, what was being played - The Four Seasons - there really is no imagination left in the brains of the morning producers!

[mercia]

for some people (you may find it hard to believe) this is the first time they've heard the Four Seasons (I doubt whether it was the whole thing was it?)

[kernelbogey]

for some people (you may find it hard to believe) this is the first time they've heard the Four Seasons[....]

But the point is that they could be equally satisfied with, say, a CPE Bach symphony (let alone a less well-known Vivaldi piece), while those who've heard Seasons hundreds of times wouldn't be switching off.

[mercia]

where did we know-it-alls hear our first Four Seasons? .............................. on Radio 3?

[TTtheB]

THUMBS DOWN to the new morning schedule!

I am very proud of myself, as I just managed to listen to A WHOLE 30 MINUTES of 3Beebies before i had to turn it off in irritation. Is this a record?

I fear that the controller's response would be that this is precisely how long their research shows that most people are able to listen in the morning and that therefore the new programme, format, content, and style are all perfectly tailored to listeners' needs. Well, they're not.

Listening in the morning now is rather like being tortured by Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition: "poke her with the soft cushions!!!!". Two-minute bursts of tickling, interrupted only by inane "interaction" and tie-ins with other programmes i won't want to listen to.

Congratulations on destroying a much-loved and unique part of the BBC.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

naff innit ..... i am reminded of Kenny Everett's Ms Cupid Stunt summat to do with taste innit

[aeolium]

where did we know-it-alls hear our first Four Seasons? .............................. on Radio 3?

But for those hearing it for the first time how many more listeners have heard it many times? And even for those hearing it for the first time, they will soon tire of it if it is repeated over and over again at regular intervals. Surely the point of attracting new listeners is that they stay to listen to R3. If they stay they will not want to hear the same works again and again, like Prokofiev R&J extracts or Dvorak Slavonic Dances. So by playing these works repeatedly the only audience R3 is aiming for is the new listener, not its core audience which is turning off or not bothering to listen. Seems pretty pointless to me.

[mercia]

well, I've done my best, Mr Wright, to put your point of view in your absence, but it doesn't seem to be working

[doversoul1]

I think this ‘same old…’ is a tricky argument. As mercia says, there are always some people to whom The Four Seasons or Hungarian Dances are new. It wasn’t that very long ago, I was one of those listeners and I did enjoy hearing the music I knew. I have no problems either about Breakfast not being a ‘serious’ listening programme. As it happens, I do sit by the radio in the morning but not to concentrate on listening to the music played. I’d stop what I am doing when I hear something interesting.

I finally gave up listening to Breakfast because there were just too many ‘other’ items in the programme. At times I could almost see people waiting for the music to end so that they may hear the presenter read out the texts they’d just sent in. Yes, I am being over-imaginative, but there you are. I have joined the TTN /TTM camp and listen to the music. I believe that this is what Radio3 is for.

[french frank]

just for clarification, does one swich off because one doesn't like the Lark or because one doesn't like PT?

Probably both and for the same reason - too much, too much.

In the case of the presenter, once you get to the point of suggesting that your favourite presenter should be given the slot, you've lost the argument because your favourite presenter is someone else's bête noire. It's the style that matters, not the individual: unobtrusive presentation focused on accurate information seems to be what people here want. (No wonder people think the TTN presenters are good!)