UK/US Differences #24 - BBC Radio 4 versus NPR

The UK's BBC Radio 4. Or the US's National Public Radio.

There's really no competition.

One is a quirky and anachronistic, tax-funded and therefore I-don't-care-how-many-governors-they-appoint, Soviet-esque state-run radio station; the other, a genuinely listener-funded, of the people, by the people, for the people offering, with cool jazz musical overlay and mellow-voiced presenters, they being to radio what the gorgeous Rudi Bhaktiar (who buries Robin Meade, by the way) is to television.

As I say, no competition. Compared to Radio 4, NPR is quite simply shite. If I hear one more jazz riff to segue from one "All Things Considered" item (or is it "Morning Edition"?; who knows, they all sound the same) to the next, I'll be forced to switch to 1200 AM and listen to Rush. And what is with those sugar sweet voices? It's like listening to Saruman on Prozac.

Radio 4, on the other hand, demonstrates just why Britain was once a world empire. You have to start with the Today programme. Even the presenters' names tell you you're getting something heavy; Naughtie (pronounced "Naw-chh-tay", which is cool, rather than "Naw-tay" which is not), or Stourton which connotes "Stentor" in the Illiad. (That said, John Humphrys needs a slap. Regularly.) Then there's "Start The Week". It's necessary and sufficient if you want a simple list of books, plays, and lectures you should read, watch and listen to in order to stay abreast of what's important in the world (like, say, why "[Despite the] artwork of the Futurists [being] often overshadowed by the Cubists, ... their combination of salon and street art, with their visceral excitement for cities, has had much resonance over the last century.") Granted Andrew Marr's a bit damp compared with Jeremy "Mauler" Paxman, on whom Henry Kissinger walked out on the live show after Paxman asked him about being an alleged war criminal. But it's magic all the same.

And the comedy! There's "Friday Night Comedy". consisting of The Now Show and "The News Quiz". The latter is worth it simply to hear the lovable Sandy Toksvig take the rip out of her panel. (Sandy is to Rudi what I am to Brad Pitt, but she's a hoot nevertheless). And let's not forget the venerable, "Just A Minute". It works like this. They get a subject. They have to talk. Without "hesitation, deviation or repetition". For a minute! It doesn't get any better than that.

But the resisty bit (I'd say "pièce de résistance" but it's a bit too Frenchy for such a British institution) has got to be the inestimable Melvyn Bragg's (we are not worthy) "In Our TIme". Here's what I've been able to listen to over the past few weeks, via podcast, on my way to work: The Age of Caesar Augustus in Rome, The Trial of Charles I, The History Of The Whale (yes, the *whale*), Baconian Science, and a discussion of Huxley's "Brave New World".

There are only a few things I can say without fear of contradiction that Britain does better than the USA. The combination of chicken korma, pilau rice, and peshwari naan bread is one; grim and brooding rain-soaked, mist-covered mountains is another. But BBC Radio 4 is clearly a third.

Point to the Brits.

Comments

[Gordon]

I wouldn't disagree. But I might give half a point to Ira Glass and 'This American Life' More lightweight and 'of the time' than 'in our time' but great storytelling.

[Rama]

I disagree. I would take the drone of jazz of all thing considered rather then let anyone the the horrifically embarrassing tune to the Archers that makes me scramble to smash the radio before anyone hears it!!