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AAlthough it’s called today, the 6-9am slot is included Radio 4 this morning was really about the web of tomorrow. A few years ago a senior BBC manager told me that the ‘future’ of the Today program was co-presenting Emma Barnett and Amol Rajan, although neither was on the program at the time. This morning the prophecy was fulfilled.
Recent debuts were overshadowed today. In 2015, Nick Robinson missed his first week after a bad cold compromised his voice. Rajan, in 2021, admitted he needed rum to calm a “panic attack” from pre-dawn insomnia.
I felt completely different this morning. Barnett began to sound calm, sober, healthy, well-slept. Although she has left 5 Live and Woman’s Hour, they apparently haven’t. The interview with James Coates, son of Ian Coates, the school caretaker killed in Nottingham last year, was a scoop of human interest, but perhaps echoed too strongly the tone of previous radio homes. As is her plea after a sex education segment: “I’d love to hear your opinion! Be great to read some of your emails!”
You hoped someone was close to John Humphreys to perform the Heimlich maneuver if he choked on his cornflakes, although if emails did arrive, they were not broadcast.
The calm tone was partly due, even though Rishi Sunak had just announced the impending end of the world, to an unusually slow news day. The biggest political interviewee was Gordon Brown, who has been out of power since 2010. (In a possibly subversive gesture, Downing Street made the Prime Minister available for the preceding Farming Today show at 5:45am.) For his first main interview at 08:10, Barnett received police minister Chris Philp, confidently ribbing him that he looked during question timeto confuse the countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
Her flamboyant style blended with Rajan, who increasingly introduced a touch of editorial good-naturedness. “Good luck to you and all your students!” he said to the principal’s guest. “I hope that cough gets better!” comforted one croaking guest. “Extraordinary interview!” he re-announced the Coates item. As Barnett regularly mentioned her presence at the premiere – “delighted”, “delighted”, “delighted”, “excited” to be there – there was an air of a royal visit, as if the presenters were touring the studio rather than working there.
This will pass as Barnett’s novelty wears off. And with Karthi Gnanasegaram in sports news, anyone who gave Today a first listen or a second chance might have been surprised by its light, youthful feel. Although BBC bosses may worry – as when Barnett’s Woman’s Hour went up against Naga Munchetti – that the listener is being offered 5 Live twice.
The risk is mitigated because while the fledgling breakfast show has regular co-hosts (Rachel Burden and Rick Edwards), Today is picking two from a group. With Martha Kearney leaving after a general election which may not be until next January, Radio Morning Show 4 will have six presenters (on around £250,000 a year each) for up to eight months for 12-week joint shifts.
This week and next, according to the rosters, they are distributed as: Mishal Hussain, Justin Webb, Robinson five programs, Barnett four, Rajan three, Kearney one. (Though otherwise the regular would do this one performed by holiday relief Simon Jack.)
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This list suggests a desire for a band without headliners, but that feels at odds with Barnett’s booming fanfare: the final item was even a discussion of her 3am wake-up playlist. And until Kearney is gone, the program feels crowded.
Rajan felt the right choice of first co-host as he seemed determined to avoid the ego boost that might await the newbie in other duos. A colleague of Rajan’s recently anonymously and, perhaps wishfully, told a newspaper that the University Challenge host would be leaving Today soon, but he sounded happy in his seat and it feels like this morning the duo plus Hussain, the show’s best political interviewer , will , with Gnanasegaram, be today’s tomorrow.
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