Emma’s the new voice of Woman’s Hour
EMMA Barnett will be the new host of Woman’s Hour – joining the “radio mothership” next year.
The news came after Jane Garvey and Dame Jenni Murray both decided to quit the BBC Radio 4 show.
Emma, who has made waves with her eponymous BBC Radio 5 Live show, will be the long- running programme’s main presenter.
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She will host from Monday to Thursday from January and a second presenter will be announced for the Friday and Saturday instalments.
She said: “I can’t wait to get to know the many listeners of Woman’s Hour a lot, lot better.
“What adventures we are going to have together – all starting in the year that this BBC institution, the radio mothership, turns 75.”
Emma, who also hosts Newsnight, added: “I have a long love of Woman’s
Hour and live radio and know that this is a very special and rare opportunity.”
Emma co- presented Woman’s Hour during the 2017 and 2019 elections.
Radio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya said: “I am delighted that Emma is joining Woman’s Hour.
“She started her BBC broadcasting career on Radio 4 and has continued to be closely involved with the network in general, and Woman’s Hour in particular, ever since. She brings a terrific combination of intellectual inquiry, robust journalism and curiosity about the human condition.
“I can’t think of anyone better to carry on the important job of identifying and exploring the issues that matter most to women.”
Emma will present her 5 Live show until the end of the year but will continue in her role at Newsnight after she joins Woman’s Hour.
Jane Garvey, who continues to present Woman’s Hour until the end of the year, welcomed Barnett’s appointment, writing on Twitter that “the mighty Woman’s Hour marches on”.
From October to December, other presenters will guest host in place of Dame Jenni, who has been on the radio programme for 33 years.
However British historian Diane Atkinson – an expert on women’s suffrage – said Woman’s Hour needed a name change.
She said: “It’s so anachronistic. And quaint. It’s redolent of a magazine like Woman’s Weekly, full of knitting patterns and short stories.
“A title relevant for women today is what’s needed. And something not so middle- class – that turns a lot of women off. I never listen, unless I have been on it.” The programme pulls in around 3.7 million listeners weekly with 25 per cent of its audience under 35 while 40 per cent are male.
Younger
Broadcaster Joan Bakewell, 87, who used to work on the programme, said: “It could perhaps do with some younger voices.
“But I certainly wouldn’t say it’s fallen behind the times. It has always been a place where women could say, that’s ours. It belongs and it belongs to us.”