Rosamund Urwin
Talks W1A and wages with Lewis Carnie
someone who brings nearly 10 million listeners a week , y e a h . H e ’s a phenomenal talent.”
I remark that the handling of the pay reveal feels very “W1A”. He laughs. “W1A is something I recognise. It is very close to reality, unfortunately. But the fact that we can make this programme about ourselves is good. It shows we open up ourselves to c ritic i sm. No other organisation in the world would probably even think of doing that. There’s no way that it would be commissioned at Sky.”
Carnie is proud of how diverse Radio 2’s output is — “no one covers more music genres than we do” — and picks out Jamie Cullum’s programme on jazz, Strictly judge Bruno Tonioli’s exploration of opera and Elaine Paige on musical theatre as highlights.
Paige will be backstage at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards on December 3, while Radio 2 broadcasts the results, including the Evening Standard Radio 2 Audience Award for best musical. Carnie is on the advisory panel of judges who determined the short-list and is a huge musical theatre fan. “I see virtually everything. The award really help the winners because it encourages audiences to take a chance, and the audience award is very relevant because I find reviews can be misleading.”
Carnie grew up in Montrose, moved to London at 19 and went straight into work after school. “Far too many people go to university now. It’s ridiculous. It’s become a whole industry.” As well as being a music nut his other passion is riding: he was a showjumper for four decades and even worked as an instructor in California in his twenties. After stints as a bartender, in PR and then TV advertising he then made his way into radio but says he could never have dreamed he’d hold the top job.
He is proud that the BBC can take risks. “If we can’t take a chance on something, then who c an? Some things we commission don’t work but the majority do.” Among the surprise hits has been the duo of Alan Carr and Melanie Sykes, who have stood in for Graham Norton.
“That came about by default. Alan always had a sidekick and there was one week when he didn’t and we couldn’t get anyone to cover. I knew Mel, but I thought — because they’re similar in voice and tone — that it would be too much. But we were stuffed, basically. So we got Mel in, they hit it off, and it became a hit.”
Another unexpected success was Ed Miliband who — with Iain Duncan Smith the following week — covered for Vine. “Ed was a real surprise — he showed a new side of his personality. Iain was shaky on the first day but got a lot better.” Would he have Miliband back? “Yes, although the problem is we have to balance it. If we did something similar again we might look for other people but we’d probably be quite tempted to go back there, actually.”
Carnie says there’s no push to attract millennial listeners. “Radio 1 has them covered, and we hope the progression is from them to us.” Is that what tends to happen? “It isn’t, actually. We’re far bigger than they are. People come from commercial radio when they want a change — it is very stylised, whereas we offer the distinction and variety. There literally is something for everybody on Radio 2.”
@RosamundUrwin