God on the BBC

Certain changes at the BBC are not popular with all licence payers. ‘Sunday Half Hour’ has moved from its 8.30pm slot on Radio 2 (where it has been for over 50 years after it was transferred from Forces Radio where it started in the dark days of 1940) to become ‘Sunday Hour’ at 6.00am. Listeners who complained have been told to listen on the BBC iPlayer. Does the BBC realise there are many rural areas where broadband speeds mean this is not possible? Meanwhile, his many fans are mourning the departure of Aled Jones from Radio 2’s ‘Good Morning Sunday’ and his replacement by Clare Balding. Balding, who is in a civil partnership with Alice Arnold, has won high praise for her coverage of the Paralympics and is becoming something of a national treasure, but she does not have any religious beliefs. She told The Guardian: “I think I can be spiritual and I can feel I want to live well but I don’t need a church.” With criticism of the changes on Radio 2 the BBC might have expected some praise from Christians for its ‘Father Brown’ series on BBC TV but critics slammed that as a disappointment. The Cotswold scenery was great but Mark Williams didn’t really fit the part as Fr Brown and the plots creaked. The first episode in which the killer was the local vicar assumed a degree of ecumenism that didn’t exist at the time the story was set.