Andrew Marr’s LBC debut is energetic, if somewhat rushed
Tonight with Andrew Marr LBC ★★★★★
For weeks, in all the promotional material surrounding his new radio gig, Andrew Marr has been talking about “getting his voice back”. “Anyone wanting bland, safe, wearily predictable journalism is strongly advised to look elsewhere,” he said.
Given that Marr has spent the past 21 years at the BBC, it’s not hard to work out what he’s driving at. Now, with his first 60 minutes of news and politics under his belt on Tonight with
Andrew Marr, we got to hear what that voice sounded like. “I hope you weren’t too appalled,” Marr said in his closing comments.
Well, Andrew, I wasn’t, but I do have one or two suggestions. The voice
– and it’s a voice we know and love – should be calmer (yes, it’s commercial radio with travel updates and adverts for gyms, but lose a little of that bombast) and a lot slower.
With news bulletins and adverts taken into account, Marr had roughly 50 minutes to play with, and he seemed determined to cram in about two hours’ worth of content. It was breathless, occasionally hectic, with seven guests adding to the sense of frenzy. Coming off the back of the measured, meditation-tape delivery of Eddie Mair, it felt like being plunged over a waterfall.
So what did we get from commercial Marr? For one, we got impassioned opening and closing monologues, in which Marr told us what was on his mind as much as what’s on his show. The language was punchy – Putin was “murdering civilians”, the Russian economy was “being throttled”.
There was talk of nerves being held and pain being shared. Via the snazzy LBC cameras we could see Marr was not wearing a tie. A shame. He could have ripped it off during this brawny opening speech. Marr, clearly, was pumped up.
When he directed that energy – and, boy, does he have some energy – into what he does best, it was a good listen. Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, wasn’t given a mauling by
Marr, but could hardly have enjoyed the constant needling questions about the Conservative party and Russian money.
Marr got something like a scoop out of him too – the Chancellor will soon be announcing a raft of financial packages to help Britons about to be hammered by the cost of living crisis. Marr was visibly chuffed. And why not.
There were flashes of cheeky, un-bbc-like wit. He told guest and LBC colleague Camilla Tominey (of this parish) that he “liked a woman with strong opinions”. At one point he described himself as an “old git”.
In the hour’s one awkward moment, reporter John Sweeney, in Kyiv, attempted to give an emotional, if rambling answer about his time in the city. But Marr, growing a little itchy, hurried him away (perhaps spooked by Sweeney’s admission that he’d “just been drinking”).
There’s no doubt that the BBC’S loss is LBC’S gain – three hours of Mair and Marr is something that Radio 4 or Radio 5 Live would give their hind teeth for – and when the nerves subside and Marr feels at home in the studio, it should be an enlightening, invigorating hour.
Marr, clearly, relished every moment. The voice is back. It just needs a little work.