Spy chief to join festive guest editors of Radio 4’s Today
WHEN he became head of GCHQ, he vowed to make the secretive agency more “transparent”. And Sir Jeremy Fleming is keeping his word – by becoming the first British spy chief to guest edit the Today programme.
The director of Government Communications Headquarters will follow in the footsteps of Prince Harry, artist David Hockney and actress Angelina Jolie by taking the helm of BBC Radio 4’s three-hour programme as part of the broadcaster’s Christmas offerings.
He will attempt to make data, and the risk it poses, more exciting, by interviewing a famous sports personality about how it can be used.
Sir Jeremy said he wanted to continue “increasing the transparency of GCHQ’S crucial work” when he became intelligence chief in 2017.
Last month he appeared on the programme to warn parents to tell their children to “think before you use Tiktok” amid security concerns over using Chinese technology.
Parents did not need to ban children from using the video-sharing app, he said, but he urged them to have conversations about security from “a very early age”. He said: “When we are using these services we are exchanging our data for that and if it’s proportionate and we’re happy with the way that data is safeguarded, then that’s great.”
Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus will also edit the programme between December 26 and 2 January 2.
Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe will look at how to hold on to freedom in difficult times following her release from prison in Iran earlier this year. Oliver will focus on improving child health, while Ulvaeus and fellow Abba member Benny Andersson have recorded a new arrangement from the band’s 2021 album, Voyage, for the show.
Other guest editors include Sharon White, chairman of John Lewis and former chief executive director of Ofcom.
Owenna Griffiths, editor of the programme, said: “I’m enormously grateful these guest editors have given up their time to bring new stories, unexpected perspectives and a little festive cheer to the Today audience.”