It’s great to see more women would be even better to see

BAFTAS presenter Edith Bowman hails revolution on our airwaves

After a tumultuous few months, Edith Bowman, one of the best-known voices in British broadcasting, admits these are good times to be a woman in radio.

But, after dramatic changes at Radio 2, where Zoe Ball and Sara Cox are taking on the flagship breakfast and drivetime shows, respectively, Edith says the change has to be wider.

The station, which had been singled out for criticism by campaigners suggesting its all-male daytime line-up was past its sell-by date, has been shaken up after bignames Chris Evans and Simon Mayo announced their departures.

Edith, who has worked on a number of radio stations, including Radio 1 and 6 Music, and hosted the Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio until last October, is happy to see women take charge of some of Britain’s biggest radio shows but, she added, there should be also more females in the executive corridors, not just in the studio.

She said: “It is definitely a good time to be a female broadcaster.

“Look at what Radio 2’s schedule is at the moment and what it’s going to be shortly. That’ll be amazing.

“But in terms of the infrastructure, they need more women in the higher posts.” The popular broadcaster, who is presenting the Scottish BAFTAS tonight, said she might be tempted to return to the airwaves but her award-winning podcast means the job would have to be tempting.

She said: “It would have to be the right thing. The Breakfast Show was brilliant when I started doing it.

“But it was hard work and I began to not enjoy it, which is one of the reasons I left. “I went on a show Colin Murray is doing and I’d definitely love to do more with him.”

Most of Edith’s time at the moment is taken up with her Soundtracking podcast. Recent guests have included Irvine Welsh, Bradley Cooper and First Man and La La Land director, Damien Chazelle.

She started it just over two years ago and it has become a runaway success.

“It all came out of a bit of frustration,” said Edith. “I was doing a radio thing that was serialised but we’d only get to do a couple of shows a year.

“Because of the relationships I’d built up in the film world I felt I could do it every week.

“We were lucky that the first-ever interview was Jon Favreau and that became a bit of a calling card. Now I actually get people asking to do it, which is an amazing position to be in. “Since we launched in 2016 we’ve only missed two weeks. It’s a passion project and, as it’s mine, there aren’t the limitations of doing it as a podcast for a radio station. I’ve just done one with three young, upcoming female composers. If I was with a station I very much doubt I’d get to do that as they’d say that they weren’t that well-known.” Soundtracking won a big industry award last month, which Edith celebrated in her PJS.

She couldn’t make it to the ceremony when she won best specialist music show, so partied in her kitchen with a glass of Prosecco.

It wasn’t until the following morning before she realised her award had sparked a bit of furore when another nominee, a Radio I Xtra DJ, had stormed the stage in protest.

The kerfuffle at the Audio & Radio Industry Awards came as DJ Charlie Sloth