THERE was something ironically, perhaps deliberately, downbeat about the first episode of Radio 4’s new series From Our Home Correspondent (Tuesday of last week, although the series will, from now on, air monthly on Sundays).
As the name suggests, this is, like the international version, a programme comprising the bin-ends of the news; titbits which do not make it into a journalist’s main report. In the case of From Our Own Correspondent, it gives a reporter the opportunity to tell an extended anecdote or paint a picture.
Just in case we were in any doubt that this was the stay-at-home younger brother of its adventurous sibling, this first episode of From Our Home Correspondent comprised an account of renting a flat in Luton, the nuisance represented by street leafleters, and discussion of a new statue in Edinburgh. Alan Little mused on how this commemoration of William Henry Playfair reflected a new sense of identity in the Scottish capital. Similarly, it seemed clear that From Our Home Correspondent was itself reflecting a new BBC identity: quiet, parochial, and, above all, cheap.
I couldn’t help wondering how many radio essays the young journalist from BBC Three Counties Radio would have to file to pay the rent required for her Luton flat.
Altogether more bracing was last week’s edition of Why I Changed My Mind (Radio 4, Monday of last week) in which Professor Edzard Ernst explained why his faith in homoeopathic medicine had evaporated; and how the wrath of the Prince of Wales ruined his career. This was a story that deserved more than the 15 minutes allocated; and many questions were left unanswered. I wanted to understand more clearly how somebody so committed to the homoeopathic method that he took the first ever chair in Complementary Medicine, should ever have engaged with the scientific evidence which contradicted his beliefs. If ever, why then?
But the juicy stuff came with his assertion that, having scorned a study in support of homoeopathy commissioned by Prince Charles, his funding was withdrawn, and he was forced eventually to take early retirement. Perhaps it is no more surprising than requiring an atheist to take off the clerical collar; but, if true, the insight this provides into the Prince’s influence in this area is noteworthy.
Two years after the advent of same-sex marriage, For Better or Worse (Radio 4, Wednesday) undertook the task of unpicking the various reinterpretations which the institution of marriage has subsequently undergone. The presenter Peter McGraith — who was the first person to marry his same-sex partner in the UK, on the stroke of midnight of 29 March 2014 — heard from all sorts and conditions: those who felt validated by marriage, and those who felt further alienated; those for whom it brought greater pressure, and those who were comfortable with their new estate.
In at least one respect, however, there was some consensus between the witnesses here and with social conservatives: same-sex marriage has indeed changed what marriage is; for better or worse, it will never be the same again.