Who will be the new chair of the BBC Trust?

Maggie Brown and  Tara Conlan have written an interesting article in The Guardian today looking at the poltics between the appointment of the new chair of the BBC Trust as the final interviews take place.

On the evidence of the last four years, becoming the public guardian of the BBC may seem tantamount to volunteering for a life lived on a bed of nails. From dealing with own goals including lewd voicemail messages, to public spats with politicians over executive pay and the corporation's funding, and a barrage of negative coverage from the rightwing press, the BBC Trust chairman is rarely out of the firing line.
However, as the final interviews to find a successor to Sir Michael Lyons take place today, it is clear there are at least five keen candidates for what is still viewed as one of the country's most prestigious establishment jobs. After each interview the selection panel is scoring the candidates, and none of them seem fazed by the annual reward of £110,000 – 16% less than the outgoing chairman Lyons earned, for a three to four day week. Lord Smith, the former Labour culture secretary, reckons it is "a very strong field".

However this reminds me of a session at the recent Nations and Regions Conference held earlier this month at The Lowry in Salford just over the water from Media City. The session was entitled "I’m not the Chair of the BBC Trust, Get Me In There!" and was billed as follows...

As Sir Michael Lyons steps down, we invite 3 leading figures to enter the jungle and pitch to be the Chair of the BBC Trust. 

The three 'candidates' were Tom Gutteridge (Standing Stone), Cat Lewis (Nine Lives Media), David Elstein (Broadcasting Policy Group). Although it was to be a bit of fun, the 3 'candidates' did explore not only what they would do if they were 'appointed' as the new chair, but also worked through some of the issues of what the BBC Trust is for and what it should do and I found the session very illuminating. However I was also very frustrated at all their 'pitches', as they all concentrated on broadcast television so at the end of the question session I asked -

"I have held some very interesting presentations today but all I have heard is television, television, and television.  In this age of digital culture of 'many to many', what about Radio and On Line, hello?"

and handed the mic back. They all were clearly a little embarrassed and quickly affirmed the need for public service radio in their summing up of several other questions from the floor  but still none of them mentioned on line and digital. So I do hope who ever is appointed to be the new chair of the BBC Trust for real doesn't just concentrate on broadcast televeison but connects with the 21st century and the various forms of communication models that are becoming rather popular now.

Young Black & Muslim repeated including BBC World Service

I have just re-edited Young Black & Muslim for transmission in the Heart & Soul slot on the BBC World Service.

Young, Muslim And Black (Heart And Soul)

Next on: Wednesday, 12:32 on BBC World Service

Broadcasts

1. Wed 2 Feb 2011 12:32 BBC World Service
2. Wed 2 Feb 2011 16:32 BBC World Service
3. Thu 3 Feb 2011 00:32 BBC World Service
4. Thu 3 Feb 2011 04:32 BBC World Service

The programme originally transmitted on Dec 19th was repeated on Radio 4 on January 17th 2011. It has also had airings on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio London.

Even coming back to this programme nearly 2 months later it was still very interesting that young black people wanted the boundaries that they find in the Islamic faith and a guide to live my that isn't controlled by money or drugs.

If you haven't heard this programme already then do try and catch in on World Service. Remember BBC World Service is available on Freeview 24 hours a day so you can listen to it during the day here in the UK.

BBC online developments - new radio player?

The BBC made an announcement about plans to improve the radio player part of their site but it got some what lost in the jobs cuts story. Today they have posted more details of this development on one of their blogs.

Daniel Danker is General Manager, Programmes and On Demand, BBC Future Media & Technology and he writes...

Yesterday we announced the next phase of Putting Quality First. As part of that announcement, we made the first mention of our upcoming 'Radio and Music product', which created a bit of confusion about our plans for online radio: I hope this post explains in a little more detail.

Yes, we do plan to build a new product for radio but this isn't to cut corners, or downplay what we do for radio online - as with everything we announced yesterday it's because we want to make the service better, not worse. In the case of radio and music, we think this means giving radio its own home.
Radio first became part of BBC iPlayer in 2008 because the BBC iPlayer brand was growing, so it made it easier for audiences, and there were benefits from bringing TV and radio closer together. It's not the only way of listening to BBC Radio online and you can access podcasts through the separate podcast website and also stream live through the network sites. We think this can be made simpler.

The majority of radio listening comes through the radio station web sites rather than iPlayer. At its heart, iPlayer is a product built for TV and audiences have different needs from TV and radio on the web. For instance, in BBC iPlayer nearly 90% of TV requests are for catch-up, whereas radio requests are around 70% live. Hence our decision to build a new product for radio and music that builds in podcasts and plays to the strengths of live radio.

The teams in Audio and Music and Future Media are working together to shape the product. We've not yet fully decided what it will look like, but broadly speaking, here's what we want the product to do:

• Better bring out the personality of the networks, presenters and DJs
• Rich pages for our flagship programmes (e.g. The Today Programme, The Archers)
• Integrate music events
• Be highly personalised and available on lots of internet-connected devices (people want radio on the move)
• Be highly social; pulling in the buzz around live radio
• Become a home for podcasts (both 'catch-up' and 'archive' content), as well as improve the way we offer clips
• Make better use of technology to improve exploration, discovery, sharing, and listening
• Create a new design especially for radio and music
• Link up closely with the TV & iPlayer product (but not duplicate it), sharing links

Also, as we said yesterday, there are things it won't do. It won't offer track-by track streaming or aggregate third party stations, which brings me onto Radioplayer.
Though the BBC have been the technical architects in this project, it's a partnership. With our partners Global, GMG Radio, Absolute and the RadioCentre we want to bring all UK radio together in one place, and any Ofcom-licensed station can be involved. With listeners able to search by genre, presenter, programme and locality, audiences can discover new programmes and stations, and make use of other features. This has been running in beta for a while now, is looking great, and we expect it to launch very soon. Though we've not yet worked the details through, we think both projects add up to a vastly improved online radio experience for audiences and hope to share more details soon.

BBC On line cuts jobs and sites

Jemima Kiss from The Guardian has reported that the BBC plan to cut 360 jobs from BBC On Line.

Management said the job cuts break down across the corporation and only a small number relate to currently vacant positions. Of 360 posts to be cut, 120 are from Future Media & Technology, up to 90 from BBC Vision, up to 39 from Audio & Music, 17 from Children's, 24 from Sport and 70 in journalism from national news and non-news posts on regional news sites.  The corporation also outlined five editorial priorities for BBC Online and clarified its remit. The BBC aims to meet all these objectives, and make 360 posts redundant, by 2013. The restructured BBC Online department will consist of 10 products including News, iPlayer, CBeebies and Search. Editorial will be refined, with fewer News blogs, and local sites will be stripped of non-news content.

In another Guardian article they break down the changes in more detail...

• The closure of half of the 400 top-level domains (with 180 closing ahead of schedule later this year)
• The replacement of the majority of programme websites with automated content
• The automation of bespoke digital radio sites 1Xtra, 5 Live Sports Extra, 6 Music and Radio 7
• The closure of RAW, Blast, Switch, Video Nation and the disposal of h2g2
• The removal of non-News features content from Local sites
• A substantial reduction in show business news on the News website
• Fewer News blogs, with more focus on the updates from leading editors and correspondents
• A reduction in the overall amount of Sports news and live sport
• Standalone forums, communities and message boards and blogs to be reduced and replaced with integrated social tools
• The closure of the 606 community site and the closure of the BBC iPlayer message board

BBC Online will not:
• Launch its own social network
• Offer specialist news content for specialist audiences
• Publish local listings
• Develop encyclopaedic propositions in Knowledge
• Provide continuing professional development materials for teachers or a managed learning environment for schools
• Become a video-on-demand aggregator in BBC iPlayer, although it will link to other on-demand providers
• Produce online-only music sessions
• Offer track-by-track music streaming
• Invest in exclusive online sports rights

The BBC Online service licence budget will be reduced by £34m from £137m today to £103m by 2013/14.

Clearly this has as much to do with pressure being bought to bear on the BBC to reduce the size of its we site so as not to compete as much with commercial rivals, as it does with the need for the BBC to reduce its costs as a result of the recent license fee settlement.

How-Do has also reported this story and asked about the impact of these cuts on Media City...

a division-wide reduction of staff and budgets by 25% is expected to be felt as much in Salford as it will be in London. At the time of writing the BBC had been unable to provide How-Do with tailored information as to the regional ramifications of the cuts.

BECTU have reacted swiftly saying they will be on hand to support staff with on line changes.

"Staff in BBC Online need to join BECTU in large numbers to demonstrate just how serious they are about representation during the talks announced today,” said supervisory official, Helen Ryan.
The top line headcount reduction of 360 posts actually impacts on approximately 200 staff given a number of unfilled vacancies and the deployment of short term and contract staff. “Whilst we expect the BBC to respond positively to our concerns that absolutely every effort should be made to avoid compulsory redundancies, the fact that several departments are affected, and to different degrees, means that staff will need to work with their union to get the best outcomes from this reorganisation,” Helen Ryan concluded.

It is good to see the union on the case and lets hope they are able to help staff through this difficult transition.

Gwyneth Williams: controller of BBC Radio 4 'To keep good, Radio 4 must change'

Ben Dowell from The Guardian has interviewed Gwyneth Williams, the new controller of BBC Radio 4 three months into her role, but when asked recently by John Humphrys recently about leaving the network alone because Mark has left it in such good shape said "To use the cliche, in order to keep it good it must change," So we can expect to start to see changes in Radio 4 to keep it on top and she is starting to announce some of those changes now after a 3 month consultation process. If you want to read the full article then go the Ben's article on the Media Guardian site. But here are a few extracts that I found interesting...

It would be hard to imagine Damazer walking around the office without shoes, as Williams is wont to do. Or describing Humphrys as "incredibly sweet", as she does at one point. In fact, following her appointment, Williams spent her first weeks talking to staff, trying to "make sense" of the network and "understand it as an organic thing". "It is not as if Mark didn't listen – far from it – but he was a very authoritative presence and there was more of a sense that he said what was what," says one in-house producer. "You feel that things will be different under Gwyneth."

So it looks as if we will see the softer side of Radio 4, that was submerged under Mark's tenure, re-emerge.

One immediate difference will be felt once her proposal to cut the number of commissioning rounds a year from two to one is implemented; this will allow a looser process of "continuing commissioning", intended, she says, to reduce bureaucracy ("I know everybody says this and it is probably easier said than done"), with producers given more freedom to pitch ideas at other times. "I am really keen to add a layer of creativity," Williams explains. "Having met the producers and the people, I know that is perfectly possible and can happen. If we can't take creative risks at this point, with Radio 4 in such a good state, then we never can."

I have mixed views about this, as someone from the regions, loosing a commisioning round potentionaly reduces the face to face contact with the commissioning editors by 100% as it isn't very easy to pop into see any of them from up this end of the country. That said if this flexibility to pitch ideas at any time is real then I welcome it with open arms. There have been many times when an idea has surfaced but it hasn't been worth pursuing because by the time it had been commissioned, made and delivered it would be so out of date or not relevant any more that it probably wouldn't have got commissioned anyway!

There are no specific proposals to expand news bulletins such as The World at One or The World This Weekend. Nor is she planning to change the roster of Today presenters in spite of the rumoured interest of the BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson (although she does have hopes to "get more women on the network"). Instead, reporters such as Robinson will have a chance to exercise their interviewing skills on a new autumn show – a 15-minute slot on Tuesdays at 9.30am in which the BBC's army of reporters will be free to quiz whoever they like from whatever fields. There will also be a boost to science coverage in the half-hour slot preceding this. Williams is axing the existing rota of Tuesday 9am interview shows, Taking a Stand, The Choice and On The Ropes, in which people recount extraordinary experiences in their lives. The thinking is that interviews of this type are replicated on other programmes (such as Saturday Live and Broadcasting House) and they no longer need a designated place in the schedule.

I have to say that I am personally disappointed that The Choice is going as I have edited over 5 series of this illuminating programme, where you have time to really hear someone's story in detail that I don't believe you will get on either Saturday Live or BH. Neither of these programmes give a 28 minute slot to one interview and even these 15 minute slots (which are 13'30" really) will enable a very deep exploration of an issue. That said Gwyneth is planning to use the Tuesday interview slot to increase the profile of science on the network and I commend her for that.

"There is a quieter bit to Radio 4, science and information, which is a bit buried in the schedule," says Williams. "It is a potential heartland for Radio 4 which could beat more loudly for people who want to come to Radio 4 for understanding. We want to add in the quieter exploratory and analytical voices of scientists." Another plan is to give what will in effect be grants to "around five or so wise men or women" each year to "go off and do their own research". Thinkers of any kind would be given the money and the time to spend a year "tracking how we live now".

and from the Radio 4 blog she said....

From October I plan to launch a new 9 a.m. science programme - not about the ideas of science which Melvyn Bragg covers regularly in the brilliant In Our Time - but about science and working scientists, about the scientific method, across a range of subjects: physics, biology, engineering, technology, natural history. The Science Department will lead the work on developing this and I have been talking to various people, among them Jim Al-Khalili, a scientist and an experienced broadcaster, about possibly presenting it.

These plans will in my opinion help to redress the balance of Radio 4's output that under Mark made it into a relatively hard news station but it looks as if  Gwyneth is going to give more space to reflection and considered analysis.

"I want [Radio 4] to be more easily modern and forward looking and perhaps slightly more relaxed and more creative and to add that to the intellectual rigour,"

Vines on the Front Line on Radio 4 tomorrow

Vines on the Frontline is another programme I have had a hand in will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow. It is a totally unexpected concept from an area we consider to still be torn apart by war and terror. Do have a listen if you can and if you miss it then pick it up off iPlayer.

For Radio 4, the BBC's Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, takes time out from reporting conflicts to give vinophiles a new perspective on an ancient story. Lebanon is not a place you naturally associate with winemaking. It is a Middle Eastern country nestled between Arab neighbours whose religion forbids them to drink alcohol. It is also a country that has been scarred by war, from the 15-year civil war from 1975-1990, to the recent Israeli-Lebanon conflict in 2006. But Lebanon is also an ancient civilisation, a country of merchants and traders - its history dating back to Noah, the first winemaker in the Bible. Fittingly the Temple of Bacchus, an impressive tribute to the God of wine, is situated amongst the ruins of Balbek, in the Bekaa Valley, a region these days better known for Hezbollah than hedonism. But the temple, like Lebanese wine, has survived centuries of war and the winemakers of the Bekka are optimistic wine will outlive war. Sharing stories with the wine makers who, in defiance and dedication to their craft, continue to grow their vines so close to the frontline, Jeremy delves into the cultural and ethnic mosaic of this unstable but extraordinary country.
Present:  Jeremy Bowen
Edited, and mixed: Mike Thornton
Producer: Gemma Newby
An All Out Production for BBC Radio 4.

Thoughts on Socialnomics by Erik Qualman

Having finished reading Socialnomics an excellent updated book on the economics of social media, here are some thoughts that have been simulated by my reading this book.

Listen or connect?
Following blogs is likely to form connections, it is largely a "listen" form of communication closer on Marshall McCullan's 'broadcast' culture that the 'digital' culture that we are moving into now, especially with social media. Social network platforms like Twitter, Facebook or Linked In are much more likely to create conversations and connections. From a business perspective these are much more likely to generate interest and new leads.

Marketing myself
When it comes to marketing myself how should I use social media? Its all very well for Qualman to show how large companies like Starbucks can tweet about a free coffee and afford to give loads of small value items away, but I have finite resources, especially time which is expensive to give away. I am already doing this with my Pro Tools for Media blog and my Twitter profile @MikeProTools and these benefit other Pro Tools users and help to keep my profile up in the Pro Tools world but how much new business will come from this work? On page 130 Qualman says...

Often our customers will market the product better than we can". In a social media world this can be really powerful. 

We have always had personal recommendation but it has always been a one to one word of mouth. How we have what Qualman describes as a 'world of mouth', or a 'many to many' digital culture to use McCullan speak, our clients can tell the world how good we are and it will have much more respect than saying it ourselves. So we need to encourage our clients to share their experiences of our services. But we have to make sure that we maintain the correct balance in our conversations so that the marketing doesn't stand out as 'selling'.

Only one of me
Qualman dedicates chapter 6 "Death of Social Schizophrenia" to the need for everyone to have one persona or identity in this connected world. Where as before we could have a work, social, and family peronas and maintain them because we could keep each segment of our lives separate. Now in a connected world we can't get away with it. Our work colleagues see what we are doing at home, our friends see what we do at work and so on. Currently I have two blogs, a personal one here and my Pro Tools blog and similarly I have two Twitter accounts. Should they be one? In this case I believe not as the Pro Tools blog and @MikeProTools Twitter account are very niche. I am sure most of the folk following my @Sound_Mike twitter feed and my personal blog wouldn't want to hear about the inner workings of how to use Avid Pro Tools in a media context. However I was posting more personal stuff as well as details of programmes I have been involved in on my @MikeProTools twitter account and Pro Tools for Media blog, but as a result of reading Socialnomics I have stopped that now and will keep these for purely Pro Tools matters.

Play to your strengths
On page 135 Qualman says...

Being well rounded as a company, or an individual is less beneficial. Its more productive to play to your core strength. This differentiates you from the competition. You need to stand out in order to be outstanding.

He then goes onto to refer to a book called Strengths Finder Now, Discover Your Strengths: How to Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage which I have read and been through the programme to identify my strengths a while a go. If you haven't done it, I can strongly recommend this programme above other similar ones. A number of times I have considered some possible diversification routes, like becoming a video editor and rejected them. I am an audio editor and producer, sound is what I do, so I am much better to play to my strengths than invest a lot of time and money trying to improve weak spots, only to end up making them less weak.

Embed the sponspor
Qualman does an in depth study of an American series called Football Fantasy and how the presenters decided to set up a podcast in their own time. One of the reasons they did this is there were TV presenters one day a week as it was a weekly show, where as they have made the podcast a daily show and so are able to react to changing stories and audience responses so much quicker. Also because it was a podcast they didn't stick to a standard programme slot. They made the podcast as long as it needed to be to cover the content that day, rather than make the content fit the slot. They also developed techniques for embedding the sponsor and the sponsors content into the programme. They didn't use standard ad format straps and spots. Rather they worked the sponsors message into the programme content which provided variety so they weren't using the same spot every time. Qualman says on page 142...

Consumers today in particular Millennial's and Generation Zer's don't want adverts to shout; they'd rather have conversations and ongoing relationships with companies. 

If the ads top and tail a podcast they can easily be stripped off when the content is spread virally. However if the sponsorship references are embedded in the programme and become an integral part of it, then they travel virally too!

On page 148, Qualman talks about CNN anchor Rick Sanchez who started tweeting and realised that it was more important to talk less about himself and more about the interviewees. On page 175 Qualman outlines how social media gives you so much more data about your audience and their habits. We need to use that data to determine our marketing decisions, 'The audience has spoken'. Remember if we create conversations, that will lead to a trusting relationship which is so much more valuable. So shouldn't PR folk be asking what we can do to create these conversations.

With our experience surely we can help clients develop these conversations, also look at the complete web presence. On page 221 Qualman outlines the Skittles experiment with their web site in 2009. They turned their static web site into a simple landing page with some links took you off their site to social media.

Connect = Skittles Facebook page
Video = Skittles YouTube channel
Photos = Skittles Flickr account
Info = Skittles Wikipedia entry
News = Skittles blog.

Skittles were acting as an integration point or hub to great authentic content that existed elsewhere about them.

This shows that we need to be prepared to experiment and that will mean we fail sometimes but Qualman has a phrase he repeats through the book about failing - Fail forward, fail fast, fail better.

What next?
These are some random thoughts from things that caught my attention as I read through this book. It certainly has made me think about social media and its growing power. One of the conclusions Qualman also makes at the end of chapter 8 is that

The younger generation's interpersonal communications skills are starting to suffer as a result of over-dependence on non-verbal and non face to face interactions. 

So the next book I want to look at, which has just been Radio 4's book of the Week, follows on from this observation and is called "The Winter of Our Disconnect" by Susan Maushart. She writes...

The Winter Of Our Disconnect started out as a kind of purge. It ended up as so much more. Long story short: our digital detox messed with our heads, our hearts and our homework. It changed the way we ate and the way we slept, the way we "friended", fought, planned and played. It altered the very taste and texture of our family life. Hell, it even altered the mouth-feel.

In the end, our family's self-imposed exile from the Information Age changed our lives indelibly - and infinitely for the better.

At the simplest level, The Winter Of Our Disconnect is the story of how one highly idiosyncratic family survived six months of wandering through the desert, digitally speaking, and the lessons we learned about ourselves and our technology along the way. At the same time, our story is a channel to a wider view into the impact of new media on the lives of families, into the very heart of the meaning of home.

With two daughters as well as my wife and myself, very much 'connected' I look forward to reading this book.

Update - The Guardian review on Story of King James Bible series

Elisabeth Mahoney has written a very nice review in The Guardian of The Story of King James Bible series I worked on and blogged about.

The Story of the King James Bible (Radio 4) is a luxurious thing: three programmes, over three days, tracing the history of what presenter James Naughtie described as "a literary masterpiece" for "people of many faiths, and none". Yesterday's opening instalment, recorded at Hampton Court, revelled in detail and evocative soundscapes as Naughtie and gathered experts moved through the palace: footsteps on stone stairs, the sudden whoosh of boomy sound as they move into a particularly high-ceilinged space; classy readings from the Bible. Naughtie probed his guests with questions that got beneath the surface of a historical event – a conference held at Hampton Court in 1604 – to draw a picture of the meeting in all its religious and political complexity. There was a strong sense of everything in flux as James I ascended the throne, and also the monarch grabbing his chance to re-emphasise the relationship between king and church as a divine, rather than earthly, institution. He had disliked the earlier Geneva Bible, we heard, because of annotations in the margin, especially one that appeared to question the king's authority. In his Bible, "there were no marginal notes that were interpretative". The conference was rumbustious, with those gathered shocked by James's coarse language. "I give a turd for your argument," he told one Puritan speaker.

Thanks Elisabeth for the kind words. Here are another couple of pictures I took in Oxford.

We was there!

Another bible to study

The Story of the King James Bible on BBC Radio 4

I worked on this series with producer Rosie Dawson but unlike most documentaries I work on, where I usually do the editing and mixing, with this series I was also involved in the recording too. This was because the whole series was recorded on location, no studio content at all, not even the presenters links, and so Rosie didn't want to have to worry about being the sound recordist as well as the producer as the recording schedule was going to be tight.

The series of 3 programmes are going out today, tomorrow, and Wednesday at 9am with a shortened repeat at 9:30pm. Do try and catch the longer version either live or via iPlayer. Even the podcast seems to be the shorter version of the programmes. The first programme "The Commission" went out today...

The King James, or Authorised, Version of the Bible remains the most widely published text in the English language. It has been called the "noblest monument of English prose" and has been recognised for centuries as both a religious and literary classic.
In the first of three programmes marking the 400th anniversary of its publication, James Naughtie tells the story of how and why King James VI of Scotland and I of England decided on a new translation of the Bible. The programme is recorded at Hampton Court Palace. A conference here in early 1604 led to the commissioning of the King James Version. The Chief Curator at the palace, Lucy Worsley, and James Naughtie walk the palace grounds, scene of so much Tudor and Stuart frivolity, and a refuge from the plague. Before the earnestness of the January conference there had been masques and feasting and Shakespearean drama. England was still revelling in its new monarch after the stultifying later years of Elizabeth's reign and breathing a sigh of relief that the accession had been a smooth one.

We recorded in the quad by the gates, having to wait for the crews to stop building the ice rink that was set up outside Hampton Court. Then on into the Chapel Royal, the Great Watching Chamber, then through the palace and into the King's state apartments. In the main banqueting hall we had a very 21st century problem with an electrical buzz that we couldn't find the source of, but were able to find a spot where it was quiet and then modern technology removed the rest. We were also plagued by another 21st century challenge on the night we were recording, Heathrow's flight path was right over Hampton Court so we kept having to stop as a plane went over head.

Tomorrow's programme "The Translation".....

The programme opens in the main quadrangle of the Bodleian library. A statue of King James stands high over the courtyard, books in hand. The King loved the Bodleian. In a visit there in 1605 he said that he would love to spend his life chained alongside the library's chained books. The translators in London, Cambridge and Oxford drew on several earlier translations of the Bible as they went about their work. In the chapel at Hertford college, Oxford, Jim sees a stained glass window of William Tyndale, the first man to translate the Bible into English directly from Hebrew and Greek. The translators drew heavily on his work. Many of the phrases that come to mind when we think of the King James Bible are in fact those of Tyndale. The translators had several other Bible translations at their disposal too. Each had their own agenda; the Great Bible with its frontispiece depicting the idea of Royal Supremacy; the Puritans' Geneva Bible which challenged that very idea.

The Stationers Hall

We recorded this programme in both Oxford both inside and outside Bodleian library, in the Tower room at Corpus Christi college and a lovely moment there where we went into the chapel and interrupted a choir rehearsal to have a look at some pictures there, as well as The Stationers Hall in London, all on the same day!

James is shown two extraordinary documents which reveal how the translators worked. One, a 1602 copy of the Bishops Bible, contains annotations made by the scholars suggesting alternative translations. The other is a copy of notes made by one which reveals the mind of the revision committee which met to review the translations of all the companies.

The final programme in the series on Wednesday is called "The Legacy"...

He begins in the pub. James meets linguist and Renaissance scholar Gordon Campbell, the Jamaican poet Kei Miller and Rachel Holmes from the Southbank Centre to discuss the surprising and unusual places we hear of the King James today. "Salt of the earth", "skin of their teeth", "Apple of his eye" are all phrases that have come into the English language through the King James Bible, but do any of the drinkers in the pub know this? The King James Bible became part of our everyday speech because of the role that Christian belief and practise has played in our national story. Jim will meet Giles Fraser at St. Paul's Cathedral to discuss the central place of the Bible and Christianity within British culture. For 300 years the King James Bible reigned supreme. Nearly everyone went to church and the King James Bible was the only translation to be used. Preachers would draw crowds of over a thousand and the words of the King James gradually worked their way into the blood stream of all those in the country.

We started recording in St Paul's before it got too busy before moving on to the pub and ending up in the South Bank Centre where we were troubled by trains coming in and out over The Thames.

Then before Christmas, Rosie did a rough edit to get the content in the right order and choose the best versions of the answers and then I worked my magic to mould it all together with some readings, music and the soundscapes I also had recorded on location.

All in all it has been a challenging and rewarding series to work on. I do hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I have enjoyed being involved in making it.