Paul Donovan and Veg Talk

[Old Gaffer Jarge]

I don’t know if anyone has read Paul Donovan’s column in today’s Sunday Times:Paul Donovan, but he reports that Veg Talk is to end after the next series. Mr Donovan also comments on the polirzation that can occur in respect of listeners’ loyalty to programmes and cites Home Truths and Though For The Day as examples.

I always found Greg and Charlie rather irritating broadcasters, but Veg Talk was the one programme that wasn’t hostile to vegetarians or animal welfare in the way that The Food Programme and Woman’s Hour are.

The great mystery here, though, is why Veg Talk is to be sacked off, yet Quote Unquote stays. Surely it’s time for R4 to release listening figures for its programmes? I’d certainly like to inspect them for QUQ, Saturday Review, Midweek, Start The Week and Woman’s Hour.

Sunday R4 is well overdue for an overhaul and sounds almost the same as it did 20 or 30 years ago. The only really imaginative programme that I can recall is The New Europeans. I think that was broadcast in the 90’s. The lack of enthusiasm for POTW worries me deeply and I think this is more a reflection of the decline in the interest in radio listening, rather than any fault with the production of POTW.

[rosalie]

I quite like Veg Talk. I'm suspecting that its the matey way that Greg and Charlie are that R4 don't like . After all they're essentially just guys from the fruit market .

Quote Unquote is unbearably smug..yeach!

[Crusoe]

Old said:

Paul Donovan’s column in today’s Sunday Times:Paul Donovan, but he reports that Veg Talk is to end after the next series.

Thanks for that, Jarge – it’s a very interesting and enjoyable article (even the puns). In fact it made me go to look at the “Artist and Radio 4” exhibition (although it turns out that half an hour is not long enough to look around it, properly).

rosalie said:

I quite like Veg Talk. I'm suspecting that its the matey way that Greg and Charlie are that R4 don't like . After all they're essentially just guys from the fruit market .

On those occasions when I‘ve listened to Veg Talk, I’ve rather enjoyed it. The matey nature of the show is part of it’s charm and its presenters seem to be decent, down-to-earth people who know their subject well. I seem to recall them doing a programme in a school, about a year ago, to try to get children interested in vegetables a while before Jamie’s School Dinners made it trendy. But I suspect that, as you say, it’s the style rather than the content which doesn’t go down well with the powers that be.

It’s oddthat it is to be replaced by Costing the Earth. Doesn’t that have its own slot, already?