In your editorial on Radio 3 (The Guardian view on Radio 3’s new leader: a tough challenge ahead, 22 January), you pose some questions frequently asked about the network, one being whether it should showcase music or include drama too. Anyone who listens to Radio 3 knows that it does. There is a new play or a new production of a classic every Sunday night.
Radio 3 has many other hidden gems. There are outstanding jazz, folk and world music shows on Saturdays and Sundays. Fellow former devotees of The Archers will find a warm and witty welcome in the Radio 3 Mixtape every weeknight at 7pm. Try Radio 3. In a world of formulaic radio, it’s fun.
Gillian Reynolds
London
• Numerous musicians and music lovers will welcome your leader on the importance of BBC Radio 3. I shall be 83 on 6 April and the BBC has been essential to my musical development since I was a little boy in a poor home outside Swansea. The station has ensured that this country acquired a reputation for being the most musical in the world. It has provided a flagship for musical education and nurtured the world’s greatest music festival – the Proms. It has also supported new music of all kinds, and showcased ethnic minority musical traditions.
Meirion Bowen
London
• I would listen to Radio 3 more if they did not have so much chat – especially chat over music. The worst offender is This Classical Life, where both host and guest talk over music all the time. It’s best if they’re separated, as in Private Passions. This talk-over rot has even infected one of my favourite programmes, Words and Music.
Emma Tristram
Binsted, West Sussex
