After 27 years and 1,000 episodes, veteran broadcaster Melvyn Bragg this week announced he’s stepping down as host of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, marking the end of an era for the institution.
The 85-year-old has presented the programme since its 1998 launch, guiding listeners through expert discussions on history, religion, culture, science and philosophy.
Lord Bragg said in a statement: “For a programme with a wholly misleading title which started from scratch with a six-month contract, it’s been quite a ride!”
“I have worked with many extremely talented and helpful people inside the BBC, as well as some of the greatest academics around the world.”
He dubbed the role “a great privilege and pleasure” and thanked his audience for listening to the programme for more than two decades.
The BBC have confirmed In Our Time will return to Radio 4 soon with a new presenter at the helm.
Although many of Bragg’s fans have said the broadcaster is “irreplaceable”, here are the broadcasters and historians who could take on the position when it returns to the airwaves.
Amol Rajan
Amol Rajan was editor of The Independent from 2013 to 2016 before taking on the role of BBC News’s media editor until 2022. He’s been a presenter on Radio 4’s Today programme since 2021 and hosted BBC Two’s University Challenge since 2023.
Jonathan Freedland
Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland hosts the paper’s Politics Weekly America podcast, as well as Radio 4’s The Long View programme, in which stories from the past are compared with current events.
Samira Ahmed
BBC journalist Samira Ahmed fronts Newswatch and BBC Breakfast for the broadcaster. She is one of the current hosts of Radio 4’s live magazine programme Front Row on the world of arts, literature, music, film and media. She has also presented the station’s The World Tonight programme, which provides in-depth reporting and analysis on major breaking news from a global perspective.
Ben Ansell
Oxford University politics professor Ben Ansell is the author of the 2023 book Why Politics Fails, host of the Tortoise podcast What’s Wrong with Democracy and presenter of Radio 4’s Rethink series, where he asks some of the world’s sharpest minds about what modern logic might mean for policy and society.
Tom Holland
Novelist and historian Tom Holland is one half of the hugely popular The Rest is History podcast, and has worked with the BBC to create and host documentaries, including Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters for BBC Four. He has also worked on numerous editions of Radio 4’s Making History programme, which connects historical themes to modern issues.
Dominic Sandbrook
The other half of The Rest is History podcast, historian, presenter and writer Dominic Sandbrook, has penned books on numerous eras from the Vikings to the Second World War to Alexander the Great. He has frequently appeared on Radio 4’s Archive programme, exploring topics including the Royal Mail, Prime Minister’s questions and British working-class conservatives.
Kirsty Wark
TV presenter Kirsty Wark has been a journalist on network television since the 1980s. She was one of the first reporters to cover the Lockerbie bombings and famously faced down Margaret Thatcher in an interview in 1990. She’s presented BBC2’s arts programme The Late Show, the heritage show One Foot in the Past, Newsnight from 1993 to 2024, and Radio 4’s Front Row.
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