When Margaret Howard left BBC Radio 4’s Pick of the Week in 1991, it fell to me, as the programme’s chief producer, to propose Chris Serle as her successor. All went well until 1994, when the actor Ian McKellen, speaking on Nick Ross’s Radio 4 phone-in Tuesday Call, made a big tabloid splash with a calm but impassioned defence of homosexuality. Many listeners were appalled and vented their fury and hatred in vehement language on air.
The whole ding-dong was an obvious natural for Pick of the Week, and I supported Chris in characterising those expressing homophobic views as “bigots” in his script. Another backlash followed, along with the inevitable BBC reprimand to me for allowing Chris to use that word, for reasons of “partiality”.
But, despite the kerfuffle, we never regretted what happened and it is good to recall that Chris struck a necessary blow against prejudice and ended up on the right side of history.
