A shame that new BBC Radio 4 controller Gwyneth Williams turned down Roger Bolton's invitation to meet the listeners on the station's Feedback programme today. Bolton typically doesn't take any prisoners when a BBC exec declines to appear but he went easy on his new boss because she has only been in the job a few weeks.
"It's no surprise then that the incoming controller Gwyneth Williams is keeping her cards close to her chest," said Bolton. "In other words, she has refused our invitation to come on Feedback for the moment, but we will keep on until we get her." What followed was 15 minutes of profile and interviews about the new controller, which threw up one memorable nugget: Williams has a habit of walking around the office without any shoes on. "She would quite often wander around in bare feet, which I took as a sign of being very informal and approachable," remembered senior radio producer Mark Savage. Forget about the fat controller – could Williams be the BBC's first barefoot controller?
