Radio 5 Live has brought in three new presenters – well, one of them isn’t exactly new – and blimey, it’s like a whole new (not exactly new) station. Last week, Nihal Arthanayake started as one half of the presenting team on Afternoon Edition, partnering Sarah Brett. On Wednesday, Emma Barnett began her new slot – 10am to 1pm (Wednesdays to Fridays) – and Colin Murray was back back back on Saturday morning’s Fighting Talk.
All these appointments are correct, though we could argue a little about Murray. Something went very wrong in 2014 when 5 Live’s controller, Jonathan Wall, let go of Victoria Derbyshire, Shelagh Fogarty and Richard Bacon all at once. It was seen, by me, as well as others, as not only mismanagement to lose all that talent, but also a missed opportunity to appoint women into the vacated slots.
They left, we got sleepy Adrian Chiles and sleepier Peter Allen in mid-mornings, and it felt as if all the fun had gone. (Allen has had an air of sliding into retirement ever since. Let’s hope that his new show, with his old pal Jane Garvey on Sunday nights will give him a lift.) 5 Live is a station that needs strong characters, identifiable personalities. Not high-profile in the Radio 2 manner, but hosts who know who they are, what’s going on in the world, who will work hard to get interviews and work even harder during those interviews.
Arthanayake is committed (he’s moved his family to Manchester), he’s experienced (Radio 1, Asian Network) and he’s very listenable. Last week he showed that his rapport with Brett is already easy and unforced, even when, as on Thursday, they were in different cities. He has that chatty, well-did-you-ever? style that works well in the afternoon. He’s not as off the wall as Bacon, but I’m not sure that the BBC has the guts to appoint off the wall at the moment. Listening to Arthanayake, it’s as though he’s always been there.
Barnett is also good. Fluent and professional, she knows how to cover the odd slip-up (a short gap in news bullet points), how to talk to callers, when to cut them off, when to put in a joke (“but she’s a vital ingredient” re Mary Berry). Her show needs to step up its interviewees – the odd political heavyweight would be excellent – but these are early days and Barnett is positive and unafraid. Her talk with Fiona McKeown, whose 15-year-old daughter was murdered in India in 2008, was sensitive and powerful.
And Colin Murray? I never understood why Murray was allowed to leave 5 Live, let alone the BBC network. I realise that the BBC has a plethora of presenters to choose from, so many that sterling talents such as Katie Puckrick, Alex Lester, Gemma Cairney and Zoë Ball are sidelined. But Murray always seemed made for 5 Live, funny, knowledgeable, full of repartee as he is (I’m trying to avoid the word “banter”). But he left and went to TalkSport, where he stayed until the station was bought by News Corp, the publishers of the Sun. Murray, a diehard Liverpool supporter, felt he couldn’t stay and Jonathan Wall pounced. I hope they find him more to do than just Fighting Talk. Also, Josh Widdicombe and Georgie Thompson, who presented FT while he was away, were pretty good. It seems unfair to have them pushed aside when there are other slots that aren’t working where Murray would fit…
Overall, though, a vast improvement. The fun is back. At last.
