Your editorial (5 September) on the brilliant – and probably irreplaceable – Melvyn Bragg and In Our Time absolutely nails it. As an English language teacher in France, I know I speak for very many when I say that the extraordinary range and depth of programmes over the years has been a fabulous resource for university-level students across France.
On checking support material for my upcoming course on biodiversity this semester, I found no less than 16 links to various episodes (from “well over 1,000 programmes”), including feathered dinosaurs and the paleocene-eocene thermal maximum. Last semester’s course on radicality in the 19th century is some way behind with just 10 references. But more than the mere utility, there is the impression that In Our Time kept alive a connection to a certain idea of Britain – one that has been put to rude épreuve over at least the last 15 years.
The idea of public service as a good, the search for truth and understanding, the ability to find profundity in so much, the admirable modesty of those involved, as well as the best type of broadcasting, the familiar friend behind the microphone. At 85 you can’t hold it against him, but how we’ll miss our Thursday morning rendezvous. Tea, coffee … or champagne, Melvyn?
Steve Brown
Fontenay-sous-Bois, France
• Your leader celebrates, quite rightly, the excellent In Our Time radio programme and its esteemed host, Melvyn Bragg. What you fail to mention is Tony Blair’s role in the show’s creation. When Mr Blair won his first term, the powers that be at Radio 4 decided that Bragg, a Labour supporter and the host of the somewhat political Start the Week, had to go elsewhere. Off he went to Thursday morning, and we were all the better for it. Whatever you think of Blair, he deserves a (little) bit of credit here.
Robert McNulty
Manchester
• In Our Time became a thinking-nutrient-rich environment in which one could rest, connect and broaden horizons in peace; in our own time. Melvyn Bragg’s voice of a friend, gently handing up insights over the years, personally eased the frustrations of a poor formal education by opening doors, via the BBC, to better understandings of other worlds; calmly, lucidly and without judgment. Thank you, Melvyn Bragg.
Helen Read
Parap, Northern Territory, Australia
• What an excellent programme In Our Time is, due in large part to the way Melvyn Bragg has insightfully chaired the discussions and his uncanny knack of asking his erudite panellists the very questions listeners themselves would like to ask. But who’s to replace him? For me, James Naughtie has to be at the top of the shortlist.
Moxley Cooper
Stoke Gifford, Bristol
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