As the year draws to a close and Christmas presents are frantically bought, it's that time of year again when Radio 4 gets festive and names the guest editors for the Today programme between Christmas and the New Year. What do you think of this year's eclectic crew of: Damon Albarn from Blur, Stella Rimington formerly from MI5, Peter Hennessey and Nobel prize winner Sir Martin Evans?
"I couldn't resist the opportunity to take the agenda out of the hands of those who usually set it - namely the politicians - and instead have some of the issues that I think are important aired and debated," thunders Rimington in the BBC press release accompanying the announcement - as if pretending that she never had any power to set agendas when leading one of the world's biggest secret service operations.
Albarn will apparently find lessons for Britain in Mali's approach to recycling; Professor Hennessy will track the evolution of political satire; while Sir Martin will investigate the consequences of Chernobyl. Rimington, meanwhile, will report on declining trust in politics.
The latest batch of guest editors follow the likes of Bono, Stephen Hawking, Anthony Minghella, Yoko Ono and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who have all dipped their oars in the Today stream.
And who can forget last year when budding Tory MP and ecologist Zac Goldsmith did a stint and Today's assistant editor Peter Hanington informed the programme's blog that his female colleagues turned up that morning in "fewer clothes and a lot more perfume"?
Pete Doherty was apparently once considered as a suitable guest editor before being ruled out.
Guest editors are, we are told, responsible for between a third and a half of their programme's output. But the BBC also assures us that "duty editors, producers and reporters are on hand to help to turn their ideas into high-quality radio journalism and make sure that material chosen is newsworthy and meets the BBC's Editorial Guidelines".
