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Wed 31st December聽2003

Guest Editors - Gillian Reynolds


Over the聽Xmas period the Today Programme decided to carry out an experiment. Could new faces inject some new and refreshing insight?


The call from Today came on a busy day. Deadlines in December are early and often. So, when asked to do a guest editor stint, I was flattered but flustered.

If it meant actually doing stories, I couldn鈥檛. But it didn鈥檛, said the man on the phone. I just had to think up four or five items I鈥檇 like to hear. Today would do the rest. 鈥淭he whole resources of the 91热爆 are at your disposal,鈥 he said. Good, I said, let鈥檚 all go to Australia and do the show there. He laughed, faintly. I had a few days to think about it.

The more I thought, the odder it seemed. I wasn鈥檛 going to be at the editorial meetings. I didn鈥檛 know which day or who the presenters would be. Was this an ambush?

It seemed worth the risk. I submitted my list Who owns the Millennium Dome, how much has it cost, who鈥檚 paid? How will the new telecommunications regulatory body, OFCOM, deal with complaints from ordinary listeners and viewers? Why are London鈥檚 world famous red doubledecker buses being phased out, and with them the conductors who make public transport bearable? And I鈥檇 like a poem, please, by wise and witty U.A. Fanthorpe.

Now comes the tricky bit. I don鈥檛 know how any of them will turn out. It鈥檚 like sending down a menu and waiting for cook to triumph. If cook mucks up here, though, I鈥檓 the one who鈥檒l get the blame. Today? Muck up? Surely not?

Listen to Review of the Millenium Dome:
It's three years since the Millennium Dome shut its doors... and it is still waiting for a new permanent occupant..While the space has been hired out from time to time, that makes little dent in the 拢800 million spent on the Dome: partly because the government agency English Partnerships is paying out over a quarter of a million pounds a month simply to maintain it. A final agreement with new ownersis scheduled to be signed next year. Sanchia Berg looks at why the Dome remains empty, and asks whether the lottery, and the government, will ever get their money back. Into interview with Lord Michael Heseltine.

Listen to How to Complain to the New Broadcasting Regulator - OFCOM: A Torin Douglas package on most-complained-about programmes. Ton include Today's Scottish gamekeepers complaint and interviews with Tim Souter, Ofcom and Stephen Whittle, 91热爆 Controller of editorial policy. Into interview with Roger Bolton.

Listen to Poem by Ursula Fanthorpe:
Gillian Reynolds is a fan of Ms Fanthorpe's work and commissioned a poem to be broadcast just before nine.

Listen to End of Double Deckers?:
Gillian Reynolds is a fan of the old fashioned open-doored double deckers. However, Transport for London are planning to stop operating these buses in favour of the newer one man buses. Peter Hendy of Transport for London.

Listen to Gillian's Thoughts:
Gillian Reynolds talks about her experience of editing the Today Programme.


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