The World at One (or WATO, pronounced "what-oh") is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs radio programme, broadcast weekdays from 13:00 to 13:45 and produced by BBC News. The programme describes itself as "Britain's leading political programme. With a reputation for rigorous and original investigation, it is required listening in Westminster".
From 7 November 2011, the programme was extended in length from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.
History
The programme began on 4 October 1965 on the BBC Home Service and its launch is considered to have been key in making news programmes "appointment to listen" broadcasting. As the then head of BBC Radio, Jenny Abramsky, noted, the programme started at a time when the Today programme was still in a magazine format. The World at One "broke new ground in news broadcasting and was one of the reasons why radio is still important today", helping establish a form of current affairs programme that influenced the creation of Newsnight in 1980 and Channel 4 News in 1982.
The launch of The World at One was part of a wider change in BBC news and current affairs coverage; more journalists were arriving from Fleet Street and replacing a more sedate and collegiate culture. John Timpson said that by 1966 or 1967, "[a]n Oxbridge accent was no longer as important as a good contacts book, a shrewd eye for a new angle, and a skin like a rhinoceros" and that the news offices "no longer had the leisurely atmosphere of a club smoking room".[1]
The programme had attracted criticism as it seemed to blend together news and current affairs, and break down the distinction made between reporting and interpretation. David Hendy, in Life on Air: A History of Radio Four, said that this change was more a change in aesthetic than it was in underlying organizational structure: "by allowing the programme presenter to write and deliver the headlines, it did appear to blur it [the distinction between news and comment] on air".[1]
In his history of radio news and current affairs, "Public Issue Radio", Hugh Chignell pointed out that The World at One was a highly successful but also a profoundly controversial innovation. It provided a successful approach to news and current affairs which would be cloned elsewhere but at the same time it horrified the more Reithian wing of the BBC, who reacted in the 1970s by creating single subject current affairs programmes (Analysis and File on 4) in reaction to The World at One's "vulgar" journalism. That vulgarity was personified by its first presenter, William Hardcastle, who was a former editor of the Daily Mail and had also been Washington Correspondent for Reuters.[1] The Radio Academy Hall of Fame says he "had a businesslike, but warm, broadcasting voice, and a style that emphasised fact rather than comment, bringing some Fleet Street urgency to the radio presentation of news". Hardcastle did not want to do the programme every day, so Andrew Boyle suggested he share the job with William Davis, another presenter whose career did not wholly depend on the BBC.
The programme was a success from the start. Over two million people were tuning in by the end of 1965, and would eventually reach four million by 1975.[1]
In 1998, the then Controller of Radio 4, James Boyle, reduced the duration of the programme from 40 to 30 minutes as part of a series of schedule changes.
The World at One is still known for its robust journalism. After a short introduction to the programme, there is a six-minute news bulletin, followed by serious political interviews and in-depth reports.
From late 2005, Shaun Ley presented the show while Clarke recovered from an operation to amputate his left leg. Clarke returned part-time in August 2006. Other stand-in presenters have included Brian Hanrahan, Guto Harri, Laura Trevelyan, Stephen Sackur, Carolyn Quinn, James Robbins and Mark Mardell. The main presenter until March 2018 was Martha Kearney, who presented from Monday to Thursday, with Ley usually in the chair on Friday. In April 2018 Sarah Montague took over the lead presenting role from Kearney, who left to take over Montague's previous role as part of the Today team.[2]
In 2012 and 2014 the programme was nominated as one of the best news and current affairs programmes in the Radio Academy Awards.
The previous week's programmes can be listened to again using BBC Sounds or downloaded as a podcast.
The World This Weekend is a weekly news and current affairs programme broadcast from 13:00 to 13:30 on BBC Radio 4 every Sunday. It was launched on 17 September 1967.
Today – Radio 4's early morning stablemate to The World at One.
PM – Radio 4's early evening stablemate to The World at One.
The World Tonight – Radio 4's late evening stablemate to The World at One.
Related Research Articles
Today, colloquially known as the Today programme, is BBC Radio 4's long-running morning news and current-affairs radio programme. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 06:00 to 09:00, it is produced by BBC News and is the highest-rated programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks. In-depth political interviews and reports are interspersed with regular news bulletins, as well as Thought for the Day. It has been voted the most influential news programme in Britain in setting the political agenda, with an average weekly listening audience around 6 million.
Newsnight is the BBC's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. It is broadcast weeknights at 22:30 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel; it is also available on BBC iPlayer.
PM, sometimes referred to as the PM programme to avoid ambiguity, is BBC Radio 4's long-running early evening news and current affairs programme. It is currently presented by Evan Davis and produced by BBC News.
Alexander James Naughtie is a British radio presenter and journalist, known for presenting on BBC Radio 4. From 1994 to 2015, he was one of the main presenters of the Today programme. In his 21 years on Today, Naughtie had anchored every BBC Radio UK election results programme from 1997 onwards. He also worked on every US presidential election from 1988 to 2012.
The World Tonight is a British current affairs radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4, every weekday evening, which started out as an extension of the 10 pm news. It is produced by BBC News and features news, analysis and comment on domestic and world issues. Ritula Shah was the main presenter until 27 February 2023, usually presenting the first three days of the week. In the past, the programme utilised other BBC broadcasters, including David Eades, Carolyn Quinn, James Coomarasamy, Roger Hearing to regularly present on Thursdays, Fridays and in Shah's absence. The programme is currently presented on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays by James Coomarasamy. Between 1989 and 2012, the main presenter was Robin Lustig.
Nicholas Campbell Clarke, was an English radio and television presenter and journalist, primarily known for his work on BBC Radio 4.
Martha Catherine Kearney is a British-Irish journalist and broadcaster. She was the main presenter of BBC Radio 4's lunchtime news programme The World at One for 11 years.
Mark Mardell is a British journalist, formerly the presenter of The World This Weekend on BBC Radio 4. He had previously served as BBC News's Europe editor, and provided coverage for each United Kingdom general election between 1992 and 2005, before he became North America editor.
David Greenhalgh Jessel is a British former TV and radio news presenter, author, and campaigner against miscarriages of justice. From 2000 to 2010, he was also a commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Sarah Anne Louise Montague, Lady Brooke, is a British journalist and presenter of the BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme The World at One. For 18 years, prior to April 2018, she was a regular presenter of another radio programme, Today.
Radio 4 News FM was the national BBC station devoted to rolling news service that was on air during the Gulf War from 16 January until 2 March 1991. It was broadcast on Radio 4's FM frequencies, whilst regular scheduled service continued on longwave. This station was also broadcast on BBC World Service. At the time, some journalists gave it the nickname Scud FM from the Scud missiles used by Iraqi forces in the war.
BBC Newswatch is a weekly BBC television programme presented by Samira Ahmed that provides a viewer and listener right-of-reply for BBC News. The programme was originally made in studio TC7 at BBC Television Centre, however in January 2013, the programme moved to New Broadcasting House in central London.
Giovanni Batista "Jack" de Manio MC and Bar was a British journalist, best known as a radio presenter.
24 Hours or Twenty-Four Hours is a long-running, late-evening, weekdaily news magazine programme that aired on BBC1. It focused on analysis and criticism of current affairs, and featured in-depth short documentary films that set the style for current-affairs magazine programmes. 24 Hours launched on 4 October 1965 and focused on investigative journalism. The programme's main presenter was Cliff Michelmore.
Anthony Charles Whitby was a British BBC Radio producer and television current affairs editor who was Controller of BBC Radio 4 from 1970 to 1975.
Shaun Dominic Ley is a British journalist and newsreader for BBC News. He currently appears regularly on a wide range of BBC programmes from HARDTalk to BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight and the BBC World Service's Newshour.
This is a list of events in British radio during 2015.
Stephen Edward Hewlett was a British print, radio and TV journalist, and visiting professor of Journalism and Broadcast Policy at the University of Salford.
A timeline of notable events relating to BBC Radio 4, a British national radio station which began broadcasting in September 1967.
References
1 2 3 4 Hendy, David (2007). Life on Air: A History of Radio Four. Oxford University Press. pp.47–49. ISBN9780199248810.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
