More or Less (radio programme)

Last updated

More or Less
Running time30 minutes (nominal) & 9 minutes
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Language(s)English
Home station BBC Radio 4
BBC World Service
Hosted by Tim Harford (since 2007)
Created byMichael Blastland
Produced by Charlotte McDonald
Edited byRichard Vadon
Website Web site
Podcast BBC podcast

More or Less is an investigative BBC Radio 4 programme about the accuracy of numbers and statistics in the public domain. The programme often addresses statistical issues which pertain to topics in the news.

Contents

The programme was created in 2001 by Michael Blastland as a one-off series of six programmes presented by Andrew Dilnot. The positive response to the show led to its becoming a regular programme, first with two series a year and since the winter series of 2008–2009, with three.

As well as the 30-minute Radio 4 programme, there is also a nine-minute BBC World Service edition that runs throughout the year. Both versions appear in the programme's podcast stream. The World Service edition either repeats an item from Radio 4 or has original material (usually when the Radio 4 show is off air). The programme is normally broadcast (as at September 2020) 9:02 to 9:30am on Wednesday.

In 2007, Blastland and Dilnot published a related book, The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers about misuse of statistics.

Guests of the show have included Professor Sir Angus Deaton, Mark Lynas, Hannah Ritchie, and Professor Sir Richard Blundell.

Since October 2007 the show has been presented by Tim Harford.

Awards

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References

  1. Royal Statistical Society awards Accessed 26 April 2015
  2. More or Less Honoured Archived 29 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 5 June 2010