The team behind Chortle, the comprehensive, critical and up-to-date guide to the all aspects of comedy in Britain, have launched a petition to save Radio 4 Extra as comedians, writers, producers and broadcasters stepped up to criticise the BBC’s decision to axe the much-loved archive comedy and drama station.

Check out the Chortle petition here on 38 Degrees

In a note to staff setting out the changes, BBC Director-General Matt Brittin said: “We need to make every pound work harder for audiences as we respond to the immediate cost pressures and reinvent the BBC for a changing world. We all know that means tough choices.” 

He added on the closure of linear broadcast services: “Much of the great content they currently carry will still be found where audiences already enjoy it on iPlayer and Sounds. While this follows media speculation, I recognise the confirmation of this news will be hard for audiences and colleagues.”

But while the changing broadcast landscape is recognised by most as a challenge, many have rounded on the closure plan, questioning its logic.

“In my opinion, we’re going to lose something incredibly valuable to the cultural fabric and history of this country,” says former Radio 1 DJ Wes Butters and R4E continuity announcer of the plan. “If Radio 4 Extra with its carefully curated archive isn’t the epitome of public service broadcasting, well, I don’t know what is. Only the BBC can do it. A sad day.”

Radio Times Editor Shem Law says BBC Radio 4 Extra is living proof that great broadcasting does not acquire a sell-by date, and we’ll be losing more than just a radio station when it closes.

Radio 4 Extra is a fabulous showcase of the BBC’s phenomenal archive of radio comedy and drama, fields in which the Corporation is an undoubted pioneer, with a reputation for quality rivals woud envy. Recent broadcasts include such gems as the 1988 production of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Bernard Hepton, for example, along with being home to classic comedies such as The Goon Show, Tony Hancock and Beyond Our Ken, as well as more contemporary stand-up specials, sitcoms and panel shows.

At minimal cost to the licence-payer, the platform provides a marvellous showcase for the best of this nation’s creative output, providing a linear, broadcast station which showcases some absolutely fantastic BBC audio output over the decades.

At most, campaigners argue, the planned move will save £4 million a year – just .067 per cent of the BBC’s almost £6 billion-a-year budget. That same percentage of the £180 a year licence fee works out at around 12 pence.

The channel is expected to close in March 2027, and at least “some” of its enjoyable content (the BBC has yet to say what) will remain available on BBC Sounds. But as many listeners pointed out, to access that you need to know what to search for, rather than being presented with curated programming.

Perhaps, if they updated their BBC Sounds app to create and save your own schedule of programmes as a playlist, even with features to increment the episodes of a series when copying to another day, for example, that might be some small comfort…

Check out the Chortle petition here on 38 Degrees

Listener Reaction: Less Than Impressed!

The decision has bemused many, pointing out that, according to the latest RAJAR quarter ratings figures, Radio 4 Extra reach is double that of Radio 1 Extra, Radio 1 Anthems, Radio1 Dance or Radio 3U. Some of these channels are specifically aimed at the “younger demographic” the BBC’s new Director General is reportedly chasing, at the expense of obliging licence fee payers.

Others were critical because many of Radio 4 Extra’s 1.55 million weekly listeners are from an older age group, likely to be less au fait with digital streaming. 

Dirk Maggs, who adapted The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy books for the radio after Douglas Adams’ death, put some nuance the “older audience” claim, noting: “Radio 4 Extra isn’t an apocryphal service for superannuated listeners. It is a cultural resource for all ages and a constant reminder of a braver, expertly curated BBC which respected its heritage.”

“Getting rid of Radio 4 Extra is a terrible, terrible decision,” said Guardian and Private Eye contributor Sarah Dempster. “… It’s an incredibly shortsighted move.”

“I was enormously saddened today by the announcement that the BBC is to axe its digital radio channel Radio 4 Extra, currently home to a splendid and wonderfully varied selection of comedy, drama, and feature programmes from the vast Beeb archives,” commented veteran director Bert Coules, whose credits include The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Cadfael and Rebus.

“The argument that the programmes ‘will still be found where audiences already enjoy them, on iPlayer and Sounds’ completely ignores the section of the public which for a variety of reasons doesn’t have access to online services. It also fails to acknowledge the vast difference between actively seeking out programmes on Sounds and discovering them by happy accident on transmission.

“For many, Radio 4 Extra is a continuous day and sometimes night-time companion, a true friend: those listeners will lose something hugely valuable and completely irreplaceable. To paraphrase the current campaign, what is the BBC planning to do for them?”

“Losing this treasure trove of classic comedy, archive drama, and timeless storytelling would be a huge blow for millions of us,” feels award-winning and producer Gail Renard.

The Radio Circle, a network of enthusiasts who track down and restore lost episodes of old shows, also said their work would be affected without Radio 4 Extra being there champion them, and broadcast some of their recovered treasures.

“Not only has the channel been the ideal outlet for the many programmes we have recovered,” they say, “the staff have always been very encouraging, helpful, and, most importantly, have promoted what we do resulting in numerous collections being offered to us.

‘Radio Circle will continue to work through collections offered to us and recover lost radio and will be ready to offer new hitherto lost shows should there be a change in circumstances and Radio 4 Extra rises, like a phoenix, from the ashes.”

Comedian Toby Hadoke, who presents Radio 4 Extra’s science-fiction, fantasy, and horror block The 7th Dimension told Chortle: “I’m just very sad. 4 Extra is not just a rerun channel, it is a lovingly curated repository of broadcasting gems, which, in between the programmes, provides context and, to use the modern parlance, content – bleurgh.

“Putting the archive on demand on the Sounds App may sound like a sensible alternative, but it actually strips away the unique bit that a public service broadcaster can provide – that old fashioned idea of the listener not knowing what’s coming on next, but being prepared to be surprised by it. 

“That’s the way I have discovered so many things that I love and it’s the anathema of the on-demand culture being pursued here. It’s a channel people leave on – give themselves over to. It exploits an available resource. And its listeners are probably the very last people whom a digital alternative will suit. 

“It saddens me that these current attempts to save a public service broadcaster seem to involve a diminution of the actual public service broadcasting that the BBC does. It feels like trying to save the rainforests by cutting down all the trees but saying ‘It’s OK, we are investing in astroturf.’”

“News that Radio 4 Extra, BBC Three, and BBC Scotland are to stop as linear services, will have varying impacts for Equity members and, of course, audiences across the UK,” the actors union said in a statement.

“The loss of Radio 4 Extra in its current format will be a significant blow to the income of audio artists. The channel currently airs archival programmes and our members are paid for these repeats. But from April 2027, only some of Radio 4 Extra’s content will be available on BBC Sounds. This will be therefore be a reduction in income for audio artists and in the BBC’s overall output of scripted audio.”

“If closing surely the least expensive radio channel the BBC has, run by a tiny number of people, broadcasting the work of mainly dead people, bothers you, then why not sign this petition?” suggests writer, comedian and broadcaster Richard Herring.

Check out the Chortle petition here on 38 Degrees

• Read more reaction to the BBC’s decision to close Radio 4 Extra here on Chortle

The Cuts Don’t Stop With R4E

Other announced cuts to BBC radio services, the Corporation faced with the task of massive cost savings in the face of a rapidly changing broadcasting environment, include another cutback to World Service programmes overnight. It’s been reported 26 London-based are to be axed, and the night shift for bulletins and The Newsroom are to go. Production and presentation will also reportedly be from Sydney. rather than London, suggesting the possibility that shared overnight bulletins on Radio 2 and 5 Live will be from Australia, and not the UK.

Added to the cuts to Radio 4’s The World Tonight and Midnight Newsroom, note the team behind Radio Random Jottings, “there will be hardly any UK-based news programmes, other than some evening bulletins for the best part of twelve hours.”

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John Freeman

John  is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of  comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.

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Categories: Audio, Digital Media, downthetubes News, Other Worlds

Tags: BBC, BBC Radio 4 Extra, Bert Coules, Chortle, Dirk Maggs, downthetubes News, Toby Hadoke