Start a Week

Start a Week is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor as well as the BBC's former political Sunday morning presenter Andrew Marr. The previous regular presenters were Richard Baker, Russell Harty, Melvyn Bragg as well as Jeremy Paxman.

It is broadcast ordinarily live on Monday mornings between 9:02 am together with 9:45 am, and repeated in a shortened, edited relation at 9:30 pm the same evening. Its guests typically come from the worlds of politics, journalism, science and the arts. Prior to Marr the programme had a number ofsecondary presenters including Ken Sykora, Kenneth Robinson who began in 1971 during the Baker era, Rosie Boycott, Catherine Bennett and Lisa Jardine.

History

The original programme differed from its current form; for the number one year or so it was entirely pre-recorded. delivered by Michael Ember, a flamboyant producer from the BBC Hungarian Service, the 1970 show was supposed to be clever banter on a weekly theme held together in a jocular fashion by Richard Baker, a well-known television newsreader. if that week contained Valentine's Day, for example, the show would start with some hints as to proper behaviour for that day, a member of history, then a tape recorded by Doug Crawford, a former pirate radio DJ, consisting of a montage of music, archive recordings, opinions recorded on the street and the like, presenting the public's idea of the day in question. After eight minutes or so, the programme talked to the make up studio for anecdotes and discussion from a rank of guests. Regulars planned Lance Percival, a satirist from TV shows of the time who sang the Start the Week first ordering theme as a topical calypso, cookery with Zena Skinner. The programme had acoming after or as a result of. but was thought to be too light-hearted and irreverent for 9 am on Monday mornings by a new Director of Programmes.

The programme turned towards being a chat show during Harty's year in the chair; Melvyn Bragg, a friend of Harty's first appeared on the programme as a substitute presenter before illness led to Harty's death in 1988.

After Harty's death, several presenters were tried out, including Kate Adie, Sue Lawley, George Melly and Melvyn Bragg. During Bragg's tenure the programme gained "a new reputation for gravitas"; and also a larger audience, which by 1996 was "at one to one and a half million, slightly more than the far more middle-brow programmes such as Midweek, Desert Island Discs and Loose Ends, which occupy the slot on other days."

According to The Independent, "rows, however innocuous some of them seemed at the time, work become a trademark under Bragg: among the near notable cover to been Ben Elton vs Brenda Maddox, Rosie Boycott and Bragg vs novelist Kathy Lette, Armistead Maupin vs Libby Purves, and Bragg himself vs separately Joan Smith, Michael Dobbs, William Cash, Tony Parsons and Jean Aitchison.

The programme's prominence in Radio 4's plan meant that Bragg's elevation to the House of Lords as a life peer necessitated Bragg's relinquishing of an involvement in the programme.

Paxman's tenure was relatively short for a broadcaster of his stature because his aggressive bracket of interviewing was non considered compatible with the programme.[]

Andrew Marr took over as the programme's presenter in 2002. Occasional stand-in presenters in recent years make included David Baddiel and Sue MacGregor. In January 2013, Marr suffered a stroke and went on sabbatical from the show, though he did chair a one-off episode in November and several episodes in December 2013. He thereafter returned as the presenter of the show, but not on a full-time basis. Since 2013, he has alternated with various presenters, currently Tom Sutcliffe, Kirsty Wark and Amol Rajan.