Thinking about Radio TOO MUCH

Apparently Radio 4 is hugely popular and called things like 'a national treasure,' which makes me deeply happy inside.* I hope they take this as a mandate for 'more of the same please!' and don't go changing things everywhere. As someone who has been listening to Radio 7 for almost as long I feel a strange sort of attachment to that station as well, despite (or because of) its neglected position on the cold and windy fringes of the BBC Empire. I don't really know how to feel about it being rechristened 'Radio 4 Extra' – to be honest, that's more or less how I've always thought of it, but it just seems so incongruously hip for a station which is fundamentally a retirement home for classic comedy, books-on-tape, and out-of-date topical humour. Labelling it so redefines it as simply an adjunct of Radio 4 ... which, okay, it is, but it's also its own thing with its own personality and flavour. It's like stripping a grown child of their name and calling them Parent Jr.

Anyway, I was mulling on this, and came to what I think is an acceptable compromise.

Ladies and gentlemen of the BBC, I propose to you: Radio 4+3

See, it works – not just mathematically, but it usually takes about three years for shows from Radio 4 to turn up on 7. So appropriate! So dorky! You know you want it.

This Saturday Radio 4+3 brings you a new series of The Man in Black! It's basically a series of mildly creepy radio plays, in the vein of Twilight Zone, but – this is the important bit – framed by Mark Gatiss doing his spooky voice. Any opportunity for Mark Gatiss' spooky voice is welcome by me! Sometimes I go back and listen to old episodes and skip the actual play part just for the spooky voice.

*not least because I have spent most of my life completely disconnected from the tastes and values of most audiences