Same old story

Published Monday 28 April 2008 at 18:05

With regard to the article in last week’s Stage about the Friday night readings on Radio 2 (April 17, page 2), I have been listening to these readings for many years now and was not surprised to learn that they would be airing more repeats as this is already taking place.

The thing that irks me is that Radio 2 only repeats the more recent serials. At present these include I Claudius, before that The Lady Vanishes and Rebecca. These books can be classed as classics and worthy of another broadcast, but they were originally on the radio less than a year ago. If the BBC must use repeats, could they not delve back into the archives and come up with something much older that listeners cannot remember? The very first series I heard was The 39 Steps, read by John Nettles and I believe that was more than ten years ago. Does the BBC destroy programmes after a certain numbers of years?

There is nothing wrong about letting the public have the chance to hear good programmes again, but we are not children wanting to hear the same bedtime stories. Some people may not have heard the original broadcasts and it would be new to them.

So come on Radio 2, have a hunt around at the back of the shelves, you never know what you’ll find.

Linda Randall

Clifford Road

Princes Risborough

Bucks