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Feedback: Local Radio controversy, BBC World Service funding, New comedy double act The Pin

Factual

27/11/2015

Local Radio controversy, BBC World Service funding, New comedy double act The Pin

BBC Radio 4 - Feedback, Local Radio controversy, BBC World Service funding, New comedy double act The Pin

Should a BBC presenter have expressed his own views on Christianity and homosexuality?

Should a BBC presenter have expressed his own views on Christianity and homosexuality? Plus new radio comedy duo The Pin, and BBC World Service gets government funding.

Roger Bolton airs audience views on BBC radio output, including a controversy in local radio, new funding for the World Service, and the fresh comedy duo The Pin.

Earlier this month, presenter Iain Lee hosted a controversial discussion about Christianity and LGBT rights on his BBC Three Counties radio breakfast show. The heated interviews divided listeners and Iain Lee has now left the station. Campaigns across social media, led by fans and LGBT rights groups, have since demanded Iain Lee's reinstatement, but to what extent should a BBC presenter be allowed to take sides in a debate?

The Government has announced that it will provide the BBC World Service with an additional £85 million a year, as part of the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review. In the review, the World Service is cited as a way to expand UK 'soft power' and will be required to spend the money expanding services in key global regions. While this additional funding is welcomed by many World Service listeners, others question whether the BBC is becoming an arm of British foreign policy.

After ten years on air, Radio 4's Lives in a Landscape is coming to an end. Roger Bolton speaks to the Presenter Alan Dein to look back a decade of remarkable stories told by seemingly everyday people.

And BBC Radio has been home to a long line of comedy double acts, from Morecambe and Wise to Mitchell and Webb. Following in that tradition is a new comedy duo called The Pin. Their debut Radio 4 series has just drawn to a close and was enjoyed by many listeners. Roger Bolton speaks to The Pin, aka Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen, to talk double acts and radio influences.

Producer: Katherine Godfrey
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

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