Recently I went to stay with friends who have a home in North Cornwall. Now, I have to confess that I am not a TV addict and when I am in our house in the Suffolk countryside I hardly ever switch on the television.

However, one afternoon I was taken for a walk to the delightful Cornish seaside village of Port Isaac. We leaned on a wall by the old school house and my friend pointed across to the other bank. ‘That’s Doc Martin’s House’ she said. ‘Who’s he’, I replied, ‘and how do you know him?’ Well, my ignorance was soon corrected and later that night we found on YouTube one of the first episodes of what I now know to be a really popular television series set in this little Cornish port. I learned that it had been running for about five years and was immensely popular even though some of the stereotypes portrayed annoyed some of the Cornish people.

 

What I liked about the programme was that Martin Clunes played a brilliant 
part as the local GP renowned for his extremely brusque manner and if one appreciated the fact that the characters were extreme stereotypes, then it was all very enjoyable.

 

As I can’t stand the constant diet of violence that comes across our screens, Doc Martin was a delight but as TV and radio go, I have to say that we still have one of the best outputs of any country in the world. I am worried, however, about some of the recent changes proposed for BBC radio. I heard the Chairman of the BBC say recently that nothing would be changed until there had been a full public consultation, so let me start the ball rolling in this column.

Radio favourites

My two favourite stations are Radio Four and Radio Three with an occasional dip into Radio Four Extra once called Radio Five. I assume that many listeners tune into Radio Four because they appreciate a thoughtful station largely devoted to speech, with occasional forays into music via Desert Island Discs and the like.

On Radio Four one can get all the news and commentary that any individual would require and for respite one turns to Radio Three. Now can the BBC please tell me why, oh why, do they consider it necessary to inflict short bursts of news and items from the newspapers on us on what I thought was mainly a music channel?

 

Many of us turn to Radio Three to get away from the news but the BBC seem insistent that we will listen and we will like it. If I was the Director of Programming I would have one fifteen minute news programme on Radio Three in the morning and that would be it! As for the Radio Three phone-ins! We all know that phone-ins are a cheap form of broadcasting but are they necessary on Radio Three? We can hear all the opinions from the public we want on Four and Five and on countless commercial stations. Why invade Radio Three?

 

It is often said that stations must attract younger people but does no one in the BBC recognizes that young people grow older! There was a time when my own children would not consider listening to Radio Four. Today, now they are much older, it’s a different story. I believe that in the past years the BBC has spread too widely, excellent though it is. It ought to concentrate on quality programming and stop worrying about ratings.

 

Perhaps some of the Doc Martin grumpiness has rubbed off on me in this column but I would be interested to know what readers think. Am I being too old fashioned in my views? I certainly would like to know and I guess the BBC might be interested also.