Cast astray

There’s a cultural problem at the BBC, isn’t there? The Corporation is trying to attract under-35s — the sort who don’t really listen to scheduled radio programmes and who probably listen, if to anything from the BBC at all, to Radio 5 Live.

This is the most obvious way to explain what’s happened to Desert Island Discs. It’s the only possible reason why Lauren Laverne, DJ, pop musician, a face for television rather than radio, replaced Kirsty Young for her sick leave.

The bad news is that Kirsty isn’t coming back. She was good: she knows everyone, she’s probing and she’s sympathetic. Given that the programme, with its brilliantly simple premise, has been going since 1942, this is an appointment people really care about. It’s also the gig every presenter wants: Sunday morning, somewhere between late breakfast/church and lunch. If you’re on Desert Island Discs, people know about you. Or used to.

The reassuring news is that Radio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya is apparently looking for someone other than Lauren to front the programme. The real question is, why was she put there in the first place? She runs Kathy Clugston of Gardeners’ Question Time close as the worst appointment Radio 4 has made in its apparent effort to alienate its listeners.

It’s not her fault, obviously, that she will always be compared with former Desert Island Discs host Sue Lawley, a woman who could make a moment’s silence really tell. Lauren is northern, not a common type on Radio 4. She’s also patently nice. Certainly, she isn’t mean; she doesn’t press home an advantage with an interviewee or even spot that she could be following up answers at all. Her interview with Louis Theroux comes to mind.

There’s no getting away from it: Lauren is lightweight and uncerebral.