Picking out the plums

‘How much did you say the TV licence cost?’ asks my American friend.

‘£145.50,’ I reply.

‘One hundred and forty-five pounds,’ she repeats, with astonishment. ‘And everyone has to pay it?’

‘Yep. Every home with a TV.’

‘That’s a lot of money.’

My friend is an economist, with the ability to be as precise about the US’s federal budget as I am about what I’ve just spent at the supermarket. She made me stop and think. If you multiply £145.50 by 26.4 million households, that is for sure a huge amount of money. Is it worth it?

It’s the obvious question, to which the answer has to be yes, if the alternative is a commercially driven network, and especially when it comes to News. More divisive a question, and perhaps therefore more important, would be, what in particular is worth it?

This week we’ve had the chance to listen, for free, to Verdi, live from the Met, an adaptation of Trollope by the novelist Rose Tremain, two plays by Michael Frayn starring Simon Russell Beale, Greta Scacchi and Benedict Cumberbatch, and live commentary from the Australian Open. These are just the choicest samples. Often, though, what I find most inspiring are the odd things you just happen upon in the schedule. For instance that brilliant Radio 4 series The Life Scientific.

It’s such a simple idea. Take a scientist and ask them to talk about their work. But, and this is the key factor, not just about their work. Each week, the scientist under investigation is persuaded by the ever-so-skilful Jim Al-Khalili to talk a little as well about their life and how it interacts with their scientific endeavours. Since Al-Khalili is also an award-winning theoretical physicist, who just happens to have a gift for knowing when and how to ask the crucial question, his guests are usually easily persuaded to lower their guard.