What’s the point of the Today programme?

What else is there to write about in the week that John Humphrys, that titan of the BBC airwaves, retires from his duties on the Today programme? Love or hate his terrier-like style of interviewing — baiting and occasionally biting his victims metaphorically on air — there’s no denying his stature as a news broadcaster or his influence on that staple of the Radio 4 schedule. He will surely be missed, much as Sue MacGregor, Brian Redhead, Jim Naughtie et al are missed, their presence in our lives determined by that early-morning slot, the first voice we might hear each day, the voice that brings news of never-to-be-forgotten events, the voice that infuriates and intrigues in equal measure. Humphrys’s combative style has come to represent the programme, much as Jeremy Paxman infamously shaped Newsnight on TV.

That determination to rattle authority was born in Humphrys on his first big break as a journalist, the Aberfan disaster of October 1966. He has since said he has never forgotten the sight of that junior school, smothered in black sludge, its children choked and suffocated to death. And all because the National Coal Board had failed to take notice that the tip of coal waste was built on a series of natural springs. Worse still, the officials Humphrys interviewed at the time hesitated and harrumphed, wriggled and writhed, never admitting to their mistakes, glossing over their incompetence and indifference.

During his 32 years on Today, Humphrys has surprisingly never developed any aural tics or mannerisms, no constant mistakes over telling the time, no catchphrases. He comes across as very austere, no light relief. What do we know of him apart from his authority behind the microphone? Mornings with Radio 4 have become equally stark; too much so for many listeners.