Eddie Mair Live
In Glasgow today were we having an "audience festival". It's an event that's been touring ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ centres throughout the U.K and involves the people who makes decisions about programmes answering questions about audiences.
The Controller of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 1, Peter Fincham, was in the line-up this morning and there was a special star turn from Bruce Forsyth who was was talking about his experience hosting Strictly Come Dancing.
Then, in the afternoon, I was on stage with my fellow commissioners from news, television, Gaelic and new media with host Eddie Mair quizziing us about value for money, local programming and the future of online services.
One of my first ever jobs at the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ was a temporary stint producing the Eddie Mair Live show about a zillion years ago. Clearly Eddie was keen to take revenge on me for some of the awful things I'd put in to his programmes in those days. He teased me about my name and wouldn't let me off the hook as I tried to babble my way through past an awkward question from a viewer who told us she resented paying the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ licence fee because all she ever watched was ITV's The X-Factor and the shopping channels.
At one point we were discussing the popularity of on-demand services and I was making the point that few people would want to listen to a news programme that was two hours out of date.
"I dunno, " said Eddie, "two hours sounds pretty fresh to me."
It seems his standards have dropped since he left Scotland.
