Sir Robin Day and I were having one of our many arguments about the coverage of Ireland.

It was over 30 years ago. The veteran TV interrogator, with his “cruel glasses”, was in his prime and I was his very young programme Editor. There was a consensus between the two frontbenches in Westminster that the future of Ireland, indeed the possible reunification of North and South, should not be discussed. I thought it should.

I argued that the conflict in the North had been going on for almost 15 years, with great loss of life, property and the maiming of many innocent bystanders. It showed no sign of ending. Several opinion polls had indicated that between 40 and 50% of the British people thought that British troops should be brought back to the mainland. Surely the audience in a democracy should be allowed to hear the arguments for and against?

Robin’s view was that it was Parliament which set the agenda in a democracy. “After all”, he said, “no one elected us”.

I thought of that exchange again this week when reading the latest report from the BBC Trust on impartiality. Stuart Prebble, the former Chief Executive of ITV who is its author, argues that the BBC’s journalists, though in general doing a pretty impartial job, are too often influenced by the Westminster hot-house, and that the network journalists, now all brought together in their spanking new newsroom in London, home also to the World Service, could fall prey to the dangers of “groupthink”.

The danger is that voices from the rest of the country and from the margins of debate could be excluded.

In Feedback this week I talked to Stuart Prebble about his report. 

Also this week, as a result of listening to last week’s discussion on Recycled Radio, we were sent this song by David Summers. We couldn’t play it in all in Feedback but here it is in all its glory.

By the way did you hear the two old 69 year old men talking on the Today programme?

I refer of course to Mick Jagger and John Humphrys. Sir Mick showed real talent as an interviewer. He got John to reveal that he will never retire but intends to present Today for as long as he is wanted. I’m not sure how well that news will go down with some of the BBC's younger presenters!

Listen to Feedback

Download the Feedback podcast 

Picture by gull@cyberspace.org

I have, of course, heard of win win situations, but this week's decision by the BBC Trust to ask (ie order) the Executive to reverse most of the cuts it planned in local radio looks like a win, win, win situation.

It's a win for local radio supporters who will see some much loved programmes preserved.

It's a win for the Trust as it appears to show they listen to licence fee payers and are independent of BBC management and it's a win for the Executive as the sums involved are miniscule compared with the rest of the 20 per cent cuts which will apparently now go ahead.

Oh, and there is a fourth set of winners, those MPs who campaigned to have the cuts cut and can now tell their constituents that they "saved their local station".

Now let's hope we can get back to what really matters, the range and content of programmes.

This week on Feedback Radio 4's coverage of science came under scrutiny. The trigger for the debate was the decision of the Controller, who protests her passion for science, to cancel Home Planet, which, judged by the correspondence we received, was a much loved series about environmental science, and which had a special relationship with its listeners.

Two of them, Eileen Halsey and Howard Sherwood, came into our studio to meet Mohit Bakaya, who commissions science programmes for Radio 4, and BBC News's first science editor, only appointed last week, David Shukman.

There ensued a vigorous discussion which began with Eileen telling me how she felt when she heard about that Home Planet had been sucked into a black hole. You can hear it on the Radio 4 website.

We would like to do more such discussions in which you the listener get to meet and challenge those who decide what is in the schedules of all BBC radio stations.

We guarantee to read and listen to everything you send us. So please get in contact.

Roger Bolton presents Feedback

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Read all of Roger's Feedback blog posts.
• Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.

Lord Patten on his first day as the new BBC Trust Chairman, 3 May 2011

This week on Feedback I talked to a member of the BBC Trust, the body which replaced the BBC Governors, about impartiality in journalism.

It took my mind back to the rather fraught period around 1980 when I was editor of the Panorama programme and at frequent loggerheads with the Governors about our coverage of Northern Ireland. Mrs Thatcher was saying that the BBC had to be for or against terrorism.

On the side of law and order.

No middle way.

After all, the Iron Lady said, we did work for the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation.

It would have helped us all in those days if at least one of the Governors had experience of on the ground reporting in the province where the confused realities and complicated journalistic dilemmas would soon have become evident.

It would also have helped if the BBC management and the Governors had not held each other in a degree of distrust, sometimes bordering on contempt.

The situation is somewhat different today. There is a much clearer separation of responsibilities between management and Trust, and in Alison Hastings, the Chair of the Trust Editorial Standards Committee, they have someone who knows what journalists have to do to get a story.

She is a former editor of a metropolitan evening newspaper and, some years ago, served on the now largely discredited Press Complaints Commission.

Ms Hastings is now in charge of the latest in a series of reviews by the Trust, this time into the impartiality of BBC Coverage of the Arab Spring.

Previous reviews have been conducted into business (2007), network news and current affairs coverage of the UK nations (2008) and science (2011).

When I met Alison Hastings I wanted to know why the Trust had chosen this as the subject of its current review.

Had there been widespread concern about the BBC's impartiality? This is our conversation.

By the way the Controller of Radio 4 is coming onto Feedback in a couple of weeks - so please let us have your questions for the person who changed the schedule!

Roger Bolton presents Feedback

• Visit the BBC Trust website
• More on the changes to the schedule on the Radio 4 blog
• Gwyneth Williams, Radio 4's controller, announces the schedule changes
• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Read all of Roger's Feedback blog posts.
• Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.

"Events, dear boy Events"!

That was the apparently unflappable Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan, discussing what most concerned him. He meant the crises that arrive out of clear blue skies and changed the political weather overnight. Well we have had plenty of 'events' during this latest run of Feedback programmes.

There was the almost peaceful revolution in Egypt, and widespread demonstrations in the Arab world, then the Japanese Tsunami which caused tens of thousands of deaths, followed by the crises at one of its nuclear power stations.

And now there is the latest in Libya. Even as late as two weeks ago, who would have thought that our aircrews would be in action over Tobruk, a place that older listeners amongst us only associate with the Second World War?

BBC Chairmen have to get used to 'events', and to leaks from all over the Corporation when vested interests see what they most care about being threatened by cuts. The Director General has just announced 21 options for cuts and the internal and external battles have begun.

Newspapers of course lap it up, MPs find comment irresistible and the result is massive pressure on the BBC Trust to step in to protect the 'public interest', about which few can agree. Sir Michael Lyons, the outgoing BBC Chairman, says that everyone who does his job soon gets used to 'incoming fire' from all sides. Yet when he decided to step down there was no shortage of applicants for the job, which has gone to the former Conservative Party Chairman and the last Governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten.

This week, shortly before he steps down,I spoke to Sir Michael and here is the complete interview, extracts of which we used in the programme.

By the way can I just say that Sir Michael Lyons was unfailingly charming on and off the record and was, I think, genuinely committed to ensuring that the licence fee payer had more of a say in the strategic decisions of the organisation they, we, pay for. He certainly never ducked being interviewed on Feedback. Our invitation to his successor to appear has already been dispatched.

We are now off the air until May 20th, but please keep in touch and let us know what you love and hate and want investigated. All of BBC Radio is our territory, national and local and international.

Thanks for listening.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
• The picture shows Sir Michael arriving at Television Centre on his first day in the job in 2007.

The Time - 10am on Thursday 10th March.

The Place - The Grimond Room in Portcullis House.

The Occasion - pre-appointment hearing with the Government's preferred candidate for the role of the Chairman of the BBC Trust.

In the corridor outside, the media pack compares notes about what is a unique event, the first time that the appointment of the top job in the BBC has been subject to scrutiny by a parliamentary committee.

There is a suddenly flurry and a well-fed Lord with a shock of white hair, deep sunk eyes and a wry smile, moves modestly past the hacks to sit in what most candidates would have thought of as a hot seat, but which Lord Christopher Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University and former Chairman of the Conservative Party, last Governor of Hong Kong etc etc etc, makes seem very cool indeed.

Over the next two hours or so the parliamentary committee, polite but forensic, probes Lord Patten's politics, business interests, possible biases and rather elitist listening habits. The noble Lord never raises his voice and cracks a number of rather good jokes, but resolutely refuses to exhibit any passion until a committee member remarks on its absence.

Chris Patten then starts to express his "passion" for the BBC and much of its output without departing from that same dry low-key delivery.

He is only discomforted when having to confess that the last time he watched Eastenders was before he ate his last MacDonalds, surely as a desperate student late at night in the 1960s. One MP suggests that Patten's idea of dumbing down was switching from BBC4 to BBC2 and the candidate admitted that he only listens to Radio 1 by accident when he is trying to find Radios 3 and 4.

For these last two networks he expresses undying love, like a young Romeo, and we soon learn that Melvyn Bragg, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Bowen are safe in the rosy glow of his approval.

However Lord Patten made clear that he expects to be unpopular in his BBC role and that "there will be all hell let loose" as the corporation is forced to cut its spending on programmes.

I sat in on the hearing together with Jocelyn Hay, President of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, the public service broadcasting pressure group, and afterwards asked her what she had made of it:

Later that afternoon I caught up with the John Whittingdale, Chairman of the committee which had lightly grilled Lord Patten:

By the way if you want to get a complete record of what the new BBC Chairman said at the hearing you can find it in the archive at www.parliamentlive.tv. Transcripts will shortly be available from The Stationary Office.

Next week in Feedback I'll be talking to the Controller of Radio 1 and BBC1Xtra so if you have any questions you'd like me to ask him, please send them to feedback@bbc.co.uk

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
• Lord Patten was the subject of Radio 4's Profile two weeks ago.

In the Radio Times, BBC Radio boss Tim Davie has written a response to the substantial public debate about the Trust's review of Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 7.

He endorses the suggestion that Radio 4 broaden its audience:

The idea of making more people aware of Radio 4 makes sense: there are so many programmes waiting to be discovered.

And denies that this means reducing standards:

The station's commitment to quality - whether drama, comedy or programmes from the radio archive - should offer further comfort to those who fear "dumbing down".

He suggests that readers looking for evidence of the health of the network dip into the Radio 4 programme directory - and that particular richness awaits listeners in programmes beginning with the letters 'B' and 'M'. Read the whole of Tim Davie's article on the Radio Times web site.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

• The picture illustrates Ed Stourton's Bosphorus, one of the highlights of the Bs.
• Tim Davie has written about BBC Radio's increased emphasis on live output on the Radio blog.
• Radio 4 Controller Gwyneth Williams responded to the review on the Radio 4 blog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006slnx

David Liddiment, the BBC Trustee who led its review into Radio 4 among other stations, must be wondering what has hit him.

No sooner had he published the review last week than newspaper columnists, the odd BBC presenter, and a lot of listeners attacked him for trying to fix something they don't believe is broken.

The irony is, neither does he.

Actually I have been economical with the actualité: some listeners would like to wring his neck. What Mr Liddiment was pointing out, which is irrefutable, is that the further away you are from London, the less likely you are to listen to Radio 4. And the same applies if you are younger, non-white and from a poorer household.

The real debate is about whether that matters, and if it does, whether moving much of the corporation's output out of London, much of it to near Manchester, is the way to tackle the alleged problem.

I should declare an interest here. Although I have worked in London for most of the past 40 years, I was brought up and educated in the north, worked full-time in Manchester for three years in the 1980s, travelled there at weekends for more than 10 years to present the Radio 4 Sunday programme - and survived.

Last week, as you may have heard, I talked to Mr Liddiment about some aspects of his review. This week I travelled to the BBC's promised land, the shining Media City UK beyond the Salford Ship Canal (it's usually called the Manchester Ship Canal, but don't say that in Salford. Those two adjacent cities have a relationship not unlike the Hitchens brothers Peter and Christopher).

I am sure that most BBC Radio listeners, generous hearted as they are, will be delighted that BBC staff are to be housed in such splendid surroundings, at their expense, although the BBC insists that 'out of London' is cheaper in the long run. But of course, what really matters is what the output from Salford will be like. Will it be the same, significantly different and/or most importantly better?

Two very independent and passionate Radio 4 listeners Heather Howarth and Delphine Price accompanied me to New Broadcasting House in Manchester which will soon be made redundant when all the staff there move to Media City UK. There we met Ian Bent, head of audio and music production in Manchester to discuss these questions:

I'd be very interested to know what your view is on 'out of London'. Are the BBC's national radio stations too metrocentric and what should be done to change that - or are you quite happy with what you hear? Leave a comment here or get in touch via the Feedback web page. Apologies if you've had trouble getting through to our phone line in the last few weeks. The high number and length of some of the calls caused some problems but we think we've fixed it now.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
• The review of service licences for Radio 3, Radio 4 and 5 live as well as reports relating to archives and children's output are on the BBC Trust's web site.
• Radio 4 Controller Gwyneth Williams blogged about the service licence review earlier this week and, on last week's Feedback, Roger spoke to David Liddiment from the Trust about their recommendations.
• Picture by Evan Moss. Some rights reserved.

Editor's note: this week's Feedback focused on the English language, on Royal visits to Ambridge an on the conclusion of the BBC Trust's review of Radio 4 - SB.

There are many incidental pleasures to be derived from the latest BBC Trust Review, a copy of which is now available on its website.

For example, on page 48 it publishes a useful table which shows the cost per listener hour (CPLH) for BBC network radio stations. That isn't the same of course as how much each station costs, and obviously the more listeners there are the cheaper the cost per listener hour.

Still I was intrigued to see that Radio 3 costs over ten times as much CPLH as Radio 1, and around 5 times as much as Radio 4. Surprisingly, (to me anyway), Radio 5 live costs only a little less than twice as much CPLH as Radio 4. The station which has the lowest cost per listener hour is, unsurprisingly, the most popular, Radio 2.

Mind you don't get carried away with the idea that Radio 3 is massively expensive. It still only costs 6.3 pence CPLH.

The Trust, whose proud boast is that it is dedicated to "getting the best out of the BBC for licence fee-payers", published its latest review on Tuesday 8th February, after what it said was a 12-week public consultation.

It considered the overall performance of Radios 3, 4 and 7, had some pungent things to say about what it called the failure of BBC radio's strategy for children, and also backed the management's proposals for accessing past radio programmes.

The press reaction was, shall we say, mixed. I probably don't have to tell you which newspaper published the following headlines over critical articles.

"Oh no! Don't let the dumb down-brigade ruin Radio 4. Its the last bastion of civilised, aspirational broadcasting."

And the Daily Mail also said:

"Radio 4 has 10 million loyal listeners. So what does the BBC think of them? Too many are white, southern, and elderly".

The Trust's review is far more subtle and intelligent than that and addresses real issues that matter to you. It is worth an hour of any BBC listener's time. Shortly after the review's publication I talked to the Trust member who led it, David Liddiment.

He spent most of his TV life working for Granada television in Manchester so is particularly sensitive to the views of those outside the south east. The first excerpt from our Feedback interview is about the Trust's backing of BBC management's desire to widen Radio 4's appeal:

In a second, and shorter extract, David Liddiment talks about the failure of children's radio to a attract significant numbers of children:

In next week's Feedback I'll be in Manchester to explore further the BBC's plans to move more programme departments out of London, in particular to nearby Salford. Will listeners notice the difference and do you care where your programmes come from? Do let me know what you think.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
• The review of service licences for Radio 3, Radio 4 and 5 live as well as reports relating to archives and children's output are on the BBC Trust's web site.
• Radio 4 Controller Gwyneth Williams blogged about the service licence review earlier this week and, on last week's Feedback, Roger spoke to David Liddiment from the Trust about their recommendations.

The BBC Trust's service licence review was hugely positive for Radio 4 and Radio 7. I have seen some of the listeners' responses on Radio 4 to the Trust. We are widely considered a 'national treasure' and the appreciation for what we do is humbling. The Trust's reseach received a record number of responses and revealed that eighty per-cent of the audience approved of us with a score of eight- or more out-of-ten. The reasons cited included "the passion and knowledge of the presenters; the range and depth of programming; extremely high production standards; and an intelligent and challenging tone". Add this to the new Rajar figures (one-in-five of us in the UK listen every week and Radio 4 accounts for one-in-every-eight radio listening hours) and the kind of quality delivered by Radio 4 for audiences is unarguable.

A broader picture too about radio seems to be emerging: we fit in with people's lives; we are modern, flexible and cheap. Radio 4 Extra (which is what Radio 7 will become) is another way of enjoying our drama and comedy programmes with something else thrown into the mix. There is a developing Radio 4 archive of documentaries and history programmes, science, film, arts interviews from the brilliant Front Row - all opening up other ways to find and share our programmes. Radio 4 is not confined to its successful schedule but can be enjoyed in different ways and this is a broad approach to the challenge posed by the Trust in their document this morning about expanding the Radio 4 audience in the future.

So let's think about David Liddiment's specific two 'buts' - prompted by our own excellent Sarah Montague on Today this morning (listen to the whole interview below). One, he said Radio 4 has a huge skew to the South-East of England. Those in the North don't listen as much as those in the South. And two, 35-50s aren't listening to Radio 4 as much as they were. Well, our audience has been quick to reply online; here are two examples from Twitter:

 

Fairly young still, living in the North, and listening to @r4today - no need to change this at all, dear BBC Trust! #r4todayless than a minute ago via webviews of the world

beyondmaps

 

Today program making me mad. Radio 4. Don't put regional accents on because it's pc. Put the best reporters on there. AAAAAGGGHHH mad.less than a minute ago via Echofoncerys matthews
cerysmatthews

And I'm sure that listener appreciates the excellent File on Four, our flagship investigation programme based in Manchester with its first class reporters. We want talent on Radio 4 - wherever we can get it and we will continue to look widely everywhere for the best reporters and presenters. Of course we are keen for people all over Britain to enjoy our programmes more and the Trust understands this and supports our endeavours.

Partly that is about getting the best programmes and contributors from as many places as possible but mainly it is about excellent programmes and talent, both on and off air - the best on Egypt at present for instance, from those who know and carry authority, whether it is Magdi Abdelhadi from the World Service or Jeremy Bowen, our Middle East Editor (did you hear his recent programme on the Lebanon and wine? - highly recommended). We have plans to take more of our programmes out and around the UK - the Moral Maze, for instance, and a new poetry masterclass with Ruth Padel. I think too that as we develop a more international sensibility - which is only keeping up with our audience - we will be more welcoming to new listeners wherever in the UK they happen to live.

And of course as I have already said we have other ways of listening to Radio 4 in our developing archive and easier ways of searching and sharing our programmes.I am delighted that the Trust has endorsed and encouraged our plans for extending the Radio 4 archive on our website. We know how popular the archive is. For example the In Our Time archive is one of the BBC's most valued sites. In the coming months we will be making even more of our factual programmes permanently available. We will also put together some more collections of older programmes and interviews to support our seasons and events. The collection of Film Interviews was one of the gems of the Film Season. We are building something similar for World Book Night as part of the BBC Year of Books. Here is a sneak preview of the collection of Radio 4 interviews with the featured authors. Our web team have a range of other plans in store in the next few months.

So we are responding to the challenges raised in the Trust report in our own Radio 4 way and we will carry on trying to find and make available, in the words of Matthew Arnold, more of "the best that has been thought and said in the world"- for more listeners everywhere.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and Radio 7

• Read the review of service licences for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 7 and the new permissions on the BBC Trust web site.

Editor's note: the BBC Trust today announced approval for some important changes at the BBC, several of which affect Radio 4. In this blog post, which appears in full on the About the BBC blog, Roly Keating outlines plans for an extension to access to archive content, much of which will come from Radio 4 - SB

Something happened today that should interest anyone who thinks the BBC's archives should be more easily accessible.

Alongside the BBC Trust's announcements about the Service Licence reviews of Radio 3 and Radio 4 came a new approval: an amendment to those two networks' Service Licences - and that of BBC Four - that allows all three the ability to offer programming on-demand for an unlimited period after broadcast. There'll also be an amendment to BBC Online's licence to reflect the new permissions.

What it means is that BBC for the first time has a clear, defined remit to start building a 'permanent collection' of some of its best programmes for free online access by anyone in the UK now and in the future...

Roly Keating is Director of Archive Content at the BBC

Read the rest of this blog post about plans for archive content - and watch a full-length Henry Moore documentary from the archive - on the About the BBC blog...

• The picture shows Henry Moore in his Hertfordshire studio in 1967. It's from the BBC picture archive.
• Read the review of BBC Radio 3, 4 and 7, and the new permissions in full on the BBC Trust web site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006slnx

Editor's note. Every week we're publishing one item from Radio 4's accountability programme Feedback. This week's item is of more general interest and concerns the campaign to save 6 Music - SB

"What is the point of protesting to the BBC? No producer or manager ever admits that they are wrong."

Judging by the Feedback inbox I know that is the view of many of our listeners, but not of Peter Crocker.

He is passionate about 6 Music and was incandescent when he heard of the BBC Management"s proposal to shut it down. But he did not just shout at the radio or his computer or kick the cat.

He wrote to Feedback and we invited him onto the programme back in March. This kick-started a process which ended up with him having a breakfast meeting with the Chairman of the BBC Trust Sir Michael Lyons.

Peter Crocker is a modest chap and keen to point out that many many others were involved in the campaign to 'save' 6 Music and insists his role was a minor one. Nevertheless we couldn"t resist inviting him back into the Feedback studio to describe his part in the campaign, why he thought it had been successful, and what lessons there are for listeners concerned about what they see as mistaken management decisions.

Perhaps British cats will have cause to celebrate his initiative.

Listen to my interview with Peter Crocker here:

Roger Bolton presents Feedback on BBC Radio 4

• Listen again to the whole programme, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• The BBC Trust's initial verdict on the strategic review in which the closure of 6 Music is rejected.
• BBC Director of Audio & Music Tim Davie was interviewed about the 6 Music U-Turn by Steve Hewlett on The Media Show on Wednesday and The Guardian covered the interview the following day.
• The picture shows Western House, home of 6 Music and Radio 2. It's by Steve Bowbrick. Used under licence.

The Thought for The Day ruling by the BBC Trust was never going to be greeted with universal applause - or anything like it.

In a nutshell the Trust says that restricting Thought for the Day to speakers who espouse a faith does not breach the BBC's obligation to impartiality - but the Trustees say that it is up to the management to decide whether to include non-believers.

As I have said before I think it's a very finely balanced argument. I know humanists, agnostics and atheists are frustrated. They tell me so - loudly. (And mostly politely). But the slot has its merits. It is distinctive and even if you sometimes scream at the radio when it's on - and I have done this myself - it nevertheless often gives a sharply different perspective on the news - and thus can be stimulating. Maybe infuriating - but different.

One more thing before I duck for cover. We do many programmes and items on religious and ethical issues. There are many perspectives on offer - and many of them are not rooted in faith at all.

I discussed the state of play on Thought for the Day on yesterday's PM. Here it is:

Mark Damazer is Controller of BBC Radio 4

• The BBC Trust's ruling is here.
• The ruling was covered in The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Mail and on Digital Spy.
• The picture is by Windward CC Library and is used under licence.

Yesterday something small but significant happened. Instead of disappearing from iPlayer when its 7 days were up, the first Episode of The Complete Smiley - The Spy Who Came in From the Cold stayed put. Which means that you can go back and listen to it before listening to Episode 2.

The unusual behaviour of The Spy is down to the "Series catch-up" feature of iPlayer - something that's been on offer for some TV series for a while, and which we're now starting to trial for radio programmes. Series catch-up means that all the episodes in a series are available until 7 days after the final episode is broadcast. So you don't have to worry about keeping up each week, but can catch up with the story so far at any point during the series.

There will be around 30 series in the trial between now and mid January, including quite a few from Radio 4. Most of the le Carré season will be included as well as an exciting Dickens serialisation and a complete series of Behind Closed Doors later in the year.

The reason that we're only offering a limited number of series is because this is a trial. The BBC already has permission from the BBC Trust, who regulate what we do, to offer TV programmes with series catch-up, but we don't yet have permission for radio. We're running the trial to find out how useful or interesting people think this is, and to establish what it would mean to offer it more widely. If all goes well we'll then use the information from the trial to ask for permission to offer series catch-up as a permanent feature.

I realise the BBC's internal processes may sometimes seem a touch bureaucratic, but it's important that we find out how popular or useful a new feature might be, how much it might cost, and also what impact it might have on the wider industry, before we decide whether to launch it. This particular trial is limited to 30 series, and we've picked them from across networks and genres to make sure we get a broad range of feedback (here's a list of the Radio 4 series included).

If you're interested in telling us what you think about series catch-up, as part of this trial, then you can take part in a survey that we're running. There's a link below, along with some more info. I'll also be happy to respond to any comments you post on this blog over the next couple of weeks.

Sarah Prag is Executive Producer, Audio Services at BBC Audio & Music Interactive

• A list of the Radio 4 programmes included in the trial.
• Troy's post from the BBC Internet blog announcing series catch-up for TV programmes last year.
• The series catch-up survey is now closed.
• Picture, Car rear view mirror, by net_efekt. Used under licence.