BBC | Autumn Watch

In Touch 50th Anniversary Programme

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:32:37 +0000

In Touch, Radio Four's regular weekly programme for visually impaired people, is 50 next month. It hardly seems possible, or indeed that I've been presenting it for almost 40 of those years, but we intend to give the old dear a really good party.

On Tuesday 4th October we are recording an hour-long programme in Broadcasting House, London. The idea is not just to celebrate the programme, but the achievements of blind and partially sighted people during its lifetime. We'll be featuring some of the startling changes which have occurred over the past half-century; two people will be comparing experiences; one who lost her sight in the early 60s, just as the programme was starting out and another who has only recently become blind

We'll be looking back at the controversy surrounding the start of the programme, and the arguments at the time about what it should be called, and indeed whether it was needed at all. We'll also be welcoming a range of guests who've made their marks in a number of fields: writer and creator of Adrian Mole, Sue Townsend, humorist Denis Norden, Ryan Kelly, probably better known to you as Jazzer in the Archers, with music from opera singer Denise Leigh. And we hope to have a few more surprises up our sleeves come the day itself.

I'll be presenting the show, which should be great fun and we hope the audience will play a full part in the festivities. There are still some tickets left for the event. To get them you can click here or call the BBC Action line on 0800 044 044. Please let us know if you plan to bring a guide dog or if have any mobility requirements. Doors will be open at 1800 and recording starts at 1930. Hope to meet you there.

Peter White presents In Touch and You and Yours on BBC Radio 4

No-Frills Weddings

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:28:41 +0000

We'd love to hear your tips for saving money on what can be the most expensive day of your life - your wedding day. After all not everyone is working on a budget like Prince William and Kate Middleton.

On the face of it the story about the Church of England setting standard charges for performing marriage ceremonies (and in so doing raising the price) seemed like one of those which, how can I put this, one which would just come and go.

Not a bit of it. Hardly had the item finished than Jenny Gerrard had told us about her wedding which she felt had been a perfectly lovely and had barely cost anything at all - then again she was a Sunday schoolteacher at the church in question. Could she send us photos? Yes she could. Hardly had Jenny's story gone out than we'd heard from Judith Livingston with the story of her austerity wedding. Could she send photos too? Yes she could. They're here. We'd be delighted to receive more - by e-mail only please!

We also detected in our inbox that some of our church organists feel very under-appreciated and we're planning a piece on that soon.

Our piece on the trend of showing films outside the fixed cinema - in museums, zoos at festivals etc - also prompted a big response. We asked where you'd like to see your favourite film and we were deluged with responses including Top Gun in an aircraft carrier, Roman Holiday on the Spanish Steps, The Jungle Book in the rainforest and the original Star Wars trilogy at Penultimate Picture Palace in Oxford, shouting out the lines along with everyone. Keep those coming in too!

Peter White presents You and Yours and In Touch on BBC Radio 4

Things that Make My Day

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:56:49 +0000

We'd like to hear what makes your day if you're disabled; what kind of help can make all the difference and bring a smile to your face rather than a glower. It can be about any aspect of life: getting from A to B, work, socialising or the graceful offering of care and it can relate to any disability. Quirky is good and it can be as much about attitude as about practical solutions!

I'm not saying that we disabled people moan a lot, but there is a temptation to tell people what they're doing wrong, rather than what they're doing right, when it comes to offering help. I plead guilty myself! It's so much more fun as a blind person to tell stories about people not bothering to ask you where you're going, but just grabbing you by the fleshiest part of your forearm and marching you across a road; or propelling you from behind through a revolving door as if you were a battering-ram; and I can't tell you how often I've been regaled by indignant wheelchair users with stories of the people who talk over their heads, bend very close and shout in their ear, or just ignore them altogether and talk to their friend or partner. All forms of disability generate examples of their own.

This has been very much on my mind as late because, as some of you may know, You and Yours and In Touch and a number of other programmes are coming, not from Broadcasting House, but from Bush House down the road. This has meant that I have had to change my well-honed route to work, which I could more or less do in my sleep, and start asking for help again - where is the bus stop from which about twelve different-numbered buses go to the Aldwych, which bus is coming, what's the safe way to manoeuvre the triangular crossing at the Aldwych itself... It reminded me that a lot of people are lovely, and go the extra mile plus, but giving directions to a blind man which make sense is a dark art, and only a few people do it really well.

You see, the real secret is that you need to give directions that you can touch, rather than you can see! You have to realise that saying "it's the third turning on the right" only works if it really is the third, and that you haven't forgotten there's a garage or pub entrance, or a carpark, which feels exactly like a road; or that a lamp-post can feel exactly the same to a stick as a bus-stop, or a pelican crossing pole, or a dozen other things. So what makes my day is when I come across someone who understands.

Of course the ideal person is another blind traveller, but the chances of coming across one of those outside Waterloo Station when you need them, is pretty remote! But enough of my traveller's tales, we would like to hear from you. We want innovative solutions, premium quality help that makes your day. And you never know if we get enough great examples it could spark a series of its own!

Peter White presents You and Yours and In Touch on BBC Radio 4

The Silly Season

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:06:55 +0000

Hi; August is one of my favourite times of year when it comes to working! I know childhood brainwashes us into thinking that its the natural month to get away from it all, but of course that's the whole point! As a Hampshire commuter, the more people who decide to get away from it all the better as far as i'm concerned. I'm a train fan, but even I can't pretend that the scrummage on an average Monday morning on the seven forty-eight from Winchester is anything but barbarous. But this monday morning it was almost civilised; people were polite to each other; some even spoke to each other, as opposed to the usual shoulder-charge with elbows out. Mind you, there is a downside! Having once got to work, there is our version of the silly season! This is not so much making up stories about frying eggs on pavements or octogenarians having knives and forks confiscated which they've smuggled into cricket grounds to cut their sandwiches. We have a version all of our own of the silly season: Its the people who clearly take delight in sending us interesting stories on a friday afternoon, and then, well satisfied, clear off on holiday at the weekend so that there's noone to talk about it. People do tend to forget that unlike newspapers, radio just wont work if the main participants in a story aren't around to talk. There's one other pleasant little plus-point about August working. The You and Yours team are a generous lot, and there's a well-established tradition that people who've been away, even just for a weekend, bring back local delicacies. "Nibbles in the usual place" is a much-treasured email to receive, and there's a notable upsurge in exotic foodstuffs during the month, partially making up for the lack of people to do all the work. Some (i've done it myself) cheat, and clearly go to the nearest supermarket when they get back; but so what, with a seat on the train and a chocolate-enhanced coffee break, what more could you ask!

Peter White presents You and Yours and In Touch on BBC Radio 4

Volunteering for scientific research and Interviewing Professor Tony Judt

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:33:08 +0000

Just how far should we presenters go when it comes to personal involvement in our own programmes? I must admit there were moments in one of my most recent projects when I wondered if I'd rather overdone it: volunteering to have my brain scanned, and then laid out in pictures for all to see on the In Touch website, in an attempt to discover what happens inside the brain when a blind person reads Braille. I had good reasons to do it: I'm an unusually fast Braille reader (a lot of blind children, very bright in other ways, find it difficult), and I wanted to know how the process worked. A blog's too short to go into the exact science, but the gist was that research done so far suggests in some mysterious way the brain knows that although a Braille reader is touching something with their fingers, they are in fact reading text, something normally done with the eyes, and therefore calls in the bit of the brain that normally deals with seeing. What I agreed to do was to submit myself to an MRI scan, where your brain is effectively photographed, and then to do a number of tests involving first ordinary touching, and then reading Braille, so that the scientists could watch my brain at work. Then, by a series of mild stimulations, they "interfered" with the bit of my brain which normally takes on the job of interpreting vision. Clever stuff, eh? The problem is, you volunteer for these things blithely when they are just at the ideas stage, and suddenly find yourself facing the reality of being wired up in a kind of tube in a Boston neuroscientist's lab subjecting yourself to a series of (admittedly) mild electric shocks!

But that's not the worst of it; what I hadn't allowed for was the litany of questions I would have to answer before I was allowed to expose myself to the experiments: family history, health, about medication, previous operations and the presence of any metal objects about my person, at which point the whole radio audience had to be told about my denture (until then an easy secret to guard on the radio), which had to be ceremonially removed. Enter one rather sibilant-sounding presenter! And serve me right, I hear many of you cry, for being a show-off in the first place! But the tests do seem to support the thesis that the brain can be very resourceful when it has to solve a problem in a different way, and the hope is that all this experimentation will lead to ways to help children read Braille more quickly and effectively. We'll be keeping tabs on that on In Touch.

Also while in the States I did an interview that seems to have caused a considerable stir. I love reading history in my spare time, and am a great admirer of Professor Tony Judt who's written a wonderfully perceptive book about Europe since the Second World War. But eighteen months ago he developed a virulent form of motor neurone disease, which has left him paralysed from the neck down, and in a situation where, as he put it himself, the only part of him which would do as it was told was his mind. He agreed to be interviewed and when I went to see him in his New York apartment, now adapted to cater for his needs, he was as deeply impressive, candid and unflinching as I'd expected him to be.

For him it was something of an endurance test. The mere act of talking is exhausting in itself as he is on a breathing machine, and yet he answered my questions fluently and unhesitatingly for over an hour. In other circumstances that rather breathless delivery might have caused us anxiety for the recording: in this case, it was absolutely intrinsic to understanding his situation as he spelled out how he copes, physically and intellectually. It was broadcast as a special edition of "No Triumph, No Tragedy" last month, and so many of you have asked to hear it again, or indeed for the first time, that for the next week it will be a podcast on the You and Yours website.

But obviously some people never learn, because I've also now somehow allowed myself to be persuaded to do a You and Yours version of the successful television series "Who Do you Think You Are?" I don't know what they're going to come up with, but my mum's told me enough in the past to be very much afraid. We're planning to do this on August 6th.

And also, as promised but not yet delivered, alternate blogs from me in future will contain specific information about the disability issues we're covering on You and Yours, In Touch and elsewhere on Radio Four, and will be sent to all those people who previously subscribed to the Disability Newsletter. That information will be available on the blog of course, but if you wish to be included amongst those who are emailed it automatically, contact us to get your name added to the list. Good Listening!

Click here to download the special podcast of Peter's interview with Professor Tony Judt

Peter White presents You and Yours and In Touch on BBC Radio 4

You & Yours is on BBC Radio 4 at 1200 weekdays. Listen to today's episode on the Radio 4 web site.

That Friday Feeling

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:22:43 +0000

So: what's special about Friday, then? Well, clearly it's the start of the weekend: although if you're retired, or not working at the moment, or even someone who regularly works weekends, that might not be such a big deal for you! But on You and Yours for the past eighteen months or so, we have been trying to give Fridays a slightly different "feel" to it.

It's not always that easy to define what that "feel" is, and we don't always agree about its definition. You know you're in trouble in editorial meetings when you come up with what you think is an absolutely cracking idea for the day's programme, only to have some bright spark pipe up in the corner, "Yes, but is it really Friday?" Back to the drawing-board.

I've been the regular presenter on Fridays over this period, and I couldn't give you an exact definition, but I suppose if you had to put it in one word, it would be "leisure", but interpreting that term pretty widely; so it could be travel and holidays, sport, the arts - books, film, music, the visual arts - transport (because so often to enjoy that leisure you have to be able to get there): or just some of the many and varied things people do for fun: potholing, collecting matchboxes, flying an autogyro!

But you can already see the potential problem: that's a big remit, and ripe for debate! One of our regular discussions is should we signpost it as a programme with a particular remit; certainly sometimes I'll say something like "Welcome to Friday's You and yours, and there's a strong leisure feel about today's prog"; but frankly we don't want to keep banging on about it, and I think we figure that regular listeners have already worked it out for themselves, and new ones will very soon get the idea.

In any case, it's not rigid. Clearly if a really big story comes up which is bang on the You and Yours agenda - a story say about the cost of energy, or the housing market, or Social Care, then we would do it; but that's when the debate about "is this really Friday?" is likely to get into full swing. The point is to make the content slightly different, but to stick very much to the You and Yours ethos of trying to get behind a story, and to find out what it really means to you and me as consumers.

So: it's not: what's the big new book, film, art exhibition of the week, but how is it being marketed, and how are we being persuaded to buy it. Not: where to go on holiday, but what underlying economic or lifestyle changes are influencing where we go, and what we're being offered. This is why we do quite a lot of sport: not because we want to add to the flood of coverage of results, personalities etc. but because we'd like to explain what's happening in the background: how much are you paying for the Olympics, what are you getting for your money if you don't live in London: what influences which sport you're able to see on the box!

That's why in many ways the classic "Friday" story has been for me the montages we've been doing on the World Cup. The event certainly doesn't need any more publicity from us but it is being used to sell us things: everything from hay fever remedies, to marriage guidance advice, to special horoscopes for the World Cup's duration! They give you a peep behind the hype, to uncover - more hype!

And by the way, if you've got an idea about a pastime, or a bit of marketing, or a travel trend that you think would make a good Friday investigation, we'd like to hear about it! You can be pretty sure your idea will start that debate all over again - "but is it really a Friday idea?"

Peter White presents You and Yours and In Touch on BBC Radio 4

You & Yours is on BBC Radio 4 at 1200 weekdays. Listen to today's episode on the Radio 4 web site.

How public is the "Public Transport Games"?

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:51:26 +0000

I can see that I'm soon going to be "persona non grata" on the London Underground, which is a shame, since it's one of my favourite forms of transport. But ever since London won its bid for the 2012 Olympics, and it was declared that this would be a "Public Transport" games, You and Yours has been exploring just how well this is likely to work for disabled travellers.

I've been on what's virtually become an annual pilgrimage, starting at Heathrow where many disabled visitors to the Olympics and Paralympics would be likely to arrive, and travelling east to the hub for the games at Stratford. The problem is that this is a massive challenge they've given themselves.

The problems are well rehearsed. We're dealing with an underground system much of which was built in the mid-Victorian era. It takes time and money to update old stock in both trains and buses; and disabled people come in many shapes and sizes: wheelchair users who need level access; blind people like me who need good, consistent information in a spoken form; deaf people who need good, consistent information in a visual form: etc, etc. It would be churlish to ignore the fact that they are trying really hard: hundreds of millions of pounds are being spent on installing lifts to take people down to ticket-buying level (although not always platform level, which is another story); information websites are being developed and improved all the time; London buses now have a comprehensive audio-system on them.

The problem is that every time I go on my pilgrimage, we still hit little snags; and for a disabled person dependent on consistency, it only takes one little snag to "de-rail" a journey: such as a bit of inaccurate information on a web-site, a wrong announcement in an elevator, or a train failure which leaves a wheelchair user stranded at a station where there is no access to opposite platforms so that they can change direction.

My own particular bugbear is announcements; time and time again, including this latest journey for the programme, officials assure me that good announcements are now mandatory, and time and time again I board trains where no announcements are made. No one can tell me why not. I know these announcements annoy some people, and I have sympathy with those who don't want a diatribe on how to organise their lives, not to forget their luggage, carry water with them, and generally obey a host of rules; but honestly, all I'm asking for is consistent announcements about the stop you're reaching at the moment and which is the next one! Tell me honestly who, whether they can see or not, hasn't needed that kind of information from time to time! And surely the glory of that change is that it should be totally cost-free.

Anyway, we'll keep plugging away with some bouquets as well as brickbats! For instance, the quality of staff help I get on the London Underground is second to none, and all credit to them for it! So don't ban me guys!

Just one little thought occurs to me! If you're a disabled person, and you've got hold of a ticket to an Olympic or Paralympic event, and you've paid for a plane ticket to get you into Heathrow, wouldn't you just jump in a taxi to get you to the "Public Transport" games!

Peter White presents You and Yours and In Touch on BBC Radio 4

You & Yours is on BBC Radio 4 at 1200 weekdays. Listen to today's episode on the Radio 4 web site.

How to get to the Games
Tour of the Olympic Village
More disability stories from You and Yours

Underground train image c Transport for London 2005

How will the new Government handle disability?

Tue, 25 May 2010 17:17:30 +0000

Just before the general election (seems a long time ago now, doesn't it?) You and Yours and In Touch ran question-and-answer sessions with the three major political parties on disability.

We asked what their policies would be towards disabled people on - employment, benefits, help for carers, etc.

Now a coalition government has arrived, begging many questions about what form its policies will take, and where there are differences between the two parties, which approach will gain the upper hand.

These are questions we intend to put to new ministers in the weeks to come, (dates yet to be confirmed), to try to obtain some clear answers for you.

For instance, there have already been intimations from the Department for Work and Pensions, under its new Secretary of State Iain Duncan-Smith, that they intend to re-visit, yet again, the numbers of people who claim benefit because they are deemed unable to work.

This is a vexed question and one which worries many disabled people because of the implication, which has come from governments regardless of their political colour in recent years, that many of those who are receiving benefits could and should be in jobs.

There have been various attempts by both Labour and Conservative governments in the past 20 years, to get numbers down. The most recent re-organisation was just a couple of years ago. And today You and Yours reported on Employment and Support Allowance assessments in Scotland where there are serious concerns about how people ability to work is assessed.

So what does the coalition have in mind and - as we suggested to our panel in those recent sessions - where will the jobs come from with two-and a-half million people currently out of work?

We are also revisiting plans to increase Disability Living Allowance to help blind people with travel costs, which were approved last year. It would be worth around £30 a week. Indications before the election were that these plans, due to be put in place next year, would be honoured, but with all the talk of cost-saving, will it still happen?

We'd also like to explore the balance between special and mainstream education, the likely shape of social care, whether there is more money for carers, many of whom tell us that they are saving social services and the NHS billions.

More generally - how will disability as an issue will be treated: will there be one minister responsible for disability issues across the board, or should it be dealt with by individual departments, rather than being regarded as a specialism?

As I say, we can't give precise dates for these broadcasts at the moment, but I will keep you posted. Good listening!

non-You and non-Yours

Mon, 10 May 2010 16:48:31 +0000

Preparing a programme which is destined never to go out is a strange experience! I've been trying to find a parallel! Is it like being left at the church, along with all the guests, while your beloved fails to show up! Perhaps it's like a false pregnancy, although at the moment I seem only to be able to come up with examples I either haven't experienced, or am biologically incapable of experiencing.

Ah: I've got it; it's like the long-awaited cup game involving my football team, Southampton which, on the very morning of the game, is called off because of bad weather. There you are: arrangements made, emotions tuned to a high pitch of excitement and then: total deflation; a day stretching ahead whose central point has been removed.

Okay: a bit overblown perhaps; I present You and Yours every Friday: but it was a bit like that at eight o'clock last Friday morning, when we would normally have been starting the morning planning meeting, when we learned that the election was still the only game in town, and that the World at One was to become the World at Twelve, and You and Yours was to become non-You and non-Yours. What made it the more annoying, even though we'd had fair warning that it might happen, was that I'd had to deny myself the pleasurable torture of staying up and watching the results, in order to get the minimum sleep to do a job I knew I might never do.

Still: these things happen in broadcasting, and lest all you care about is not my feelings in the matter but whether there has been any waste of BBC resources, let me assure you most of the items we had prepared will still be used, either in subsequent programmes of mine, or in editions presented by Julian and Winifred. Oh: and that's another thing! While I was denying myself the joy of listening to Dimbleby, Naughtie and co. my fellow-presenters J. and W. were actually out on the stump, bringing you the excitement from counts in Leeds and Ashfield. Not that I'm bitter, you understand! After all, as my friends said, what are you moaning about! you got a half-holiday, didn't you! Trouble is, I never did know what to do with a half-holiday! Anyway, back to business; the next Disability Newsletter will be delivered early next week! Honest!

Peter White presents You and Yours and In Touch on BBC Radio 4

You & Yours is on BBC Radio 4 at 1200 weekdays. Listen to today's episode on the Radio 4 web site.

For more information about schedule changes and Radio 4's coverage of the 2010 general election click here.

Peter White on the Disability Newsletter

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:23:52 +0000

Hi; its hair shirt time for me, I'm afraid. Over a rather busy time since Christmas, I'm aware - indeed, some of you have made me aware that the Disability newsletter has been conspicuous by its absence! But we now have a master plan, that I hope will put things right! As part of my contribution to the Blogomania which is sweeping through You and Yours, I intend to use part of my blogging contributions to revive the service we've been trying to provide for those interested in our disability focussed output. So: that will include the background to the items covered on the programme, plus information about things coming up in the near future which you might be able to help us with, or express a view on. Plus, what other parts of the Radio Four network are covering on disability subjects, whether its documentaries, features, interviews, drama and the arts.

I'll be blogging on average monthly, which is how the original newsletters were intended to operate, so I sincerely hope that this will fill the bill: I'm sure you'll tell me if it doesn't.
This means that everyone will get these details, but we will email my blogs specifically to those people who were on the Disability newsletter mailing list, and can add people to that list if you let us know your details.

So: the first thing for me to do under the new arrangements is to say that on the Tuesday of next week (April 27th), both You and Yours and In Touch will be putting your questions to representatives of the three major parties specifically on disability issues, with In Touch concentrating on issues which relate to visual impairment.

We'd expect to be putting questions to them about things such as their plans for social care, policies on employment, provision for disabled people from public services such as health or public transport, disability benefits, or the need for additional legislation on discrimination; but basically, the floor is yours.

Clearly, we can't guarantee to use all questions, but we really would like these sessions to reflect what's on your mind. You can email your questions via the website - www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours.

I hope we've now got a formula which will ensure that you get regular information specifically about our disability-related output, which we're very keen to make as comprehensive as possible. Good Listening!

Peter White presents You and Yours and In Touch on BBC Radio 4

You & Yours is on BBC Radio 4 at 1200 weekdays. Listen to today's episode on the Radio 4 web site.

Peter White In The USA

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Fixing interviews from three thousand miles away can be a deeply frustrating business. Producer Cheryl Gabriel and I have just been to the States covering stories both for You and Yours and In Touch.

Americans are charming people, who will promise you the earth if you can ever get them to answer their phones, but will then studiously ignore your emails and calls as you try to finalise the details; which is how we came to find ourselves gate crashing a press conference in New York's City Hall, on a subject in which we had no conceivable interest, with scarcely a working eye between us, trying to attract the attention of a man who couldn't see us either.

New York's governor David Paterson is himself visually impaired (which is why In Touch wanted to talk to him), but we'd been told, despite former assurances to the contrary, that he wasn't going to be in New York that week. For some reason, in a week in which he was being accused of messing up the state budget, and of giving too much support to an adviser facing accusations of domestic violence, an interview with the BBC wasn't high on his list of priorities. So we did the only thing we could do: stepped out in front of him as he left the conference, brandishing white cane and magnifier, and introduced ourselves. It worked! As his aides spluttered impotently behind us, Mr. Paterson indicated that he'd heard of the programme (online is a wonderful thing), and would be delighted to give an interview. New York political machine nil, blind mafia one. You can hear about how he tackles his job on next week's In Touch.

Travel generally posed its challenges on this trip! We were in a taxi when, after some persistent schmoozing from Cheryl, we got the tip-off about the governor's whereabouts! It meant that we had to change our destination for the third time, causing the driver to eject us because, as he put it "we were spending too much time in his cab". Strange; but then New York cabbies are under pressure at the moment! They're being accused of an overcharging scam (accusations they hotly deny), and you'll hear the inside track on that story too on You & Yours in the next few days.

At odds with the cabbies, we turned to the trains, but they too, with their unfamiliar lines and ticketing systems can pose problems for blind and partially sighted travellers! After a few journeys spent hurtling in the wrong direction, we came across our most exciting rescuer! As we struggled to get our pre-ordered train ticket from Boston to Albany, we were helped by a charming man whom Cheryl, employing that famous magnifier, thought looked vaguely familiar. It turned out to be Jimi Hendrix's cousin, on his way to play a gig with some of Hendrix's former band in Providence, Rhode Island. Cheryl and Kenny Barber, that's his stage name, are now email buddies! Just another example of the bonuses to be had from needing help!

Peter White is the Presenter of You and Yours and In Touch.