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Today, commonly referred to as the Today programme in order to avoid ambiguity, is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, which is now broadcast from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. from Monday to Friday and from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Saturdays. It consists of regular news bulletins, serious political interviews and in-depth reports.
Today was launched on the BBC's Home Service on October 28, 1957 as a programme of "topical talks" to give listeners a morning alternative to light music. It was initially broadcast as two 20-minute editions slotted in around the exisiting news bulletins and religious items. In 1963 it became part of the BBC's Current Affairs department, and it started to become more news-oriented. The two editions also became longer, and by the end of the 1960s it had become a single two-hour long programme that enveloped the news bulletins and the religious talk that had become "Thought For The Day". It was cut back to two parts in 1976-1978, but was swiftly returned to its former position.
Jack de Manio became its principal presenter in 1958. He became notorious for on-air gaffes. In 1970 the programme format was changed so that there were two presenters each day. De Manio left in 1971, and by 1975 the team of John Timpson and Brian Redhead was well established.This arrangement lasted until Timpson's retirement in 1986, when John Humphrys and Sue MacGregor joined the rotating list of presenters. After Redhead's untimely death on 23 January 1994, James Naughtie became a member of the team. Sarah Montague replaced MacGregor in 2002.
The show reached a peak in terms of influence in the 1980s, when prime minister Margaret Thatcher was a noted listener. Ministers thus became keen to go on the programme and be heard by their leader; but the tough, confrontational interviewing style they encountered led to accusations that the BBC was biased. Criticism was particularly directed against Redhead, who was widely seen as being on the left. The style of the male interviewers was analysed and contrasted with that of McGregor, who was alleged to be giving subjects an easier time. The "big 8.10" interview that follows the 8 o'clock news remains an important institution of British politics to this day.
Today regularly holds an end-of-year poll. For many years this took the form of write-in votes for the Man and Woman of the Year. This was stopped after an episode of organised vote-rigging in 1990, but was soon revived as a telephone vote for a single Personality of the Year. A further episode of vote-rigging, in favour of Tony Blair in 1996, forced the programme makers to consider more innovative polling questions.
Since 1970 the programme has featured Thought for the Day , in which a speaker reflects on topical issues from a theological viewpoint. Notable contributors to the slot include Rabbi Lionel BlueLionel Blue (born 6 February 1930) is a British Reform Rabbi and broadcaster. He is best known for his wry and gentle sense of humour on " Thought for the Day" on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford and Leo Baeck Coll and Richard HarriesThe Right Reverend Richard Douglas Harries is a Church of England bishop, currently the Bishop of Oxford. He made the appointment of Jeffrey John as Bishop of Reading in 2003, from which Jeffrey John subsequently withdrew amid controversy over homosexual, the Bishop of Oxford. Over the years the slot has featured an increasing number of speakers from religions other than ChristianityChristian cross and its many variations are widely recognized as an ancient Christian symbol. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. Although Christians generally chara, though Christian speakers remain in a substantial majority.
Today found itself in the midst of controversy again in 20022002 is a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). 2002 was the first palindromic year since 1991 and the last until 2112. 2002 was also designated: International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains National Science Year in the United Kingdom, when its editor Rod LiddleRod Liddle (born 1960) is a British journalist best known for his term as editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Liddle was born in South London but brought up in Guisborough. He attended Leeds University and the London School of Economics. Liddle was a wrote a column in The GuardianThe Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. It is a serious broadsheet newspaper with relatively left wing politics. Until 1959 it was called The Manchester Guardian and the paper is still sometimes referred to by this name, esp that was extremely critical of the Countryside AllianceThe Countryside Alliance (CA) is a British organization claiming to promote the interests of what it prefers to call "Country Sports" (hunting with dogs, shooting and fishing) but also takes an interest in other issues of relevance to people living in rur. He eventually resigned from his post on Today.
In Summer 2003, the Today programme once again found itself at the centre of allegations of political bias, this time against a Labour government. The controversy arose after Today broadcast a report by its correspondent Andrew GilliganAndrew Paul Gilligan (born 22 November, 1968, Teddington, Middlesex, England) is a journalist best known for his report, while defence and diplomatic correspondent for BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme about the British Government's dossier on weapons of. The report alleged that a dossier the British Government had produced to convince the British public of the need to invade Iraq was deliberately exaggerated, and that the government had known this prior to publishing it. Gilligan's anonymous source for the claim was Dr David Kelly, a key adviser on biological weapons who had worked in Iraq. In the furore that followed Gilligan's report, David Kelly's name became public and he was forced to appear before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. Shortly afterwards he committed suicide. In the ensuing public inquiry (the Hutton Inquiry) that reported in January 2004, the BBC was heavily criticised. This led to the resignation of the BBC's Chairman Gavyn Davies and Director-General (equivalent to Chief Executive) Greg Dyke. Andrew Gilligan also resigned.
Journalist and historian Peter Hennessy has asserted in several books that one of the tests that the commander of a British nuclear-missile submarine must use to determine whether the UK has been the target of a nuclear attack (in which case he has sealed orders which may authorise him to fire his nuclear missiles in retalliation) is to listen for the presence of Today on Radio 4's frequencies. If a certain number of days pass without the programme being broadcast, that is to be taken as evidence that the envelope may be opened. The true conditions are of course secret, and Hennessy has never revealed his sources for this story, leading Paul Donovan, author of a book about Today, to express some scepticism about it. However, the longwave signal of Radio 4 is capable of penetrating to depths where submarines normally operate.