Doing Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

For many people Thought for the Day on the Today programme is a big switch off. A time to let the kettle boil and drown it out. Yet when the BBC commissioned a survey amongst listeners it turned out to be the most popular of the non news items. It is not an easy slot to fill. It has to be related to the news in some way without being politically contentious. It has to be  rooted in a faith based tradition whilst at the same time speaking to people of no faith. All this at a time when people are going to work, getting up or clattering about.

I first started 53 years ago with the old style Prayer for the Day. This was broadcast  at 6.50,  with the same format as Thought for the Day, but ending with single line prayer. The presenters were Brian Redhead and John Timpson. When it came to the prayer Brian Redhead used to put both hands together, as though at primary school, but later more seriously, for in 1982 his son Will was killed in a car crash in France. He used to tell me about his vicar, an ex-miner who bred whippets, who used to walk and talk with him round the parish. If was even rumoured at one stage that Brian was going to be ordained. There is a poignant link with the present programme, because Nick Robinson was Will’s best friend in the car with him and who after months in hospital survived.

I did that old style Prayer for the Day every Friday for 11 years without a break but when it was taken out of the Today programme I switched to Thought at 7.47. I did Fridays and Lionel Blue did Mondays. No one could compare with him but then no one else could talk about their time in the brothels of Amsterdam or come out so boldly as gay or tell such great jokes. How we miss him.

I have always liked to use literature if I can, and it was ‘The Wreck of the Deutschland’ by Gerald Manley Hopkins that came to me in the small hours when I had to respond to the Zeebrugge ferry  disaster in 1987 when 193 people died. Occasionally one has to respond at short notice, as when I was rung up about 5.30 am to be told the Princess Diana had been killed in a car crash. At such times one does not have to say anything brilliant, just capture the mood of the nation. As E. M. Forster said ‘Get the tone right and everything else follows.’ That is even more true of Thought for the Day than it is of novels. Some days are especially tricky, like the several times I have been on when the result of an election has become clear, including the Brexit result which took most people by surprise.

I try to ask myself: is what I am going to say  interesting? Is it true? Is it helpful? I cannot guarantee it will interest others, but at least it must interest me, and I have a low threshold of boredom. But something can be interesting but so hyped up it becomes untrue. And something can be both interesting and true but not helpful.

Thought for the Day is produced by the Religion and Ethics department of the BBC. Their job is on the line if a script becomes politically controversial. The usual procedure is to ring the producer and agree a subject, write the script and get it checked and signed off. The procedure is much tighter now than in former years. By inadvertence I did several months every week during the Falklands War with no script being checked. Another big difference is that when I started broadcasting  the hospitality  room was full of politicians desperate to get on the programme. Now most prefer to do it down the line.

The presenters have always been very gracious and if John Humphries liked the script he gave a thumbs up. The programme has had other great broadcasters but what a terrible loss  is Mishal Hussein and will be when Amol Rajan goes. Thankfully  Justin Webb and Nick Robinson are still prepared to get up in the small hours to be in the studio at 6 am well prepared.

Thought for the Day is a strange spot, a unique one in broadcasting terms. A huge privilege to do, but very exposed.

Richard Harries (Lord Harries of Pentregarth) is a former Bishop of Oxford. His autobiography is The Shaping of a Soul: a life taken by surprise, John Hunt.