{"id":685716,"date":"2026-07-11T08:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T08:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/685716\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T08:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T08:27:08","slug":"john-humphrys-criticises-successors-on-irritating-today-programme-john-humphrys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/685716\/","title":{"rendered":"John Humphrys criticises successors on \u2018irritating\u2019 Today programme | John Humphrys"},"content":{"rendered":"

For more than three decades, John Humphrys<\/a> delighted and infuriated listeners in equal measure as he confronted the nation\u2019s politicians in his trademark, pointed style on the Today programme.<\/p>\n

Now a listener himself, the former presenter of the BBC\u2019s flagship radio news show<\/a> is just as pointed in his assessment of the current incarnation of the programme. His verdict? It\u2019s irritating.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been the one on the radio informing (and possibly sometimes annoying) the listeners for 33 years, I\u2019m now the man shouting at his radio about how irritating the programme has become,\u201d Humphrys writes in the Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The focus of his ire is not the tone of interviews, which were often the focus of complaints during his presenting reign<\/a>. Instead, his critique cites congratulatory exchanges between presenters, gushing welcomes for interviewees and persistent rhetorical tics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not so much the really important stuff that gets the harrumphing going,\u201d Humphrys writes. \u201cIt\u2019s the stuff that challenges the meaning of IQ. In my new listener mode, IQ stands for \u2018irritation quotient\u2019, and it\u2019s largely to do with the way the presenters communicate.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will most certainly have spotted the gratuitous gratitude expressed by host and guest to each other. Increasingly rare is the guest who doesn\u2019t feel the need to curry favour with his interviewer. \u2018Thank you SO much for inviting me on!\u2019 has become standard. To which the correct response should be: \u2018On the contrary. Without someone to interview there\u2019d be no programme.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead there\u2019s a gushing contest between host and guest. Again, some presenters are more guilty than others.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what are we meant to make of the presenters occasionally having a little chat with each other about the significance (or otherwise) of an interview one of them has just completed? As the discerning listener may have noticed, even some of the presenters appear to find this deeply uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also expresses annoyance when a contributor \u201cor, God forbid, even the occasional presenter or correspondent will find it a real challenge to get through an interview without \u2018y\u2019 know \u2026 \u2019 probably followed by \u2018I mean \u2026 \u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humphrys criticised Amol Rajan for emphasising \u2018the definite and indefinite articles in any given sentence\u2019. Photograph: Aled Llywelyn\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Humphrys singles out presenter Amol Rajan, who has announced he is leaving the show<\/a> to pursue his own business in the creator economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cA prime example would be Amol Rajan\u2019s insistence on emphasising, without fail, the definite and indefinite articles in any given sentence,\u201d Humphrys writes. \u201cIn his world, \u2018A\u2019 bomb has exploded in \u2018THE\u2019 Palace of Westminster. My apologies to you, dear reader, if you\u2019ve never spotted it, but if you hadn\u2019t, I bet you will now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Humphrys\u2019 criticism, there is genuine dismay inside the show at Rajan\u2019s departure, with senior figures seeing his engaging style as a crucial part of keeping it relevant.<\/p>\n

And despite the upheaval wrought by the digital revolution in the media industry, Today still commands well more than 5 million listeners a week.<\/p>\n

Humphrys admits BBC<\/a> executives may have a view on the feedback he is offering about the show. \u201cI suppose if I were Today\u2019s editor, the phrase \u2018pain in the arse\u2019 might come to mind,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

He also says he may stop listening should budget cuts to the programme go further, while acknowledging it has been more protected than others. Previous rounds of cuts saw the show lose its dedicated correspondents.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtiose? Almost always,\u201d Humphrys writes of the show. \u201cIrritating? Profoundly. But would I really die on this hill? Possibly not. Then again \u2026 y\u2019know?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if the big bosses persist in cutting its budget so it sometimes has to use last night\u2019s TV news report and becomes less \u2018Today\u2019 and more \u2018Yesterday\u2019 \u2013 then Radio<\/a> 3, here I come!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For more than three decades, John Humphrys delighted and infuriated listeners in equal measure as he confronted the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-685716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}