Why Bacon on the Radio?

Richard Bacon the witless radio presenter, rather than the delectable meat.

There is an austerity cooking point to this, bear with me.

Driving up the M6 yesterday afternoon I ended up listening to Radio 5-Live, my usual choice Radio 3 playing stuff I found dull. I used to love the afternoon programme when Simon Mayo presented it: well researched, intelligent, varied, and though it inevitably included 'celebrity' interviews plugging book/film/show/dog biscuit it always found something of interest in them. Richard Bacon is the polar opposite: glib, in love with pointless television shows and himself, endlessly fatuous.

I braved his show for a while though as he had on a chef promoting a competition for children who cook. Rather than discuss what is a potentially vital subject, Bacon spent the majority of the interview a) pushing James Martin for the name of the TV chef/cook he least admires, something he was never going to reveal; and b) saying what is the point of children learning to cook when they can go to McDonald's etc, a lazy way to try to provoke a response rather than facilitating intelligent conversation; c) dredging up stereotypes of British cooking out of date 25 years ago.

Sadly I was not surprised by his idiocy, having attempted to listen before. Learning to cook saves you money; is a constant pleasure; is a subject you can never master but where you can constantly improve; and allows creative expression. Instead of which the brilliant Richard Bacon wasted the interview trying to look fey and a teeny bit edgy. He is neither.

Bacon's programme is a vacuum to be filled soon, we can but hope, by someone with a mind worth calling such. I just wish that one of his guests had the courage to halt the interview, state: "You are an idiot," and walk out. Then another, then another, and even the BBC would get the message.