First episode date 1956 | ||
Similar World in Action, Panorama, The Money Programme, Opportunity Knocks, The Good Old Days | ||
What The Papers Say was a British radio, and formerly television, series. It consisted of quotations from headlines and comment pages in the previous week's newspapers, read in a variety of voices and accents by actors. The quotes were linked by a script read by a studio presenter, usually a prominent journalist. The show did not have a regular host, and was intended as a wry look at how British broadsheets and tabloids covered the week's news stories. The programme was most recently broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Contents
What The Papers Say originally ran for many years on television – its first incarnation (1956–2008) was the second longest-running programme on British television after Panorama. Beginning in 1956 on Granada Television and ITV, the television series moved to Channel 4 and then to BBC2 before being discontinued in 2008. The programme was revived on Radio 4 in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and continued until 27 March 2016, when it was announced that this was its last Radio 4 episode.
The programme's format was the same for both television and radio. On TV, while quotes were being read, they would appear on-screen as newspaper cuttings under the relevant newspaper's masthead, and the presenter would read a script from the auto-prompt operator.
History
Throughout its history, the television series was editorially based in Manchester by Granada Television. For the first 26 years of its run, the series was broadcast on ITV in London and the North-West, and carried at different times in its history by certain other regional ITV stations; it was never networked nationally.
The first programme, on 5 November 1956, was presented by Brian Inglis, then deputy editor of The Spectator; the following week Kingsley Martin, editor of the New Statesman, presented the show. Martin presented the show on six occasions; Brian Inglis became the most frequent presenter with about 170 programmes. Originally the programme ran for 25 minutes, later reduced to 20.
In 1969, the programme was briefly relaunched as The Papers, with sociologist Stuart Hall as the first presenter. This version of the programme lasted for only 10 weeks, after which it reverted to its original title, and took on the format it retained, with a different presenter (almost always a journalist) each week.
The show moved from ITV to Channel 4 when the latter was launched in 1982, but was dropped in 1989, to be taken up by BBC2, where it was broadcast on Saturday afternoons, with a running time of 15 (later 10) minutes.
In 2008, the BBC decided not to recommission the series, also dropping coverage of the annual What the Papers Say Awards. ITV Productions stated it hoped to find a "new home" for the show. In October 2008 the same format made a partial return to screens during Granada's own regional political programme Party People, where it is usually introduced as "a look at what the papers say". The programme was revived by BBC Radio 4 in April 2010.
On 17 February 2010, the BBC announced What the Papers Say would be revived on BBC Radio 4, with 12 editions being broadcast under the working title "What the Election Papers Say" in the run-up to the 2010 general election. The 12-part revival was regarded a success by former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer, who commissioned the programme as a permanent addition to the station's schedule at 22.45 on Sundays as the last segment of The Westminster Hour.
The radio programmes were recorded at the Westminster BBC's New Broadcasting House studios. Presenters of the BBC Radio 4 programme have included The Spectator's editor Fraser Nelson, the Daily Mirror's Kevin Maguire, The Guardian's Michael White, The Observer's Andrew Rawnsley and John Kampfner.
Critical acclaim
In its most recent incarnation, the programme received a warm reception from critics, including The Daily Telegraph's Gillian Reynolds, who wrote, "Three cheers for whoever thought of rescuing What the Papers Say. The old essay format, where the presenter writes a script linking illustrative extracts from the week's press, still bursts with life. All the presenters so far have kept it sharp and spiky, the extract readers are full of gusto, production and editing are first-rate. It's an espresso in a Horlicks world".
David Brockman wrote: "What is universally accepted is that Granada's What The Papers Say Awards, decided annually and first established in 1957, are among the most prestigious in the entire world of journalism".
Music
The show's theme music was originally The Procession of the Sardar, by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, a student of Rimsky-Korsakov. Later, it was replaced by Allegro Non Troppo, the first movement from Malcolm Arnold's Second Set of English Dances Opus 33. The ten programmes titled The Papers used the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F as opening and closing music; when it reverted to the original title, it was replaced again by the Arnold work, which was also used for the revived programme on radio.
Voices
In its original television format, actors reading the excerpts from the papers, out of vision, included Peter Wheeler (who narrated the introduction to Granada Television's Crown Court series), Daphne Oxenford, Ray Moore and Barrie Hesketh.
The regular voices of BBC Radio 4's What the Papers Say were: