Broadcasting

I was looking forward to a radio show this evening. John Humphrys has conducted an interview with Andy Kershaw for the ‘On The Ropes’ programme, due to be broadcast this morning and repeated tonight. Unfortunately the show was ‘pulled’ at the eleventh hour due to, I believe, the privacy of Kershaw’s former partner and his children being affected. Simply, I was keen to hear Kershaw’s voice again. His travails of recent years encompassing domestic disorder, prison, problems with alcohol and the subsequent ‘radio silence’ are reasonably well-documented. Kershaw is hoping to return to the airwaves but has been offered nothing yet by the BBC. I trust and hope that Kershaw’s recent controversies are not behind any decisions to delay any return to the corporation’s airwaves. When the likes of Brand, Ross and Moyles are routinely forgiven for foibles, it seems unjust and disappointing to think that a fellow with ten times the broadcasting talent of those mentioned, with a glorious passion for many forms of music and the erudition to convey this to an enthusiastic following, is denied an audience because of a desperately sad private life. The airwaves need as many Andy Kershaws as possible; I look forward to the engaging Lancastrian making as full a recovery as possible and, one day, gracing the nation’s wirelesses once more.