My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Discuss your favourite podcast, radio show or The Archers episode.

Radio/podcast addicts

Mark Lawson leaving Front Row ?

24 replies

AchyFox · 05/03/2014 19:39

Can anyone dig the dirt ?

Or failing that speculate wildly. Grin

He doesn't come across as a bully, rather convivial I thought.

OP posts:
Report
ListenToTheLady · 05/03/2014 21:20

I don't want him to be the bully! I know there have been other accusations about bullying managers at the BBC and bosses not doing anything about it. I wondered if the news team put that mention in as a way of drawing more attention to it. Because they could easily just have said "personal reasons".

Report
ListenToTheLady · 05/03/2014 21:22

Although convivial doesn't mean you can't be a bully - much as I don't want to think he would be. One of the worst work bullies I know - an ex friend - is harming and has loads of friends herself. She told me quite openly how she tated her underlings at work, involving screaming at them and sidelining people. I was horrified, she thought it was her right as a boss.

Report
ListenToTheLady · 05/03/2014 21:24

Bah that's charming not harming, bloody iPad.

(I notice my iPad is always at pains to write "iPad" correctly, while messing everything else up - what a narcissist.)

Report
OhBuggerandArse · 05/03/2014 21:29

The Telegraph (!) says:

'The allegations are said to centre on one presenter and one producer, with one complaint detailing “a culture of bullying and a failure of management to protect staff”, according to reports.'

Report
BOFtastic · 05/03/2014 21:42

I believe the complaint was a joint one from several members of staff via their union. Lawson is a brilliant interviewer, IMO, but I suppose that many passionate perfectionists can overlook their people skills when focussing on the task at hand. I don't have any insider information, but that is what I've surmised from the way this has been reported.

Report
AchyFox · 05/03/2014 22:53

'The allegations are said to centre on one presenter and one producer

If it was the producer who was at the centre of the allegations, I think they would have just swapped producers.

So can't help but feel that ML is the "accused".

OP posts:
Report
R4 · 06/03/2014 11:12

Hurrah! I cannot stand Mark Lawson. I hate his tortured, laboured 'links' between items that are not - in any shape or form - linked. One of the joys of no longer listening to TA is not having to leap for the off button when ML and his strangulated tones 'rogue vowels' appear.

Report
Songbird · 06/03/2014 11:34

R4 - 'no longer listen to TA'?!? But it's great at the moment!

Report
Songbird · 06/03/2014 11:35

Yes, I think he's the 'accused', the wording is quite vague but pointed, I think.

Report
Anatana · 06/03/2014 11:51

Oh no! I really liked Front Row.

Report
R4 · 06/03/2014 12:21

Sorry songbird. I know some folks think that New Bloke has improved it but it no longer works for me. I am fed up with thinking " is acting out of character, fed up with thinking " that wouldn't happen in RL", fed up with thinking "but why? ... does not compute", fed up with thinking "where's X?". Basically, fed up with thinking "Confused".
They are still doing the rationing of actors so there is no continuity anymore. It is not "everyday". There are too many newbies; too many stories started and not finished. I'm not allowed to get involved because stories get cut off midstream. It's all too very intense and then ... nothing, dropped like a stone.

I don't care enough anymore about what happens in the Village, it's too fragmented.

Report
nennypops · 07/03/2014 07:24

I must admit I've never like Mark Lawson's voice - it has no resonance and sounds almost strained sometimes.

Report
Songbird · 07/03/2014 12:37

R4 Good points, one and all. Still can't tear myself away though Hmm

Report
AchyFox · 07/03/2014 14:23

R4

The real problem with listening to FR is having to dive for the button as WHD spews forth at 1945.

Why they need to repeat this crap is beyond me.

OP posts:
Report
RocknRollNerd · 07/03/2014 16:00

I hate his tortured, laboured 'links' between items that are not - in any shape or form - linked.

Oh I hear you! All that "'and today as tensions mount in Ukraine and its neighbours in Romania and Bulgaria look on nervously we take a look at Children's Television of the 1970s and ask 'is the time right for a Wombles retrsopective on BBC4'" I don't mind John Wilson and I still miss Francine Stock.

I can't agree that he seems convivial, I've always thought he seems quite smug and self-satisfied. I like Front Row as a programme though so hope that survives.

Report
NetworkGuy · 12/03/2014 18:02

WHD spews forth at 1945....

Who is WHD please?

Report
AchyFox · 12/03/2014 22:40

Woman's Hour Drama

OP posts:
Report
NetworkGuy · 13/03/2014 00:27

Blush - of course.

I was somehow thinking it was a presenter ... I knew not whom ...
talking about the end of WW II Grin

Report
AchyFox · 13/03/2014 00:54

Oh, if only it were a one-off Network ... if only.

OP posts:
Report
NetworkGuy · 13/03/2014 08:26

But do you really hate it that much? I sometimes listen, sometimes not, but consider those 15 minute slots are often better than other '15 minute' shows that are used in various sections of the schedule (23:00-23:30, 15:30-16:00, and worst: 13:45 - why TF did they extend WatO {nearly included 'The'... News filling 30 minutes can be bad enough when you know the topics at 12:00 and 12:30, but to allow them 45 minutes of speculation on some days is excessive!}), so while I understand you may dislike WHD in the extreme, I don't... takes all sorts :)

Report
PseudoBadger · 13/03/2014 08:31

"'and today as tensions mount in Ukraine and its neighbours in Romania and Bulgaria look on nervously we take a look at Children's Television of the 1970s and ask 'is the time right for a Wombles retrsopective on BBC4'"
Perfect!!

Report
AchyFox · 13/03/2014 12:59

Yes I hate WHD Grin

Re WATO going to 45 minutes:

Basically Martha Kearney twisted peoples arms I suspect.
For about a year prior to the increase, she was doing this strange thing with her delivery, a sort of highly emphasised robotic sing-song, throughout the programme.

As soon as it went to 45mins, that all stopped and she spoke normally.

I am fairly sure she just told them: Give me 45 minutes or I am going to be your work-to-rule-sing-song-robot-at-one forever.

And they back her and sack Quentin CooperHmm.

OP posts:
Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

RocknRollNerd · 14/03/2014 17:15

WHD at 7.45 was always the sign I was working too long hours/too far away if I heard that. Only once did I get very into it and that was a dramatisation of a true story I think about an opera singer and I timed leaving the client site so I knew I'd still be in the car on Friday at 7.45.

Pseudo d'you think I could get a job writing Front Row links Grin.

Report
NetworkGuy · 26/09/2014 14:22

Have just come back to this thread (OK, long time, I know), because I had not known he had actually left. My error, but in my defence, I use an App on several mobiles called "TuneIn" and whenever Front Row is on, or if listening to a recent broadcast, there's an image of Mark Lawson, hence my assumption he had just taken a break (not having read the content of the link until today).

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.