Mark Tully: BBC Radio 4 host speaks out on shock programme axe ‘I feel sad for myself’

Mark Tully, 83, currently works as a freelance journalist and broadcaster based in New Delhi, India, and has fronted his BBC Radio 4 show, Something Understood, for over two decades. Despite the popularity of the show, Mark has revealed in a candid interview with the Radio Times his broadcast on Easter Sunday this weekend will be the last to ever be recorded. According to the publication, repeats of the radio show will continue to be aired but cost-cutting has resulted in no more of Something Understood. Speaking to the publication, he spilled: “I feel sad for myself.

“I feel sad for everyone behind the programme, and I feel sad because I know a lot of listeners like it.

“They say two things to me about it: that there is nothing else like it on the radio, and that this is what radio should be all about.”

He continued: “And I think that’s true. I think the BBC is underestimating the asset that it has.”

The Sunday morning show, Something Understood, explores ethical and faith issues and is one of the few religious programmes which are commissioned by the BBC.

Mark also opened up about the impact the show has had on his listeners as he recalled attending a church service in Edinburgh some years ago where a woman in the congregation came up and spoke to him.

She explained it was the first time she’d felt able to attend a church service since her husband died and it was largely down to his radio show.

The broadcaster said: “That meant a lot to me.

“What I hope people take from the programme is both an interest in the questions we raise and also that it might help them in their lives.”

It comes after the BBC announced it would be axing the religious programme due to “budget cuts”.

The corporations said in a statement to The Telegraph in 2018: “The BBC continues to face significant financial challenges, and has to save £800 million by 2021; so Radio 4, like the rest of BBC Radio, has to make tough choices.

“We’ve broadcast Something Understood for nearly 24 years, and we know the decision to no longer make this programme will disappoint our audience.

“But we have a full and rich back catalogue of the programme, and we propose to fill the schedule with the best of the archive for the foreseeable future.”

The programme has many loyal listeners despite its early morning broadcast of 6am on Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, Mark has been a part of the BBC for most of his journalistic career and is the former Bureau Chief of the corporation in New Delhi.

He held the position for 30 years before he resigned in 1994 before he became a regular host on the weekly show Something Understood.

Something Understood airs on BBC Radio 4 on Easter Sunday at 6.05am.

You can read the full interview with Mark Tully in this week’s Radio Times.

source: express.co.uk