Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Fi Glover: Come Home to Five Live

Five Live is the radio station I listen to most. Being a news and sport addict it's the perfect mix for me. And the other thing I like about it is the humour of its presenters. Fi Glover to me was the personification of Five Live in its prime. Her unique brand of irony and humour was perfect for her Sunday Service programme where she bounced off Charlie Whelan and Andrew Pierce (and occasionally myself) and built a listenership which was both loyal and growing. She then move don to the morning phone in programme and then to the late night programme (or wa sit the other way around). But sadly she decided to take a year's sabbatical in New York after some personal issues at Five Live (which I won't go into as they received enough publicity at the time) became too much.

When she returned she went to Radio 4 and took over from Eddie Mair at Broadcasting House. Today it was announced she would also take over the Home Truth's Saturday morning slot. It's great news for Fi, but I still think she should return to her natural home, Five Live. It's where she'd be most appreciated. More on Fi HERE.


15 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a load of sentimental nonesense, she represented everything that was wrong in the way the BBC is unbalanced.

I seem to remember she was going to NY to join a 'liberal' (american usage) radio station set up to challange the dominance of right wing radio stations and their hosts.

What she means by 'liberal' is surely 'BBC'.

Anonymous said...

Iain is that a little crush you have on the fragrant Fi? BBC have not yet found the best slot for Fi since she is more cerebral than your Jane Garvey's et al who invest Five Live. One day in the future she will do Desert Island discs. She wrote a book 'Travels with my radio'.

Anonymous said...

Nick Ferrari is not standing. What a surprise.

Anonymous said...

Apart from Jane Garvey, with her horrible, cold, tight, adenoidal, miserable voice (and even more miserable personality), there's also the dreadful drone-voiced moron Victoria Derbyshire. How the latter got a degree from Liverpool is a mystery. She should never have been given the morning phone-in - why not give it to Fi Glover? Nothing to do with the personal issues between the two, just the fact that she'd be far better (and a lot less irritating).

Now Worricker is cerebral - it's time he was given a slot on Newsnight.

Anonymous said...

Late evenings on five live has not been the same since Fi left. She was/is perfect for the late night slot.

Anonymous said...

quite liked glover, quite like garvey, even quite like darbyshire (she's actually pretty even-handed, in my opinion, and i hate the bbc with a passion; mind you, there was the kissing vicar piece a week or two back, when she was vile).
but worricker? cerebral? the man is a simpering tosser. show him the line and he'll find the point of least resistance every time. and - and this will spoil him for you i'm afraid - try and count the number of times he says 'ah' or 'um' in a sentence, never mind a programme. i think he's trying to convey some sort of measured intelligence, with a side order of irony. in fact he conveys this: my name's julian. i'm a twat.

Hughes Views said...

Fi was indeed wonderful on the sadly missed Sunday Service programme. Do you know why they ditched it? It seemed to me to be a really engaging political show that would have appealed not just to geeks such as thee and me. And they used to read out my irreverent (and, some would think, irrelevant) e-mails....

She was also pretty good on Broadcast House. She shares much of the verbal twinkle in the eye of Eddie Marr but he must have been a hard act to follow.....

Anonymous said...

Fi Glover - yes.

Nicky Campbell - no, no, no. What were, and are, they thinking?

Anonymous said...

So Fi's the business is she? Well I'll tune in; I could use a laugh.
Iain, If I seem a little sceptical, it's because I remember that you have a "soft spot" for NuLab arch-bores Hazel Blears and Caroline Flint.
Fine writer as you are, old chap, I don't think you've aquired, as yet, Hemingway's built-in shit detector.

Anonymous said...

Fi is a brilliant presenter and i do remember the days of Fi, Charlie andrew and sometimes Iain fondly. I suppose her personal politics might be more left thsn right but i don't recall it being noticeable. It's her warmth and humour that were real strength. Her book Travels With My Radio is pretty cool as well.

Paul Linford said...

I agree with you here Iain but sadly you can't ignore the personal issues, in that some of the people who caused those issues are still at Five Live.

Anonymous said...

Yes, and at least one of them doesn't deserve to be!

As for Julian Worricker's use of ah and um, they don't (for me at least) grate anywhere near as much as the vile Victoria D's repeated use of 'yeah' (not to mention the glottal stops - odd that, when she comes from Bolton). Regional speech is fine - what I (and many others) detest is sloppy speech, and her speech is just one big pile of slop, delivered in that horrible adenoidal whine. She's a waste of DNA, never mind license payer's money.

Anonymous said...

What on earth is wrong with Fi Glover wanting to challenge the vile, right-wing 'shock jocks'?

If people like that tosh why don't they move to the States - they certainly wouldn't be missed in good old fair-minded Blighty.

Now all we need is to get the truly gorgeous Kirstie Allsop on to the wireless after she returns from her maternity leave.

towcestarian said...

From the ever faithful anagramgenius we have:

Victoria Derbyshire = Dreary British Voice

or even:

Her vibrator is dicey

Anonymous said...

Like you Iain I miss Fi on FiveLive. Thought she was fab on Sunday Service and hope she returns to the station soon.