Radio
Keep it simple
Michael Vestey
Some years ago friends would invite me to their house in Norfolk for weekends. They were not always the most restful of respites as the days seemed to be taken up by drinks' parties, lunches and dinners at their friends' houses. I would return to London quite exhausted by the hectic pace of the social life.
On one occasion we were to present our- selves for lunch at the splendid Georgian mansion of the lateral thinker Dr Edward de Bono, whom I had heard regularly on Radio Four's Stop the Week. As we took our seats at the large round table, I noticed a toy train travelling in a circle around a vase of flowers. No one mentioned it as they tucked into a delicious lunch, and I began to wonder if our host had formulat- ed some new theory, perhaps called Circu- lar Thinking, to replace his views on conceptual 'sideways' thinking. It was he who had written in one of his books 'Think sideways.' Could it now be 'Think round the bend'? After a while I asked him what the purpose of the train was. He gave me a penetrating stare and said, 'It's a talking point,' and thereafter said little.
I thought of this while listening to him on Talk Radio's Lorraine Kelly show on Monday morning. He was promoting his latest book Simplicity, and launching National Simplicity Week, a campaign to simplify many of the complexities of mod- ern living. He said he wanted to set up a I designed this brilliant logo, but nobody will start a company to go with it.' National Institute of Simplicity which would look at new technology, products or government forms and say to those respon- sible, it's too complicated, go back and make it simpler. This seemed to be an excellent idea, though in practice simplicity police might cause more mayhem than good. We could certainly do with more simplicity in computers, video records and other products of the age.
De Bono travels the world holding semi- nars on ways of thinking. At these he will offer his solutions to problems such as parking in cities. He told Kelly that he would not use parking meters but allow people to park wherever they liked provid- ed they left their headlights on. 'If you leave your headlights on you're not going to leave your car there for a minute longer than you need to.' There would then be more parking spaces. At his next seminar he might have to explain what his solution to flat batteries might be. He was right, though, about gadgetry and its unnecessary and ridiculous complexity, telling the story of the computer designer who went home in the evenings to find he couldn't operate his microwave because it was too compli- cated.
De Bono's spot in Kelly's two-hour pro- gramme was too short, under 20 minutes with the news, jingles and advertisements, and there seemed to be few callers. An hour would have been about right because whether you agree with him or not he's usually got something interesting to say. I doubt, though, if even he could inject some simplicity into Northern Ireland. Sunday's World This Weekend on Radio Four was extended to an hour to cover the bomb in Omagh which, at the time of writing, claimed 28 lives. It was a thorough and absorbing programme which succeeded in reflecting the shock and bewilderment in the town at this latest atrocity, while at the same time trying to make sense of the Balkan savagery that lurks across the Irish Sea.
There was a strong opening report from Chris West at church services in Omagh which conveyed painfully the feeling of what it must be like to live in a place where almost everyone has been in some way affected by the disaster. There was no false mawkishness from the presenter James Cox. He was dispassionate and precise which perfectly balanced some of the emo- tion of the voices he was introducing. It is a pity The World This Weekend has been cut to half-an-hour as, apart from a period a few years ago when it rather lost its way for a time, the programme has consistently maintained a high quality.
I feel the same about The World at One which has changed slightly since it was reduced from 40 minutes to half-an-hour. It has a hurried feel to it, and, of course, its previous length enabled The Archers repeat to be neatly slotted in before 2 o'clock. Many listeners find these changes some- what pointless, especially as a number of fgible quiz shows now fill the gap between Int and 2 o'clock. I'm told that one of them, Guess What?, a revamp of the old Twenty Questions, will not be returning for a second series. Barry Took chaired Guess What? beautifully but there were several things wrong with it, starting with its weak title. Why not simply revive the old title, Twenty Questions, and engage a beefed-up panel of guests? A wasted opportunity.
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