The Ken Bruce effect

It seems that sooner or later, every Radio 2 DJ reaches the point where they feel the need to speak out about the state of the network. I guess that, when the celebrities who have been parachuted into the network to the chagrain of Ken Bruce hit that point, then Ken will stop seeing them as outsiders in the wrong job, and embrace them as part of the Radio 2 family.

Until then:

"I have great admiration for people who do fast-moving live television, but an awful lot of television is just 'stand up, smile' and you really often don't have to think for yourself," he claimed.

"A lot of television personalities have done great radio, such as Jonathan Ross, but too often a famous face is parachuted into a prime radio slot with no experience of, or particular aptitude for, the medium."

He blamed the situation on management, who "have lost their gifts as talent-spotters and are too content to rely on a proven public profile to garner an audience".

This has come from his autobiography, apparently, so it's not clear quite how quickly it's been rushed into print as some sort of protest as against being a bit of crackle thrown in to sell the book to as many Christmas stockings as possible.