Start The Week
| Genre | Discussion |
|---|---|
| Running time | Approx. 43 minutes |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| Hosted by | Andrew Marr (since 2002) |
| Original release | April 1970 – present |
| Website | http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/starttheweek.shtml |
| Podcast | http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/stw |
Start the Week is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor Andrew Marr. The previous regular presenters were Richard Baker, Russell Harty, Melvyn Bragg and Jeremy Paxman.
It is broadcast (usually) live on Monday mornings between 9.02am and 9.45am, and repeated in a shortened, edited version at 21.30 the same evening. Its guests typically come from the worlds of politics, journalism, science and the arts. Prior to Marr the programme had a number of regular secondary presenters including Ken Sykora, Kenneth Robinson (who began in 1971 during the Baker era), Rosie Boycott, Catherine Bennett and Lisa Jardine.
The original programme differed from its current form; for the first year or so it was entirely pre-recorded. Produced by Michael Ember, a flamboyant producer from the BBC Hungarian Service, the 1970 show was supposed to be intelligent banter on a weekly theme held together in a jocular fashion by Richard Baker, a well-known television newsreader. If that week contained Valentine's Day, for example, the show would start with some hints as to proper behaviour for that day, a bit of history, then a tape recorded by Doug Crawford, a former pirate radio DJ, consisting of a montage of music, archive recordings, opinions recorded on the street and the like, presenting the public's image of the day in question. After eight minutes or so, the programme returned to the live studio for anecdotes and discussion from a variety of guests. Regulars included Lance Percival, a satirist from TV shows of the time who sang the Start the Week intro theme as a topical calypso, cookery with Zena Skinner. The programme had a regular following but was thought to be too light-hearted and irreverent for 9am on Monday mornings by a new Director of Programmes.
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