British wine lovers who are also radio listeners will be treated to their very own series from Monday 07 mar 05 for six weeks. The Wine Programme (same devilishly original name as my first tv series, on Channel 4 in the 1980s and currently being repeated, amazingly, in Australia!) is a series of six half-hours presented by Oz Clarke and Andrew Jefford on our favourite subject. The transmission that goes out on Mondays at 4pm will be live(!), including interviews with wine-loving celebs, and will be repeated on Sundays at 12.30pm, the usual Food Programme slots in fact. Things are looking up for wine broadcasting in Britain, even if commissioning editors in tv are prepared to countenance only formats that fit into their current reality show mindset. I make a cameo appearance in each of these new radio programmes waffling on about six major grape varieties.
Listeners can take part in an interactive tasting each week via the website www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 or by texting the programme on 84844. As usual, you can catch up with old programmes at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4