Skillfully choreographed by our very own Simon Elmes, the recent BBC Feature Conference, intended to inject a bit more creative juice into Radio 3 and 4, was a great success.




Helmut "the K" and I were invited to give our tango about charm, punch, seduction and courage: We are thinking of releasing a dance record, but can't decide on the instruments.




Anyway....




For the sake of general debate, I will post my comments, which sort of ranged hither and yon, with program excerpts, many of which most of you will have heard somewhere or other, if not, I will trust in your imagination.




Helmut was probably improvising (brilliantly) his spiel, but if not, perhaps he can be lured to post his thoughts, too. (Helmut, you there?)




Simon also gave a lovely presentation on the ambiguities and emotional potentials of listening, followed by very productive brainstorming sessions that culminated in pitches to das Controller (the smart, savvy Helen Boaden), and the commissioning editors, yielding TWO fairly fat (from an American perspective) commissions.




All in all, it was very heartening to be among so much talent, the BBC is full of talent that is UNDERutilized, in my most humble opinion, and it seems that the bosses are beginning to understand that, and SEEM to want to create more room to fly.




We shall see.




Ah, yes, I also saw Piers the inimitable Plowright, who is alive, well, and teaching a new generation of producers how to make audio gems ---- and John of the Theo persuasion was also caught lurking about.... looking mischievous and ready to rumble. As it were.