Abstract

BBC Radio 4’s Analysis was first broadcast in April 1970 and quickly established itself as the pre-eminent exponent of radio current affairs. This paper considers how Southern Africa was represented, in particular at two stages of the programme’s evolution, in the early 1970s and again a decade after that. Between 1971 and 1973 five programmes on Africa were presented by Ian McIntyre, a central figure in British current affairs broadcasting, who went on to be Controller of both BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3. By 1980 McIntyre had been succeeded as the main presenter of Analysis by another notable figure in British radio journalism and current affairs, Mary Goldring. Like McIntyre, Goldring visited Southern Africa to source her programmes. Both presenters can be criticized for over-attention to the white point of view and attempting the impossible in a ‘parachute’ mission. It could, however, be argued that they both achieved more than the British press and in their different ways clearly signalled the crises facing South Africa and Rhodesia.