Amol Rajan to host new interview series for BBC Two
The BBC’s Media Editor, Amol Rajan, is set to host a major new interview series for BBC Two. Amol will bring his trademark insight and flair to the show, which will see him carry out in-depth interviews with high-profile global guests who are shaping the way we live today, from tech barons to business leaders to cultural influencers. The series will be made by BBC Studios and BBC News long form commissions.
Alongside his role as the BBC’s Media Editor, Amol will be also be joining the Radio 4 Today programme presenting team later this Spring.
Amol is well known to Radio 4 listeners as the regular presenter of The Media Show. There will be a new host appointed for The Media Show, before then Amol will continue on the programme and there will also be number of guest presenters.
Later this year Amol will present a new 2×60′ current affairs series for BBC Two. It will tell the definitive story of one of the most dramatic periods for a generation, charting the years in which the younger royals – The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex – have charted very different courses in their relationship with the media.
In over 50 hours of interviews, conducted over several months, Amol meets the journalists who started covering the story, and then found themselves becoming part of it. His reporting will explain what these events reveal about two great pillars of modern Britain, the monarchy and the media; and the real story behind their fraught, complex and changing relationship.
The programme will be accompanied by a Radio 4 podcast for BBC Sounds which will dive deeper into different aspects of the story and provide more of Amol’s forensic analysis.
Commenting on joining the Today team, Amol says, “The Today programme is one of the most powerful institutions in British journalism; and the prevailing winds of our time make its job, and influence, yet more vital. It has a world-class team, both on and off air, under strong and effective new leadership. My aim is just to do them, and our listeners, proud. I’ve no intention of trying to reinvent News, and think the best thing is to keep it simple. Be fair, get to the truth, and don’t screw up.
“I’d like to thank Richard Hooper, Eleanor Garland and Hannah Sander for their outstanding work on The Media Show, where we’ve achieved most of the aims I set out for us to achieve three years ago. As ever, the producers deserve much more credit than the presenter for any success we have had.
Commenting on the documentary and his new interview programme, Amol says, “Our deep, extensive reporting on the royals has uncovered some remarkable stories, on a subject of global – and growing – fascination.
“As for the interviews, I’d better get some.”
BBC Director of News, Fran Unsworth, says: “Amol conducts interviews with sharpness and grace, and I’m delighted we’ll be able to showcase that to the widest possible audience across BBC Two and the Today programme.”
Patrick Holland, Controller BBC Two, says, “I am delighted that Amol is returning to BBC Two with these ambitious projects. He is a brilliant broadcaster, who is excited by debate and complexity, and his skills are perfectly suited to these long-form documentary and interview projects on BBC Two.”
