Five Centres

The Radio Times really should get over itself. I've just finished reading the editor's letter in this week's issue in which Gill Hudson points out that all their exclusives actually are exclusives - no sitting around the table with other journalists for them then passing off the interview as exclusive. Oh no - they are all one-to-one, face-to-face interviews.

Well good for them. What she says is true, which means those other mags who would love to get a face-to-face or one-to-one interview cannot do so because the RT has insisted on it, meaning no one else gets a look in. Perhaps she should have mentioned that bit.

Why does everyone continue to bend over backwards for this failing, overrated organ? It sells under a million copies a week, is hugely expensive, has the worst covers in the TV listings world, and it's really apparent that it doesn't know which direction to take. Should they be young and hip? Should they go for their core audience? Should they go down the film star route? Should they try something new? Oh nothing works. What should they do?

Find a new editor. Ditch the dreadful logo, go back to an updated of the old squirly one, re-introduce the nice white edging and forget about name writers. They don't do the business. What does some 50-year old shop assistant in Norwich care if Alan Bennett is writing "exclusively" for the Radio Times. To them, the mag just means it's OK to watch the telly, and all they want to know is what's on. It's still trading on TV snobbery, as are the PRs who jump to attention every time it looks their way.

I'd ditch every columnist except Andrew Collins and Stuart Maconie, and make sure Alison Graham started loving and stopped loathing TV. Three weeks out of four, anyway.

This magazine could be great again. All they need is someone who understands TV to make it so.