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It's not often I write this, but the Guardian has it spot on (well, almost) today:
There is a new ingredient in my morning mix and it comes in the form of rookie Today programme presenter Evan Davis, better known as BBC economics editor, who has been doing rather a fine job on the flagship Radio 4 news programme.
Even better than some of the current mob, dare I say.
Davis appears to have slotted in rather effortlessly to the hallowed Today presenter team. To my mind he is sparkier than Edward Stourton, less full of himself than James Naughtie but less effective than John Humphrys, who remains the best thing about the programme.
And as for Sarah Montague and Caroline Quinn, well, they are okay, but Today has suffered a dearth of top notch female presenters ever since Sue MacGregor departed - and I say that confidently as someone who never even heard her on air. I'm just following the universal acclaim.
...Anyway, back to Davis. He has always struck me as a cut above many of the men on BBC News, the shameless muggers who take every opportunity to prance around the news studio and act the news rather than report it. Daniel Sandford, I'm talking to you. And as for Fergal Keane, would it surprise you to learn that he comes from a well known Irish theatrical family? Not one bit.
I can't say I agree with his praise for John Humphrys, who seems to think the programme is about him, rather than the news, and I never got the Sue MacGregor thing - I didn't dislike her, she just seemed pedestrian to me. But Stephen Brook is bang on about Evan Davis - and about the awful Daniel Sandford, who deserves to be cast into the same broadcasting oblivion as Fiona Bruce and Natasha Kaplinksy - TV presences who force my finger on to the remote for a quick channel change.