Edinburgh in August is where and when the London media pause from their hyperactive navel gazing, look around them, and realise there’s a lot of England to the north of them and a whole other country above that. One that’s holding the world’s biggest arts festival. And so they rush up here, camera crews and pretty assistants in tow, and set up shop for a month.
The BBC is splashing licence payer cash to bring some of its flagship arts and culture shows to the capital. The Culture Show, The Review Show, and two hour-long stand-up specials are all being broadcast from Edinburgh. They’re being joined by Radio 4’s Just a Minute, Front Row and Loose Ends, while the other numbers Radio 1,2,3, Five (nope, I don’t know why it’s the only one that isn’t in numerals) and the recently-under-threat 6 Music, also have festival shows scheduled.
Among those broadcasting from the city this month are Scott Mills, Nick Grimshaw, Claudia Winkleman, Nicholas Parsons, Arthur Smith and Clive Anderson.
Former Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon will be broadcasting his Radio 5 Live show from Edinburgh from Monday to Thursday next week.
“Last year I was doing an evening show at 10pm which I presented from Edinburgh. A couple of years ago it was a London station called XFM and we moved the whole show up here for August,” he says.
“Basically, the Edinburgh Festival is my favourite event of any kind in the entire year, and whatever job I’m doing I always make sure I get to do it from Edinburgh at this time of year.
“For me, the first week and the last week of the festival are the best. The first week because people are still putting their shows together, putting the finishing touches on them, and it’s all very raw; the last week because that’s when the comedy award shortlist is announced and everyone’s worked out what the best shows to go and see are.”
Among the guests scheduled to appear on his show are comedians John Bishop, Rhod Gilbert, Reginald D. Hunter and Chris Addison; rock band the Coral, and First Minister Alex Salmond.
“I first met Alex when I came up to interview him in Aberdeen ahead of the election,” Richard continues. “He made the time for us, and I was also surprised to find he’d made great efforts to find out my wife’s name he asked me ‘How is Rebecca?’ when I met him.
“We’ll talk a bit about the festival and a bit about politics. He’ll be on alongside Chris Addison and Reginald D. Hunter, and the shows will be in front of a live audience. I don’t think it’ll all kick off like on Question Time, but it should make for a pretty interesting and unusual show.”Richard Bacon will be on BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday to Thursday from 2pm.