BBC

Auntie Beeb

Pubs in danger: Six charts on how the British drink 

by

Across Great Britain, adults are drinking less often. So how are tastes changing and why are they cutting back?

But 18 pubs across the country closed every week in the second half of 2017, according to The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).

So how are UK drinking habits changing? What are the UK’s favourite drinks and how often are adults drinking?

1. Pubs are closing their doors

In 2016, 500 pubs across the UK called last orders for the final time.

Since 2000, the number of pubs in the UK has fallen by 17%, or 10,500 pubs, according to the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA).

The decline has been blamed on a number of reasons – high taxes on pints, the smoking ban, the price of food and drink going up, and the 2008 recession meaning that consumers had less to spend in their local.

But the BBPA say that the rate of pub closures is slowing down.

About 1,100 pubs closed their doors in 2015, but fewer than half that number closed in 2016.

2. More beer bought in shops than pubs

The volume of beer sold in supermarkets and off-licences (off-trade) in the UK topped the volume sold in pubs, clubs and restaurants (on-trade) for the first time in 2014 [ . . . ]

Read more at BBC: Pubs in danger: Six charts on how the British drink – BBC News

15 Minute Drama: Seduction

by

BBC RADIO 4

Claudine Toutoungi’s adaptation of Delphine de Vigan’s psychological thriller about an obsessive female friendship. Delphine is suffering from crippling writer’s block when she meets L.


Listen at BBC Four

Directed by Gemma Jenkins.

Delphine’s writer’s block is a result of the double-edged response to her last book. As her crisis progresses, Delphine encounters the enigmatic L at a party. L is intimately familiar with Delphine’s work; an admirer who quickly insinuates herself into Delphine’s life. Delphine realises that L’s insistent desire to get her working again may not be as benevolent as it appears.

De Vigan has made her name writing “autobiographical fiction”. She questions the place of the writer in our society of imitation and fake news. In this novel she blurs memoir and fiction to the extent that at every turn the audience is made to question where truth ends and fantasy begins.

The idea threading through the plot and feeding the final revelations is who has the power – or the right – to tell someone else’s story. Listen at BBC Four

The Old Grey Whistle Test: presenter Bob Harris looks back on the highs and lows

by

The radio DJ looks back at the glory days of the BBC music show ahead of a three-hour tribute programme on BBC4

Bob Harris is checking Twitter. It’s a cold Thursday afternoon and in a meeting room at the BBC’s Wogan House the 71-year-old radio presenter is reading social media responses to the news that he’s hosting a three-hour programme on BBC4 marking 30 years since The Old Grey Whistle Test was last broadcast (which airs on BBC4 on Friday 23 February at 9.00pm).

 “The response has been fabulous!” enthuses Harris, who helmed the landmark BBC2 music series during its imperial period, from 1972 to 1978, and whose hushed tones conferred churchly reverence on a remarkable run of live performers that included David Bowie, Bob Marley, John Martyn and Joni Mitchell. But Harris, who can also currently be heard on Radio 2 [ . . . ]

Fully story at Radio Times: The Old Grey Whistle Test: presenter Bob Harris looks back on the highs and lows