From a Radio Review in The Guardian by Stuart Jeffries.
One evening last week, Denise from Enfield rang in to Iain Dale’s show. Dale is having a good lockdown – his ratings are up and his kindly, intelligent, albeit Tory, persona has been soothing for many of us.
Denise rang in to tell truth to power, namely that black people don’t get chances for representation on TV and radio. Dale was so impressed by her insights into race issues that he invited her to cohost a show. The result was a revelation, not least because Denise was a natural for radio: warm-voiced, kind to callers and, like a pro, very aware of the need to cut people off before the ad break.
Mostly, though, Denise’s hour on LBC was a revelation because, finally, a white man was listening to a black woman. She told Dale: “I think you can have empathy for a person’s situation, you can also have sympathy because most people in the world are decent in terms of the day-to-day understanding. I’m sorry, Iain, but you wouldn’t know.”
Good for Dale, opening the airwaves to Denise. He will now, apparently, do a four-hour show, taking in the 6-7pm evening slot previously filled by Farage. Why don’t they just let Denise replace Farage? It would be a step in the right direction.
