It’s all change on the LBC daytime schedule from Monday. As you know, I’m moving to the 7-10pm slot from Monday to Thursday, so I thought I’d give you some details about what you can look forward to.
Each day from 7-8 I’ll be hosting the LBC Newshour. It will feature interviews with some of the newsmakers of the day and people involved in the big stories. We’ll have reports from our journalists in our London newsroom and the Global newsrooms across the country. Expect to hear a lot of new voices. We’ll have roundups from the worlds of politics, business, and yes, sport! I want to cover the most important international stories of the day in this hour and we may well play out some of the best output from other programmes during the day. We’ll also take calls, but calls won’t the the focus of the hour. On our first show I’ll be interviewing Conservative MP Nicholas Boles about his new Brexit proposals, which won’t go down well in Downing Street.
At 8pm on Mondays I’ll host a panel discussion in the studio on a particular issues which we think will be a big story of the week. This week we’re concentrating on Labour’s antisemitism troubles, with key votes in the NEC and Parliamentary Party taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday. We’ll also be taking calls this hour in amongst the discussion with our four panellists.
On Tuesdays at 8pm-9pm it’s the Tuesday Interview with a major personality from the world of news, politics, entertainment or business. This week I’ll be talking to James McVey, the lead singer of The Vamps. He’s a huge LBC listener and fan and has a lot of expertise in the field of mental health among young people and is an Ambassador for the Diana Award. I’ll talk to him for the first half, then it’s down to callers to engage in the conversation. We’ve also got Sir Vince Cable lined up for next week, Trade Union leader Dave Ward for the following week and lots more over the course of the autumn.
On Wednesdays at 8 I’ll be hosting CROSS QUESTION, an hour long debate show in which you get to ask the questions of our panel of two politicians and two others. Here is the lineup for the first three programmes…
- Sept 5: Lord Andrew Adonis, Gisela Stuart, Liam Halligan, Liz Truss
- Sept 12: Claire Fox, Laurie Penny, Andrew Mitchell, As yet unconfirmed Labour Shadow Minister
- Sept 19: Jacqui Smith, Fiyaz Mughal, Simon Heffer, John Redwood
We will also introduce a fifth panelist, an LBC listener once we have the show bedded down. I’m really looking forward to that. We’ll stream the whole thing live on Facebook, Twitter and the LBC website. Questions will hopefully be put via Facetime Video so the panelists and viewers will be able to see them on our new LED studio screens.
At 9pm each day we’ll do a normal LBC phone-in hour either on one of the stories of the day or on an emotional subject. When I used to present in this slot we did some fantastic phone-ins on all sorts of very difficult emotional issues. At Drivetime that’s more difficult.
I’ll also be starting a new podcast, the Iain Dale Book Club. This will go out weekly on a Friday. I’ve already booked some fantastic authors. Not all the books will be related to politics and current affairs. In our second show I’ve got three novelists coming in. Here’s the lineup for the first three weeks…
- Sept 7: Women in Politics – Jacqui Smith, Lucy Fisher, Sophy Ridge, Gina Miller
- Sept 14 Amanda Prowse, Judith O’Reilly, Dreda Say Mitchell
- Sept 21 June Bernicoff from Gogglebox, Alan Johnson, Freddie Forsyth
- Sept 28 Max Hastings, Derek Draper
- Oct 5 John Simpson, Paddy Ashdown
I’ve also got Sir Michael Caine, Dan Snow, Jeffrey Archer, Gyles Brandreth, Sebastian Faulks and many others lined up.
And of course the For the Many podcast with Jacqui Smith will also continue each week. Episodes are available from each Sunday evening.
