Wide awoke

It's a rare accolade for broadcasting executives. The thoughts of part-time Radio 4 arts commissioner James Runcie were deemed worthy for not one, but two editions of Radio 4's Feedback. But wordsmith James ran into trouble with his second appearance last Friday.

Roger 'Rigorous' Bolton elicited this answer from Jimmy: "I think you can have a highbrow programme as long as it is explained clearly and produced clearly and has proper signposts in it. I mean, Hilary Mantel doesn't dumb down in her novels. She doesn't write for 50-year-olds in Woking; she writes for everybody and that's what the arts should do".

The Tory MP for Woking Jonathan Lord commented to the Daily Mail "The intellectual snobbery of BBC bosses knows no bounds. They just can't seem to keep their prejudices to themselves. If memory serves, Hilary Mantel was herself a 50-year-old in Woking when she wrote some of her most successful books, so this particular outburst seems peculiarly inept and inapt."

A BBC spokesman said "James compared making high quality arts programmes for a wide audience to how Hilary Mantel writes for more than just those who might be expected to read historical fiction, referencing Woking residents in this context. Any other interpretation is not what James intended."