Some familiar plummy tones drifted out over the Radio 4 Today airwaves this morning, those of its former presenter Ed Stourton. Ed had left the programme four years ago after falling out with BBC bosses over their new directive to make the show more “light-hearted” and it was claimed by his admirers that he was frozen out for being “too posh”.
This morning he was in Kenya, reporting on the country’s elections for Radio 4, in the deliciously awkward situation of being interviewed by his light-hearted successor Justin Webb, who at one point addressed him rather formally as Edward.
Earlier this year Stourton was in Vauxhall, calling in to the Today programme with live reports on the helicopter crash, when he happened to be passing after an early morning trip to New Covent Garden flower market.
It’s as though Stourton never left.
