Start the Week

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Start the Week is a discussion programme on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. It has been presented by Richard Baker (1970–1987), Russell Harty (1987–1988), Melvyn Bragg (1988–1998) and Jeremy Paxman (1998–2002). The current presenter is the former BBC political editor and former Independent editor Andrew Marr. An idea of the programme's importance to British mental life can be gleaned from the fact that upon being raised to the House of Lords as a Labour peer it was thought wise for Bragg to relinquish the chair.[1] Occasional stand-in presenters in recent years have included David Baddiel and Sue MacGregor.

It is broadcast live on Monday mornings between 9.02 and 9.45, and repeated in a shortened, edited version at 21.30 the same evening. Its guests typically come from the worlds of politics, journalism, science and the arts. Originally a light-hearted magazine programme with a cookery slot, the programme turned towards being a chat show during Harty's year in the chair before his death in 1988. During Melvin Bragg's tenure the programme moved towards the more serious current it now has. Until the end of the Paxman era it also had a number of regular secondary presenters including Ken Sykora, Kenneth Robinson (in the Baker era), Rosie Boycott, Catherine Bennett and Lisa Jardine. Paxman's tenure was relatively short for a broadcaster of his stature because his aggressive style of interview was not considered compatible with the programme.

Start the Week won the Best Radio Programme in the 1994 and 2005 Voice of the Listener and Viewer Awards, and is only the second programme to win the award twice.