why was he sacked and what qualifications has his successor got?I have never heard of himis he a bbc joe bloggs

He wasn't sacked, he was given three months notice that his freelance contract was not being renewed in a personal phone call from a BBC manager.

His successor, Mark Radcliffe, has presented coverage from Cambridge, shown awareness of and interest in folk music, has been a member of festival band The Family Mahone, and probably knows which one of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee plays gob-iron (which is more than I did).

I have no personal axe to grind with Mike Harding and will be the first to complain if the new Mark Radcliffe Show on Radio 2 is dumbed down compared to Mike Harding's tenure, but as Smooth Operations are still producing the show and I'm old enough to remember the horror expressed when Harding took over the show and again when the title changed from 'Folk On 2' to 'the Best Of Folk and Acoustic Music', this is several waves short of being a very small storm in a very tiny teacup. compare and contrast with Danny Baker's sacking from. Radio London, which WAS badly handled by the BBC.