Squibs

We haven't heard much recently from Gwyneth Williams, Controller Radio 4 - and when she did make a New Year appearance, about her unlikely wish to "throw fireworks" into her schedule, the hacks of the Guardian turned her back to the issue of female presenters.

"My feeling very much is I would love to see more women presenting on the Today programme – I have made that very clear. But we do have a fantastically smart team at the top of their game at the moment on the Today programme, so you know, what we need to do is in due course we will have another woman presenter."

Our hacks persisted: Who would fill Robin Lustig's World Tonight shifts on a permanent basis ?  "We don't have a decision yet. To be honest colleagues in news have been deeply distracted. We are going a bit slow."

Conspiracy theorists might note that Ritula Shah shared the bulk of World Tonight presentation with Robin Lustig; so another bloke wouldn't make things worse. What, say, about a former WT presenter with wide experience as a foreign correspondent ? Like Justin Webb ?  Thus creating space on a less-evenly gender-balanced team ?

Efficiency theorists might note the new proximity of World Tonight studios with sister shows on the World Service, like Newshour. TV hosts Huw Edwards and George Alagiah are already knocking out more than one spell on screen a day - is there some rotation room in new shift patterns for radio at new Broadcasting House ?