Hello, this is the Red Box Podcast. I'm Matt Chauley, down in Lime Regis. We've been doing the show from the beautiful sunny South Coast

Which has been very nice. You can listen back to that on the Times Radio app. You can listen back to the show if you want

But because it's Friday, of course, on the podcast, we're bringing you the very latest episode in our series. The Sunday shows at 50

2021 marks 50 years since the launch of Weekend World, the flagship Sunday political program, which paved the way for everyone that followed. It

kick-started a broadcasting arms race, which meant that often what happened on the Sunday sofa was more important than what happened in the House of Parliament.

This is the story of how political and journalistic careers were made and broken, even how elections were won and lost. Last week, we went on the record with the BBC show, which lasted from 1988 to 2002.

This week, as we enter the new century, we witness an explosion of political shows on a Sunday.

Hello, I'm good afternoon.

Hello and well. Good morning.

Television is like a jungle. Lots of different programs struggling to survive. Try to find a new way into the lights.

And by the mid-naughties, there were an awful lot of political shows. Do you remember these?

That was the Sunday program, Sunday with Adam Bolton, the politics show, the Sunday politics, and Jonathan Dimbleby. For the politicians of the day, they felt they had a responsibility to appear on all of them, William Hague.

Announcements made on Monday morning became very important. Our listeners will have noticed.

There are often very big government announcements that are trying to grab the agenda. They come out on Monday mornings to try and set the agenda for the week.

But the additional way you eat strength on that is on Sunday. You're teeing that up. You are setting the scene for your Monday or Tuesday announcement.

And you're getting out of the way your response to all the difficult things might have happened in the Sunday newspapers.

So if you're running your 24 hour news tactics of a modern political party, you definitely need someone out there on the Sunday morning airwaves.

And there was no shortage of big beast presenters all showing their bites.

Some people would say, well, what's an election campaign about if you can't slag off your opponent?

Why your party members might be fed up with Labour, making alliances with Bush, with Asnar, with Berlusconi, all these right wing leaders?

Do you think it'll make a big difference to summary shuffle?

We have an idiot in the program, isn't it?

...