Hello, this is the Red Box Podcast. I'm Matt Shorley. Bring you the best of my Times

Radio show. You can listen Monday to Friday, 10 to 1 on Times Radio on your DAB, your Smart

Speaker, your app or at Times.Radio. Now, before I tell you what's coming up on the

podcast today, I want to tell you about something very special that we're launching on Friday.

We've got a brand new series starting on the Red Box Podcast. This year marks 50 years

since the launch of Weekend World, the flagship Sunday political program, which paved the way

for, well, everyone that followed. It kickstarted a broadcasting arms race in the half-century

that followed. There have been Sunday shows with tough questioning, soft questioning and

even softer furnishings. It's kippetized, skinny ties, no ties at all. But over the next

six weeks, we're going to tell the story of how what happened on the Sunday sofa became

more important than what happened even in the House of Commons. How political and journalistic

careers were made and broken. Even how elections were won and lost will bring you the stories

of presenters and producers, prime ministers and press officers. Over the course of series,

you're going to hear from presenters and producers of landmark shows like Andrew Mark, John

Humphrey, Jeremy Vine, Adam Bolton, Jonathan Dimblebee, Peter Jay, Matthew Parris, Barney Jones,

David Ronevich, Steve Richards, Sophie Witch and Trevor Phillips. The series will also feature

memories of interviews good and bad from senior politicians, including Tony Blair, William

Hague, Neil Kinnick and Peter Manderson. You're interested in Peter Manderson being a producer

on Weekend World to being a spin doctor for the Labour Party and then later appearing

on the Sunday shows himself as a cabinet minister. We're going to start later this week on Friday,

edition of the podcast. We'll start with Weekend World, which launched in 1972. We're

taking it behind the scenes in future episodes of Breakfast with Frost on the Record, The Andrew

...