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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Each week we choose three pieces from the magazine

and ask their writers to read them aloud. I'm Osgrevenson and this week,

Richard Madeley reads his diary in the magazine,

including recollections of his Sunday lunch with George Michael.

Daniel Johnson shares a touching tribute to his late father,

former spectator columnist and new statesman editor, Paul Johnson,

and Melinda Hughes asked why BBC Radio 3 is dumbing down.

Up first, Richard Madeley.

All is grist that comes to a colonist's mill. The late Alan Corrin once wrote that if he heard a

screech of ties in the road outside his house, he rushed out, notebook in hand, because

you never know where the next 300 words are coming from. I find that the

anniversary almanac can be a reliable sort of copy during thin times. My particular favourites being

40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries, because they're all potentially still in living memory. I'm

already eyeing up anniversary options for 2023, and look, here's an early

heads up, expected deluge of words to mark the 60th anniversary of JFK's assassination. Just as everybody

remembers where they were when they heard Princess Diana had died, so those who were sentient

on 22nd of November, 1963, can recall the exact moment they learned

of the President's death. For some, it was career-defining, as in the case of a London

newspaper editor that I once worked for, Bob Hutchins. Bob longed to work for a big American

title, and back in the 60s, he bombarded US papers with job applications.

Finally, he got a bite from the Los Angeles Times. If he could show up in the editor's office,

...