2022 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 and good afternoon. Good morning. Hello and good morning.

Television is like a jungle. Lots of different programs struggling to survive. Try to find

a new way into the lights. By the mid-nauties 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

have become 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 of course 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.

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