17/07/2015

The debate over the future of the BBC continues, with the size, structure, funding and remit of the Corporation now up for discussion. As the Department of Culture, Media and Sport open their twelve week public consultation on the future of the Beeb, Feedback listeners speak to Roger Bolton about their views. Also, Feedback listeners celebrate some good news - the arrival of radio downloads. From this week, almost all radio content will be available for download onto smart phones and tablets via the newly updated BBC iPlayer radio app. Roger speaks to Mark Friend, the Controller of Multiplatform for Radio and Music, to find out about the changes and why downloads for radio have taken so much longer to introduce than the equivalent service for television programmes. Last year, Tony Hall said he wanted to "break down the walls" between the corporation and the country's artists and artistic institutions. A new Radio 4 series, Will Gompertz Gets Creative, is attempting to go further by exploring the everyday artistic activity of normal people and encouraging all of us to 'get creative'. The first episode visited a life drawing class in Brighton in a bid to inspire people to engage with the arts. Did it work? Will Gompertz calls Feedback listeners to find out whether the programme has given them the artistic bug. Producer: Katherine Godfrey A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.