Kaleidoscope RIP

Somebody in the BBC has been reading this column, it seems: the new Radio Four arts programme which began last week, presented by Mark Lawson and broadcast nightly, is called Front Row. This and a new weekly film magazine, Talking Pictures and a discussion programme, Critics Forum, are the station's attempt to cover all the areas of the arts previously superbly catered for by Kaleidoscope.

Of course it is de rigueur for notoriously conservative Radio Four listeners to protest about any change, however tiny, but in this case lamentations are justified. It was a sad week for the excellent Kaleidoscope team, including Paul Allen and Paul Vaughan, who celebrated their programme's 25th birthday on one evening and signed off forever on the following night. It will be a hard act to follow. One of Kaleidoscope's great strengths was the fact that the afternoon edition was repeated every evening at 9.30 p.m. As a post-script to this obituary, could we make a plea for RTE's The Arts Show to do the same, to cater for the many interested listeners who miss its afternoon slot?