Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

I like his very slightly impatient, very slightly interrupty manner with his guests.

He was great, had always done his homework!

Maybe it's just me but that always grated with me a bit. It felt sometimes a bit like a Today programme interview where "presenter style" was the product.

Not to take anything away from the content though. It's the sort of programme the licence fee was made for.

Adds a bit of seasoning

It has to do with him driving the conversation to a specific point in the narrative; academics tend to meander and go off on tangents, but he invited three of them and the next topic is the point of expertise of the following person. You can sometimes hear him reward the guests "yes, that's what I was getting it" or "that's a great way to put it". In other words; he did some prep! Unlike many podcasters.

Yes, me too - he reminds me of the iconic (UK) public school teacher, shepherding bright but wayward charges through a complicated discussion.

While he doesn't throw blackboard dusters at them, he prods and harumphs when the egos and waffle of dons has them momentarily forget they aren't doing this in class but broadcasting to the nation...

It's not just you, that does grate on me sometimes as well. I get that he needs to move the show on, but I often feel like the guest is trying to make quite an important point when he interrupts. Still love it, though.

It’s gone a bit overboard in the recent years. I do enjoy the full body of work though.