BBC Radio 4 to launch female-led panel show

The BBC is to launch a topical radio panel show where the host and most of the guests are women.

BBC Radio 4 has commissioned a pilot of Where's The F In News, created and presented by Have I Got News For You series producer Jo Bunting.

The station said it would be "an energetic and intelligent female-anchored show" with a "predominantly female panel".

The gender balance on panel shows has been a contentious issue.

In 2014, the BBC's director of TV pledged to have at least one woman on every such show in response to criticisms that they were too male-heavy.

Bunting said: "Apparently if a woman speaks in a meeting for 50% of the time a man speaks, he genuinely thinks she's spoken the exact same amount as he has.

"When I read that, I thought, how can I really annoy that man? So I've created a show featuring a shedload of intelligent and funny women."

The Where's The F In News panel will "use the events, trends and talking points that they think should be top of the news agenda as a starting point for a number of fresh and funny challenges", the BBC said.

The show is one of a raft of new comedy commissions announced by Radio 4 for 2018 and 2019.

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