The programme was originally written and produced by
Gale Pedrick and presented by John Ellison. After Pedrick's death in 1970, production was taken over by Nancy Wise. Ellison died in January 1974, and over the first half of the year David Davis, Martin Muncaster and David Dunhill all had short runs as presenter, before Margaret Howard took over as permanent host in July, also producing with a rotating team of co-producers. Howard remained as the presenter until 1991, when the BBC chose not to renew her contract, a decision which caused some controversy at the time.
Chris Serle became the new host and remained so until 1998 when as part of controller
James Boyle's changes to Radio 4, it started to be hosted by guest presenters each week, an arrangement which continues to the present day. Since 2008, a special
Pick of the Year episode has been broadcast each December with a guest presenter choosing their BBC radio highlights of the year. In 2024, production of the programme moved to
Belfast as part of a new unit based in
Scotland and
Northern Ireland. ==References==