My former boss, Rosemary Hart, who has died aged 89, was the founding editor of BBC Radio 4’s arts magazine Kaleidoscope. The award-winning programme broke new ground on British radio and TV with its nightly review strand, and Rosemary piloted it from 1973 for its first 13 years, winning the Broadcasting Press Guild’s outstanding contribution to radio in 1983.
She had an eagle eye for presenters: broadcasters such as Paul Vaughan, Natalie Wheen and Paul Gambaccini were joined by the playwrights Ronald Harwood and Paul Allen, the novelist Jacky Gillott, the film director Tony Palmer, and the Guardian critics Michael Billington (theatre) and Waldemar Januszczak (art). Producers travelled to all corners of the UK and beyond, covering everything from the Pitlochry festival to the Minack theatre in Cornwall, from the Birmingham Ikon Gallery to the Venice Biennale.
