In Praise of BBC 4

This morning's Telegraph carries an interview with Sir Michael Lyons head of the BBC Trust in which he says that the BBC needs to save around £2b between 2007-13

One of the options is the closure of BBC 4 although the paper says that

While closure of an entire channel is not thought to be on Mr Thompson's list, Sir Michael did not rule it out as an option. "Have we ruled out radical changes? No, we haven't," he said. "It is about what you can afford to do with the money you've got."

Well I hope that someone is listening at the corporation.BBC 4 has put together some excellent programming since it has been on air and personally it is one of the channels that I most watch although generally by recording on Sky Plus.Recently it has carried an excellent couple of documentaries presented by the authopr Ian Rankin as well as excellent drama and documentaries.It would be a shame if the channel falls to the cost exercises.Surely there are other savings from duplicated services that the Beeb could find instead.