"Running orders change from minute to minute"

Radio The anatomy of Radio 4's Today:

"Taxis go to the wrong address, radio cars get stuck in traffic. Presenters are hauled urgently out of the studio during a package to pre-record an interview that will be edited and ready for broadcast five minutes later. Running orders change from minute to minute; scripts get rewritten; interviewees exhaustively prepared are politely stood down ("boshed", in the parlance. A busy news day means much boshing.).

Today can't stick on a record or take a few phone calls from the audience if things go pear-shaped. "And we have a lot of furniture," says O'Neill. "The pips, the papers, the summary, the weather, the sport, Thought for the Day . . . We have to hit all of them. We can't be 30 seconds late. The whole morning's about shaving a bit off here, a bit more there. You spend your life worrying about 10 seconds."

I still prefer PM with Eddie Mair.