The Amol Rajan Connection review – another wrong move after lasting one night in The Celebrity Traitors?
The broadcaster has bullet-proof confidence as he departs the BBC. But his first YouTube show with Gareth Southgate is nowhere near as radical as you’d expect – and he sounds like yet another tech guru Whatever you think of Amol Rajan, he can’t be accused of not dreaming big. In the clip trailing the launch of his YouTube project The Amol Rajan Connection, he acknowledges the seismic volatility of our times but…
Key points
- Amol Rajan has launched a YouTube project called The Amol Rajan Connection, with Gareth Southgate as the first guest.
- The show's first episode is a traditional long-form interview that reviewers describe as engaging but not radical or dynamic.
- Rajan left his role co-presenting Today on BBC Radio 4, saying the BBC and BBC News will get smaller at an accelerating rate.
Amol Rajan has launched a YouTube project called The Amol Rajan Connection, with former England manager Gareth Southgate as the first guest. A review of the debut episode describes the show as a long-form, one-on-one video podcast that plays things safe.
The review notes that Rajan, who left his role co-presenting Today on BBC Radio 4, has bulletproof self-confidence and has moved through a series of national institutions, including a newspaper editorship and University Challenge.
What Rajan has said
In a clip trailing the launch, Rajan said the times are volatile and placed himself at the centre of them. "We are about to get 100 years of change in a single decade," he said, adding that this is scary but that maybe he can help.
On George Osborne's podcast, Rajan explained his departure from the BBC, saying the BBC and BBC News would get smaller at an accelerating rate and that he wanted to go where the action is. The review notes the show's sponsors include two tech corporations, a major British bank and an upmarket supermarket chain.
We are about to get 100 years of change in a single decade
— Amol Rajan
The first episode
The review describes Southgate as unflashy, measured and occasionally ponderous, and says Rajan allows himself to be incorporated into Southgate's steady rhythm. The conversation covers rejection by Southampton, a second chance at Crystal Palace, captaincy, England, a penalty miss and club management before returning to England.
In the second hour, the pair discuss Fifa governance, the Manchester City situation and Southgate's concerns about problems afflicting young men. The review calls much of it engaging and worthwhile but says it does not feel particularly dynamic or radical.
