Angelina Jolie is to guest edit BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, joining the likes of broadcaster David Dimbleby and the author Kamila Shamsie in being given the chance to take control of the flagship news and current affairs show.
Although the actor is well known for her humanitarian work with the UN and successful film career, she now faces the challenges of booking guests over the busy Christmas period, ensuring they make it to the BBC’s Broadcasting House studios in time for their slot, and managing the egos of the BBC’s journalists.
Jolie has said she intends to use her episode on 28 December to invite a series of guests who are pioneers in their fields to discuss solutions to violence against women in conflict zones and the global refugee crisis. She will also “explore themes of justice, accountability and international leadership, hearing directly from refugees and survivors of conflict themselves”.
The programme has turned to guest editors over the festive period for the last 15 years, inviting leading figures from the arts, business and politics to take control of an episode during the traditionally quiet news days between Christmas and the new year.
“Angelina is grateful for this opportunity to draw on the BBC’s global expertise and network to explore practical solutions to a number of pressing issues of our time,” said a spokesperson for the actor. “She has already begun working with the Today programme team, and is looking forward to engaging a broad and diverse range of voices in the programme.”
However she will not be briefing John Humphrys on the issues, as Justin Webb and Mishal Husain are currently down to present on that day.
The programme – which has had a turbulent year that saw it shed listeners after reaching historic peaks during the Brexit referendum – will also welcome Dimbleby, who is stepping down as host of Question Time at the end of this year.
He will join Shamsie, winner of the Women’s prize for fiction, Lastminute.com founder Martha Lane Fox, Churchill biographer Andrew Roberts and Chidera Eggerue – who runs the fashion blog the Slumflower and campaigns on body image issues.
The final guest editor will be “outer space”, with a New Year’s Day episode promising to explore aliens, commercial space flights and a future world where we all live and work in space. The BBC could not say how much editorial input the aliens would have into the show’s running order.
Last year’s guest editors included Prince Harry, and previous participants include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, PJ Harvey and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor.
The BBC also announced a series of radio specials for the holiday period, including comedian Stewart Lee guest hosting Radio 3’s Late Junction, the Archers performing Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and comedian Matt Lucas hosting a live Christmas Day celebration on Radio 2.
Other programmes will see Diana Rigg, Derek Jacobi and Natalie Dormer star in an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology on Radio 4 – while Iggy Pop, Cillian Murphy and Nadine Shah will present Christmas shows on 6Music.