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Go4it was a children's magazine programme broadcast on Sunday evenings at 7.15pm on BBC Radio 4, and one of the few speech-based shows on British national radio aimed at younger listeners.

Children's radio had been provided by Listen with Mother from 1950 to 1982. In the early 1990s there were Children's BBC radio serials on BBC Radio 5. When that station closed in 1994 CBBC serials moved to Radio 4 on Sundays from 7 to 7.30pm until Easter 1998 when it was replaced by another episode of The Archers. Since Go4it started it followed The Archers in the schedule.

It started in 2001 and was originally hosted by Matt Smith and included Cromarty the space cat and many jokes. Smith was replaced one year later by CBBC presenter Barney Harwood on 5 May 2002.^[1] With Harwood's arrival the show became less patronizing with the theme tune changed to that from Danger Man. When Harwood was off on holiday guest presenters were Kirsten O'Brien, Natalie Barrass and David McFetridge.

The show typically centred around themes of books, poetry and literature. A typical episode featured a guest author or poet and often a trip 'on location' to an event related to children's literature. It could be considered a junior version of Radio 4's Book Club with an author being asked questions by the young fans in the studio: the 'gfi-ers'. Also included were games and competitions. Some shows were also themed, for instance an Arthurian theme (27 May 2007) or Enid Blyton (3 June 2007). The programme included readings of serialized stories although this was later dropped as the show 'matured'; instead listeners were encouraged to listen to sister programme Big Toe Books on BBC7.

The 4 May 2008 episode was a special on comics. Featured was Philip Pullman's new comic strip and Eagle.^[2]

During the first year the show was extensively parodied on the Radio 4 impressionist satire Dead Ringers for being about 'what people at Radio 4 think young people want to listen to', for instance Dylan Thomas poetry read by Richard Burton and Will Self stories. Matt Smith was singularly highlighted for what could be seen as a patronising attitude towards the audience, including excessive use of the word 'ace'.

In March 2009, it was announced that Go4It would be cancelled. The last episode was broadcast on 24 May 2009. The reason given was that it did not attract enough young listeners. The show attracted an average of 450,000 listeners, but only 20,000 were aged between 4-14. The average age of the listeners was between 52-55. The decision to axe Go4It means that there is now no children's programmes on BBC analogue radio, with the only children's shows being on BBC Radio 7.^[3]

Guests on the programme [link]

Studio guests and people Natalie has interviewed:

• Philip Pullman and Dakota Blue Richards interviewed on her debut in the recently-released film The Golden Compass, as the lead character Lyra Belacqua.^[4][5]

• Michael Morpurgo - Interviewed by a young fan.

• Morris Gleitzman^[6]

• Rainer Hersch - musician

• Lynne Reid Banks ^[7] Interviewed about her novel The Indian in the Cupboard is a 1980 children's book. In the story, a young boy discovers that when he locks a toy plastic Iroquois Indian in an old bathroom cupboard, the figure comes to life.

• Paul Jennings

• Michael Rosen - Talked of his grief of losing his son Eddie at 18, how his writing The 'Sad Book' helped him cope with such a loss on Children & Bereavement edition^[8]

• Jacqueline Wilson

• Raymond Briggs

• Steve Jackson

• Daniel Radcliffe his favourite when he was younger was Holes by Louis Sacher

• Nick Tocjek. He reads one of his poems, and writes a new poem with the help of the Go4it guests.^{[citation needed]} (20 May 2007)

• Kevin Crossley-Holland, author of a series of books set at the time of Arthurian legend.

• Author Philip Reeve is this week's guest- he is here to talk about his new book about King Arthur, which is a bit different from other books about the legends.(27 May 2007)

• Imogen Enid Blyton's daughter. (3 June 2007)

• Eva Rice - Author of Who's Who in Enid Blyton.

• Jam, a member of the all-girl computer experts, the Frag Dolls.

• Kirsten O'Brien interviews the author of another book about a school where the pupils are trained to become super-villains! (10 June 2007)

• Author, Dan Freedman, who talks about his new book "The Kickoff", which is not only a story about a kid who works hard to become a top footballer, but also includes some tips for budding footballers. Dan also talks about how he used to work for the F.A., including an interview with Sir Alex Ferguson. We also interview the author of another book about football, which is rather unusual. (17 June 2007)

• Nick Green: author of The Cat Kin.

• Natalie Barass interviews author Andrew Cope, about his book, which is about a spy dog, who is actually based on his dog, Lara. We listen in as Lara is put through her paces at a dog-training day. (24 June 2007)

• The author Catherine Lamb, who has written a book called Penguin Problems, which tells people how they can help the environment, in a fun and entertaining way. The main characters, Evie and Lola, take being environmentally friendly to a new level.

• Natalie Barass interviews another author, David Gilman, about his book "The Devil's Breath", in which the hero, Max Gordon, fights to protect the environment in some of the most dangerous places on earth.(3 June 2007)

• Anthony Horowitz

• Philip Ardagh (8 July 2007)

• Author Louise Rennison, who writes teenage fiction.^[9]

• Shirley Hughes, whose book Dogger, has just won the "Greenaway of Greenaways" prize- it's been voted the favourite out of all the books that have ever won the Kate Greenaway medal.^[10]

• Minne Gray, who has just been awarded the Kate Greenaway medal for The Adventures of The Dish and The Spoon, which picks up where the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" left off- we find out where the dish and the spoon ran away to. (22 July 2007)

• Thomas Daley, teen Olmpian, was interviewed by Dominic Mather for the Olympic themed programme in August 2008, this interview was repeated in the end of year highlights show.

See also [link]

• Children's Hour
• The Big Toe Radio Show

References [link]

External links [link]

• Official website