It has been voted the most influential news programme in Britain in setting the political agenda,[2] with an average weekly listening audience around 6 million.

The two editions also became longer, and by the end of the 1960s it had become a single programme two hours in length that enveloped the news bulletins and the religious talk that had become Thought for the Day in 1970.

Timpson had been critical of the content, style and professionalism of Today; describing it once as "not so much a programme, more a way of telling the time" and being filled with "eccentric octogenarians, prize pumpkins, and folk who ate lightbulbs and spiders".

[11] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, under editors Ken Goudie and Julian Holland, Today made moves to broaden its appeal away from broadcasting a lot of national politics with London-centric bias.

His last major guests were former Prime Ministers David Cameron and Tony Blair, as well as drag personality Dame Edna Everage.

[22][23]Among the newsreaders are Chris Aldridge, Viji Alles, Charles Carroll, Lisa Costello, Mark Forrest, Caroline Nicholls, Tina Ritchie, Alan Smith, Tom Sandars, and Jane Steel.

These usually reflect their social or cultural interests and at the end of each edition the guest editor is interviewed by a member of the regular presenting team about the experience.

Guest editors participating in the inaugural year of this feature were Monica Ali, Thom Yorke, Stephen Hawking, and Norman Tebbit, who is a frequent critic of the programme.

Since its inception, notable guest editors have included: David Blunkett, who used the programme as an opportunity to "turn the tables" on John Humphrys in 2005; Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose appearance on 29 December 2006 encompassed discussions of his growing concerns about the "justification" for the invasion of Iraq, Britain's role in the affair, and the consequences for British armed forces; and Peter Hennessy, who, on 28 December 2007, led a visit to HMS Vigilant (a British Trident submarine) alongside its base at Faslane.

Others including Queen Noor of Jordan (2005), Bono (2004) and Sarah, Duchess of York (2004) have also pitched in for this one-day editorial stint to promote their causes and interests.

The true conditions are of course secret, and Hennessy has never revealed his sources for this story, leading Paul Donovan, author of a book about Today, to express some scepticism about it.

In 2001, the Today programme created a system of message boards[33] allowing the users of its web site to challenge thinking on current affairs with all those contributing.

Presented alternately by Tina Daheley and Matthew Price and aimed at a younger audience, the production team contains the same number of women from black and ethnic minority backgrounds as it does men.

Today found itself in the midst of controversy again in 2002, when its editor Rod Liddle wrote a column in The Guardian that was extremely critical of the Countryside Alliance and which raised questions about his own impartiality.

In the article, he wrote that catching "a glimpse of the forces supporting the Countryside Alliance: the public schools that laid on coaches; the fusty, belch-filled dining rooms of the London clubs that opened their doors, for the first time, to the protesters; the Prince of Wales and, of course, Camilla ... and suddenly, rather gloriously, it might be that you remember [why you voted Labour] once again."

Transmission continued the next day, in spite of ongoing industrial action, as Evan Davis and Sarah Montague decided to break the strike.

[38] During 2010, editor Ceri Thomas acknowledged that the gender balance was not ideal, but faced criticism for saying in an interview that the programme was not going to be the "first place you'll see those changes because it's just too tough an environment for novices, frankly".

[39] Radio 4 presenter Mariella Frostrup described the men involved in running the programme in an interview as "a bunch of misogynists",[40] but later retracted this statement by saying she had been "careless" in her vocabulary.

Graham Linehan appeared on the show last year to discuss his adaptation of The Ladykillers and found himself ambushed by questions that weren't just hostile, but sometimes completely bizarre.