Janet farewelled

The current season ended with tribute being paid to Janet Staplehurst who is giving up the whistle as has been mentioned here.

The only other time a tribute has been paid to a departing member was Derek Nimmo whose death mid-season led to the next show being dedicated to him. I wondered if some thing similar might be done for Linda Smith but it wasn't.

Of course the tributes underlined that the JAM regulars are a happy team, and obviously enjoy being with their producer and production assistant. I think they have also had the same sound engineer, Martha (sorry I don't know her surname) for many years.

I understand that preparations are already under way for JAM's 40th - which is almost two years away. That suggests that Claire Jones is staying on. She's certainly had a long run - she has now produced 116 editions - second only to David Hatch on 165. If she is still there at the beginning of 2007 she will be only a few shows behind David.

She had to pick things up after the death of Peter Jones and Derek Nimmo within a year. She's done amazingly well.