You may be surprised to learn this but until now there have been two distinct homepages for the Today Programme. One sat within BBC News Online and another exists on the Radio 4 website.

Because of technical changes on News Online, from now on there will be only one homepage for Today – this one.

It will be your one-stop shop for all things Today Programme related: listening live and hearing the most recent seven programmes, ing the podcast, Thought for the Day, ing the team, seeing photographs,  and finding the best clips.

We also plan to make the running order a more compelling online destination by including more links and comments from listeners that we receive via email and social media.  We will also have more links to further information about the various stories featured on the programme.  This is an example of Monday’s running order.

I hope you enjoy these changes even though we recognise that for some people they will mean a change of habit.  We will be trying out a few different things in the coming weeks so do let us know what you think.

Nigel Smith is the Interactive Editor of Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra

Editor's note: You can leave your questions for Roger to put to the Radio 4 Controller on next week's in the comments on this blog post - PM.

Just after 4am in the Today office at BBC Television Centre in west London.

The programme team has been working since eight the previous evening. The journalists have five hours to go and coffee cups litter the tables fighting for space with every conceivable newspaper and magazine. Arguably the last three hours are the most important, when they are dog tired but have to be at the top of their game for the programme's transmission.

Each three-hour Today programme has around 100 items, some of which will bite the dust if there is a breaking or developing story. Producers soon learn the art of standing down an interviewee, and of phoning up another at some unearthly hour.

This morning's presenters, Sarah Montague and John Humphrys slip into the office, the latter having parked his bike outside.

I am slightly astonished that the BBC is happy for such a central figure to be cycling in the dark in west London at such an early hour, but JH is overflowing with energy as if he has consumed half-a-dozen espressos already.

Enter stage left a listener, sca Fenn, an avid Today listener , who has been given an access all areas to find out what goes on behind the scenes. I would like to tell you that she is accompanied by 's presenter as well as its producer, but I'm afraid I didn't get there until after six am, for budgetary reasons of course.

The vast majority of the audience, and there are more than seven million of them , are a pretty vociferous lot, so I was not short of questions to put to the Today editor when I interviewed him a couple of days later.

First, here is a snapshot of what goes on behind the scenes at the apparently smooth running show.

Our thanks to listener sca Fenn who has gone back to bed.

Two days later when I talked to the Editor of Today, Ceri Thomas, the News International hacking scandal was beginning to quieten down.

Our thanks to everyone at the Today programme for placing no restrictions whatever on where we could go.

Next week I'll be talking to the Controller of Radio 4 about the schedule changes she has made, one of which is to move this programme from its Friday slot at 1.30 to 4.30pm in the afternoon.

Do let me know what you want me to ask her. You can leave a comment below.

Roger Bolton presents

• Listen again to this week's , produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with the programme, find out how to the listener or subscribe to the podcast on the web page.
• Read all of Roger's blog posts.
• is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4.
• All posts on "Radio 4 and 4 Extra Blog" in the category:
• Picture shows John Humphrys (L) and James Naughtie during the Today programme on Radio 4 from 2007. Copyright BBC / Jeff Overs
• There are some more archive pictures you might like from the Today programme in the post The Today programme: The "radio show that one in eight of us now tune in to"

Jon Henley's written a profile of Radio 4's Today programme in The Guardian:

The Today programme is, of course, a legend, but now we know it has never been more popular: the latest figures put its audience during the first three months of this year at 7.03 million, 600,000 more than last year and an absolute (if slightly controversial) record.

This seemed like enough reason to publish a few pictures from the earlier days of the programme.

Caption reads: "Today : 1959 07/05/1959 © BBC picture shows - L-R: Robert Craddock, producer, John Sykes and Maureen Milton-Dinnis, studio manager. The comperes view from the studio into the control cubicle, as the time-check clock shows that the programme is about to finish."

Caption: "Today : 1986 (Radio 4) 16/12/1986 © BBC Picture shows the new line up for Radio 4s early morning Today programme (l-r) Jenni Murray ; John Humphrys and Brian Redhead."

Caption: "John Timpson, Jack de Manio and Pat Simmons, on the Today Programme, 1971 14/05/1971 BBC Library file, dated 14-05-1971. TIM, alias Pat Simmons, tells the time on the Today Programme, presented by Jack de Manio (left), and co-presenter John Timpson."

Caption (with original typos): "Today (R4) 05/07/1974 © BBC Picture shows - Robert Robinson pours a drink for co-presenter John Timpson at Robert Robinsons farewell breakfast part on Friday 5th July, the day he left BBC Radio 4s 'Today' programme. Des (Desmomd) Lynam, occasional co-presenter of the programmew, looks on. 'Today', Radios 4s regukar early morning news programme, can be heard every day except Sunday."

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio 4 blog

Crime writer and radio pugilist PD James has won one of the most prestigious awards in British journalism - the Nick Clarke Interview Prize. She won it for her on-air punch-up with BBC Director General Mark Thompson, during her guest editorship of the Today Programme on Radio 4 last new year's eve.

Quoted in The Guardian, Evan Davis, full-time Today programme interviewer said: "She shouldn't be guest editing, she should be permanently presenting the programme..."

The shortlist for the award included a number of other heavyweight full-timers: Owen Bennett-Jones, from the World Service; Andrew Hosken, also from The Today Programme; Jeff Randall from Sky News and Mark Lawson courageously challenging Russell Crowe on his accent on Front Row.

The Press Gazette has the story (and the full shortlist), The Guardian covered PD James' Today stint and here's the running order from her excellent edition of the programme. Mark Damazer, Nick Clarke's friend, introduced the prize on the blog last year.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

Editor's note: Radio 4's new Controller has been in the job for three weeks. Her second blog post concerns the party conferences, poetry and anagrams - SB.

The End of the Affair - I mean the party conference season. The Today Programme's set of leader interviews was unmissable. Ingredients: take four fresh, untried would-be leaders with relatively unknown views, facial expressions and speech patterns. Mix boldly with seasoned, piquant Today programme presenters.

Shake rigorously and sprinkle with chilli, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate (the bitter, dark sort - never sweet) and there you had it... four revelatory dishes served hot to the Radio 4 audience in our breakfast programme. Oh - and each followed by a tasting at the refined political palate of our discerning political editor. This is a time when politics and the changing shape of the state will be central to our coverage on Radio 4 and we will be looking for original programme ideas to track and interpret the future.

I was thrilled by the Ted Hughes poem unearthed by our own Melvyn Bragg in his guest-edited edition of The New Statesman.

Wole Soyinka sent me an original poem as a gift to broadcast when I started at the World Service. It was called 'A Moment of Peace' and I include it here as a treat for anyone who cares to listen. We are brilliant at analysis and critique but it is hard to beat the real thing- and a poem on radio... well, it fits:

My Radio 4 aside of the week is David Mitchell in Unbelievable Truths, which featured on Pick Of The Week. A brilliant sequence on rain ended with a statement that there are no anagrams in rain... "Iran" said David in a nano-drop, "Move on."

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4

Gwyneth Williams was profiled on Radio 4's this week. Listen to the programme on the Radio 4 web site.
• Radio 4 is on Twitter and on Facebook.

Editor's note: this week's item from , Radio 4's weekly ability programme, concerns the highly contentious issue of trails. Putting his head in the lion's mouth to defend them is network manager, Denis Nowlan. Brave man - SB

What is it about trails that so excites or rather inflames the listener? This week as I entered the office I could feel the heat radiating off the incandescent emails.

The immediate cause was an interview I did last week with the deputy Editor of the Today programme, Jon Zilkha. A few days before, a BBC weather forecaster had had to cut his pre-8 a.m. bulletin from its standard 90 seconds length to a truncated 20 seconds. The reason was that a live discussion about the BBC itself had overrun, in listeners' view an increasingly common occurrence.

Of course another option would have been to drop the trail instead. Mr Zilkha defended the decision to cut the forecast and went on to suggest that for many listeners trails are just as important as the weather. Many of our correspondents were incredulous about that assertion.

"If he can actually find a listener who would rather listen to a trailer then hear a weather forecast, I"ll buy him a drink" wrote Colin Williams.

Deborah Bull told us "You are a public service and a decent weather forecast is part of that. There is no justification for preferring to run trails instead".

Peter Simpkin said "I hope you will follow up with a direct question to the Controller R4... is the 5-to-8 trailer more important than the weather by higher command?"

Well the Controller was not available but the official defender of trails was. He is the Network Manager of Radio 4, Denis Nowlan. Listen to his defence of trails and tell us what you think in a comment:

By the way the latest RAJAR figures show that Radio 4 has just had its best listening figures ever, and that those for Radio 3 have gone down a little. I think there must have been a General Election.

Roger Bolton presents on BBC Radio 4

• Listen again to the whole programme, get in touch with , find out how to the listener or subscribe to the podcast on the web page.
• On the About the BBC blog, Margo Swadley writes about those RAJAR figures

If you're a regular Today listener you'll know that the daily racing tips are a treasured (and sometimes comical) element of the the programme's sports coverage. So it seems quite appropriate that when Garry Richardson, the programme's long-serving sports presenter, came into the Today studio at the end of this morning's 8:10 interview, he took the opportunity to ask your new Prime Minister to provide two tips of his own. Here they are:

The picture, showing David Cameron making his selections, was taken by World at One presenter Martha Kearney through the studio's glass wall and posted on her Twitter , @marthakearney.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

• For the record, David Cameron selected five year-old Daring Dream in the 15:50 at Ayr and four year-old Midnight Fantasy in the 15:00 at Wolverhampton.

Editor's note: listen to the 15-minute montage of Radio 4's election night coverage below - it's a real rollercoaster - and it was delivered minutes after the programme went off-air. I asked Hugh Levinson, who made the montage with colleague Tom Brignell, to tell us how they did it - SB.

Our mission: To boil down the election night's programming on Radio 4 into a single snappy podcast with all the highlights, ready for the next morning. Simples!

Except for the fact that the studio we were using in the Radio Current Affairs department isn't really equipped for this task. A massive engineering feat by colleagues Jonathan Glover and Masood Ilyas got it into working order. I had perhaps foolishly agreed to stay up all night to make the podcast, as had studio manager Tom Brignell.

We had a foolproof plan to get through the wee small hours. We'd take it easy during the day on Thursday, roll up just before the start of the programme at 10 p.m., relaxed and ready to go. Somehow it didn't work out that way. Both of us worked a full day before we even got into the studio. However, as seasoned radio professionals, we'd ensured we were supplied with the appropriate resources. Namely a large bag of chocolate caramel shortcake and enough coffee to give Rip Van Winkle palpitations.

Then the fun began. I sat in one room, listening to the coverage from Jim Naughtie and Carolyn Quinn. I frantically scribbled notes - 50 pages by the time 6 a.m. rolled round - and marked up sections for Tom to cut. The only problem with this brilliant plan was my handwriting, which is apparently illegible to mere mortals like Tom. Somehow, he managed.

I was listening out for the magic moments: the breathless atmosphere of the counts at key marginals: the tearstained interviews with failed candidates: and of course the bit where Jim Naughtie talked about a horse getting into a polling booth. Around 3 a.m. I started to flag and was close to hallucinating, but perhaps that was just the bright lights of the set on the TV election special.

Some dramatic results and a spellbindingly unusual interview with Nick Griffin helped pull me through towards dawn. As 6 a.m. rolled round, Tom and I compressed the 8 hours down to a super-snappy 15 minutes. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun.

Click here to play the election night highlights.

Hugh Levinson is an editor in BBC Radio Current Affairs

• The election night highlights package is part of the Today programme's daily podcast. the audio in MP3 format, subscribe to the podcast here or listen again to the whole of Radio 4's election night coverage, if you have a spare 480 minutes!

The Thought for The Day ruling by the BBC Trust was never going to be greeted with universal applause - or anything like it.

In a nutshell the Trust says that restricting Thought for the Day to speakers who espouse a faith does not breach the BBC's obligation to impartiality - but the Trustees say that it is up to the management to decide whether to include non-believers.

As I have said before I think it's a very finely balanced argument. I know humanists, agnostics and atheists are frustrated. They tell me so - loudly. (And mostly politely). But the slot has its merits. It is distinctive and even if you sometimes scream at the radio when it's on - and I have done this myself - it nevertheless often gives a sharply different perspective on the news - and thus can be stimulating. Maybe infuriating - but different.

One more thing before I duck for cover. We do many programmes and items on religious and ethical issues. There are many perspectives on offer - and many of them are not rooted in faith at all.

I discussed the state of play on Thought for the Day on yesterday's PM. Here it is:

Mark Damazer is Controller of BBC Radio 4

• The BBC Trust's ruling is here.
• The ruling was covered in The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Mail and on Digital Spy.
• The picture is by Windward CC Library and is used under licence.

The Today Programme is always in the news. The Telegraph runs with the Voice of the Listener and Viewer's gong for Today (and Radio 4 in general). In the same paper Tim Walker wonders why Today didn't send Naughtie or Humphrys to the Tory conference in Manchester.

The Times (and everybody else) carries coverage of Ben Bradshaw's angry Twitter attack on Evan Davis' Osborne interview on... Today.

Guardian radio reviewers are now 'curating' the stuff - providing links to iPlayer so you can listen to the programmes they review. It had to happen. And, of course, it's almost all Radio 4.

Jane Thynne in The Independent says that the assembly of noblemen and women on Monday's Start The Week "felt a lot like gatecrashing the House of Lords' tea room".

On her blog, Joanna Leahy, an 'Irish nomad in Norway', was surprised by a call from The World Tonight PM. She was interviewed about Norway's status (according to a UN report) as best place to live on the planet.

Back in The Telegraph, Jod Mitchell reviews four Radio 4 documentaries, including last week's Black men can't swim and of presenter Matt Blaize he says: "he did what a documentary-maker should do - investigate a single question and suggest a straightforward answer."

And, to finish, Twitter - as usual - is full of clever thoughts about Radio 4 programmes. Don't take my word for it - search for yourself.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

A fine kerfuffle (if that's the right word) on Today this morning about - you guessed it - Twitter. Read Alex Hudson's excellent feature about it on the Today site. And what do you think? Are there things that you should be allowed to dismiss out of hand? Is social media phenonemon Twitter one of them?

Justin Webb, until recently the BBC's North America Editor, arrived in the Today studio this morning for his first appearance as a permanent presenter of the programme (he's filled in once or twice in the past). We asked Chris Vallance to talk to Justin - exclusively for the Radio 4 blog - about his first appearance and about the benefits of working with John Humphrys.

Chris started by asking how it had gone:

• As is customary, John and Justin reviewed the programme immediately after transmission. Watch their review here and listen to the programme again here.
• Justin will read the My News section of iPM to be broadcast this Saturday at 1730 (subscribe to the iPM podcast).
• Chris Vallance recorded an interview with a game theorist and an Archers scriptwriter for the blog back in April.
• The Guardian reviewed Justin's first appearance and the Twittersphere enjoyed his use of the word 'recrudescence' in an item about football hooligans.
• For another item - about encouraging people to cycle to work - Justin took to the road.

There are many advantages to working in August.

True, while many of our colleagues (and listeners) are battling with dilemmas like "white or red?", "pool or beach?" and "if I eat anything else for breakfast, will I still be able to get into my swimsuit?", I am trawling through websites, specialist journals and my s (those who are left at work, anyway) to see what stories they may have that we can get on air.

But while London can be, like any big conurbation, rather oppressive in hazy, sticky summer days, you can at least get a seat on the train, the queue for coffee is mercifully short, and anything story you turn your hand to will have an excellent chance of getting on.

I've been a broadcast journalist for twenty years now, and every year it's the same. There is often, sadly, one overwhelming story that happens in August - the death of the Princess of Wales, or the murder or the two little girls from Soham (both of which I covered).

But lower down the running order, there's an interesting shift in editorial standards that takes place at about the end of July. A gradual descent downwards, hurtling towards the bottom of the barrel at about this point in the summer. Part of the job of a specialist correspondent is to advise the outlets we serve about the merits of a story. But no-one wants to hear "we've done it before" at this time of year - there are still hours of airtime to fill, and not a lot with which to fill it.

But if you manage to dodge the pleading emails from output editors, August can be a fantastic time to prepare for the big stories later in the year. So much of modern day journalism can feel like a bit of a hamster wheel. Within a day you must take calls and read emails from s, mobilise resources, book crews, check equipment (when I do radio slots for the Today programme it's me and a satellite dish, no back up, so it's vital to make sure it's working before you leave), talk to editors, and research and turn around a story at lightning speed. So the chance to lift your gaze towards the horizon at quiet times is enormously helpful.

Yesterday, I and producer Nora Dennehy took a trip up to Sandy in Bedfordshire, to the headquarters of the RSPB, to talk to their experts about illegal bird hunting, here and in the EU, and about the effectiveness - or lack of it - of the European legislation designed to stop the practise.

Much of our planning time is now being devoted to a big UN meeting in December in Copenhagen, at which - it's hoped - there will be a global deal to reduce in the future the carbon dioxide emissions that the vast majority of scientists believe are causing climate change.

My big concern is how we are going to cover a story that involves lots of people talking impenetrably to each other in a large conference hall, and cover it in a way that makes it relevant to our listeners, explains what is going on and considers the difference it could make to us all. Already there are some very highly placed people I've been talking to who think such a deal is too much to ask in the time available - so we already have to ask the question: what happens then?

One of our ideas it to take a van that runs on chip fat around the UK to visit some low-carbon projects and schemes that are actually up and running. It's obviously a big commitment, financially and logistically, for the BBC, so we've been talking this week within the department about how viable it would be.

But before I think about covering talks designed to save the planet, I need to check out a story about a UK-wide early conker harvest, and conker-killing beetles that seem to be travelling by car. August may always be quiet, but the variety of stories that cross your desk as environment correspondent never ceases to surprise me!

Sarah Mukherjee is BBC environment correspondent.

• Picture of a conker by Nick Thompson. Used under licence.

For most of my life the kind of people who made Radio 4 programmes were all self-evidently much older than me. They were people of my parents' generation, people who smoked pipes...

Read the rest of this post and leave comments on the BBC Music blog.

If you're in a better mood than you usually are on a Thursday morning it might be because you heard the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on Today at 0741. Together with Kathy Clugston, of this parish, they provided a lovely few minutes of strummed Beethoven and details of how to in with August's Ukulele Prom. Roland Taylor, who is in charge of things interactive at Radio 3 and is also producing the Prom, wrote about it on the Radio 3 blog. Here's an excerpt:

I've produced a few Proms in my time at the BBC but, for me, this year's line up is a bit different: Stan Tracey, the Michael Nyman Band and, because I begged to be allowed to produce it, Prom 45 with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. I can't wait. When I was told I'd been given Prom 45 I smiled for about 2 days. Then, on the way home, it occurred to me that it might be a great opportunity, as Interactive Editor for the Proms, to get the audience involved. I emailed Ellara Wakely (Learning Manager, BBC Proms) and Roger Wright asking both if we could have a 'bring your ukulele to the Prom and play along' moment. They said yes. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain said yes. My team said yes. I said yes!

Read the rest of this post and leave comments on the Radio 3 blog...

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog