Ups and downs of fatherhood explored in new Wiltshire radio show

The elations and frustrations of new fatherhood are to have an unflinching light shone on them in a new radio show.

Dads Aloud, starting at 9pm on Monday, 27 July on Swindon-based BBC Radio Wiltshire, is a weekly programme in which four new dads will talk about their experiences.
Subjects will include everything from birth itself to gender disappointment, struggling to bond with their baby and the great breast versus bottle debate.  

“Nothing is off the table,” said Dan O'Brien, a dad-of-two and the station’s political reporter.

“We will share our joys, our frustrations, our epic parenting fails, our staggering levels of ignorance – not least about how the female body works – the ridiculous, the fun and the serious. 

“We tackle everything from handling ‘poonamis’ to tasting breast milk. From feeling completely in love to feeling completely useless.”

The BBC journalists will be joined by guests including Will Unwin, a dad who blogged fearlessly about his struggle to bond with his baby daughter; Jamie Beaglehole, who blogs about adopting as a gay man and Neil Sinclair, a commando-cum-dad who has written a series of books on fatherhood. 

The series features a no-holds-barred audio diary from Nick Jewers - dad-of-one and newsreader at BBC Radio Wiltshire - during his baby’s first few weeks.

“Looking back now eight and a half months on I’m a bit embarrassed,” he will explain in an upcoming show.

“I was knackered and, if I’m honest, I was questioning myself. I didn’t quite know what my role was at the time and I was a bit uncertain of things going forward.

“I was an emotional wreck.”

Nick and Dan will be joined every Monday from 9pm by Will Walder, a dad-of-two and breakfast producer, and Sam York, who is a dad-of-three and travel presenter.

The show will be available on BBC Radio Wiltshire online, on the BBC Sounds app, on DAB and at 103.6FM, and will be made available after broadcast on BBC Sounds.