Prue Leith and Margaret Atwood to be among BBC Radio 4's Today programme guest editors

The Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith will join the novelist Margaret Atwood and the Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel as this year’s guest editors of Radio 4’s current affairs programme Today.

The group – which also includes Britain’s first black female bishop, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, and the director of the Wellcome Trust, Sir Jeremy Farrar – will suggest stories that they feel should be covered and conduct interviews.

The five programmes will be broadcast between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve.

Atwood says she will use her show to explore “the idea of change”. As part of this she will interview the Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, herself a former Today guest editor, about the changes needed to save the planet. Atwood intends to introduce “great writers, campaigners and bio-advocates” to a new audience.

Hudson-Wilkin, the suffragan bishop of Dover in the Church of England, will reflect on “our common humanity” by talking to children who’ve been excluded from school, prisoners in Kenya and Uighur refugees in Turkey.

Farrar will dedicate his show to “the idea of uncertainty”, taking in everything from the path of a cricket ball to the impact of an unknown virus in British hospitals.

Leith will discuss her attempts to improve food in hospitals and explore issues around assisted dying. She will also celebrate the “hobbies and crafts that British people have taken up during lockdown”.

Perhaps reflecting the transitory nature of Spiegel’s app – or just his very busy schedule – the BBC has said it is still working to confirm what will be appearing on his programme.

Although the guest editors will nominally be in charge, each show will be put together by Today programme staff, with the programmes required to abide by BBC editorial guidelines.

Owenna Griffiths, editor of the Today programme, said: “Since they were first introduced back in 2003, guest editors have become an indispensable annual event, bringing novel ideas and unexpected perspectives to the familiar world of daily news. At the end of this exceptional year, I believe we have a line-up that will help us to make sense of 2020 as well as bringing a little welcome festive cheer.”