text: Listeners say the  last minutes of numerous shows have been left off versions on the iPlayer service . It seems that the BBC has lost the plot with its radio dramas. Frustrated listeners say the vital last minutes of numerous shows have been left off versions uploaded to the iPlayer service. They branded the problem ‘irritating’, ‘annoying’ and ‘frustrating’ and said it was ruining their enjoyment of the programmes. Shows such as Dad’s Army and Hancock’s Half Hour have all fallen foul of the problem, which the BBC blames on the system it uses to record programmes. It says the live sections of radio stations cause the start and end times of programmes to shift, confusing the automatic recording system. But this is not a new problem for the corporation and has been on its radar for at least three years. It was raised by the BBC’s own Feedback programme in February 2012 but, with the issue still persisting now, listeners have been forced to again approach the Radio 4 programme, which deals with audience complaints. One said: ‘Do you have any idea how irritating, annoying, frustrating it is to attempt to listen again [to a programme] only for the last few minutes to be cut off? 'All because you can’t be bothered to check that whole show was there. Please, if you are going to make available a programme I have missed can I have the whole programme?’ Another added: ‘I enjoy radio drama immensely but just recently I have found that some final episodes have last the vital few minutes. I was simply left hanging in the air at a very crucial stage.’ Shows such as Dad’s Army and Hancock’s Half Hour have all fallen foul of the problem, which the BBC blames on the system it uses to record programmes . According to the BBC’s own figures, in February this year, 57million ‘requests’ were made for radio programmes on BBC iPlayer. Each request means a person chose to listen to a show. Of this number, one quarter were people listening to programmes on catch-up, a jump from one in five the previous month. As the use of catch-up becomes increasingly popular, more people will suffer from shows missing their final moments. Andrew Scott, General Manager of the BBC’s Audience Facing Services, appeared on Feedback and apologised for the problem and said they are now adding two minutes to the end of all its recordings in an attempt to stamp out the problem. He told the programme: ‘There are a lot of shows every week that are made available on demand and we simply can’t humanly check every single one of those, so what we are trying to do is make sure we have the very best fail safe systems in place.’
target: iPlayer listeners say the vital last minutes have been left off  radio dramas .
  Shows such as Dad's Army and Hancock's Half Hour fallen foul of problem .
  BBC blames system it uses to record programmes, but it's not a new issue .