I was really pleased last Thursday because the big news was that the government has renewed the BBC Charter for another eleven years, enabling them to collect the licence fee. The BBC isn't funded by the government, and isn't a government organisation: it's independent. It is administered by a Trust and the trustees. However, the government allows it to collect the licence fee. This means that if you watch the TV you have to pay for a TV licence, unless you are over 70, in which case you are exempt. If you don't pay the licence fee, and you are detected by a detector van, watching the TV, then you will be prosecuted and you may have to go to prison. It's a crime.
So the BBC is really a nationalised industry, and the Tory government doesn't like these on principle - it likes profiteering. There was a great scare that the Tories would cut the BBC's funding in some way in order to encourage commercial sponsorship. Naturally there was a campaign to petition the government to keep the BBC as it is. So I filled in a form explaining that I particularly like Woman's Hour and Have I Got News for You, University Challenge and a number of cop dramas and how much I can't stand adverts - there are none on the BBC because of the way it's funded. We don't have nearly so many adverts on independent TV as, for example, the US, where it is really pointless to watch the TV at all.
We watched the British Academy TV awards and all the winners made speeches about how important it is to keep the BBC independent of the government, because another threat to the BBC is that every government decides it's an enemy and tries to influence it: (for example, Tony Blair's PR man, Alastair Campbell, told Andrew Marr, the political correspondent at the time TB was Prime Minister that he would get him sacked for asking probing questions) and the BBC tries to present a balanced view. This is very funny on the News Quiz, where all the comedians take the piss out of those who want to leave Europe, and the audience point out that this isn't balanced, and then they can't find any comedians in favour of coming out of Europe, and then they make jokes on this theme....
In fact, there are many funny consequences of the BBC's independence. For example, they used to not be able to mention any product by its brand name. Then this caused such linguistic constructs as "sticky-back plastic" (Fablon) and "multi-coloured chocolate sweets" (Smarties) and some awkwardness in conversation, and it was decided that brands could be mentioned on the BBC if the presenters then said "and other brands are available".
Then they have a duty to reflect our whole, diverse population. They were slow about this for many years and had mainly presenters with received pronunciation or "Oxford English". Then there came a demand for regional accents and these came in slowly. We had more Scottish and Welsh to start with, and then, slowly, northerners. Now I think they have quotas! So, as on radio 4 many of the presenters like Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey and Libby Purves have the standard accent, all the characters on the afternoon play have to be either northern or Asian or otherwise foreign. So if you've written a play that's set in Weybridge, and they like it, they'll just decide to set it in Rotherham and produce it that way.
The report that came out on Thursday merely stipulated that the BBC's output must be "distinctive" and what this means nobody knows. But I think Gareth Malone's work for the BBC is quite distinctive. GM is a choir master. He looks boyish and tweedy. His mission is to spread the joy of singing in choirs. This sounds boring and worthy, but his work for the BBC is not boring. He was given the project of bringing a choir of injured servicemen together for the Invictus games, giving them something to sing, rehearsing them and taking them to Florida to sing at the opening ceremony.
Every serviceman or woman who came into the choir had their own story to tell, and it came out in front of the camera in an unforced way. One imagines there are hours of footage which are not used. Gareth went to the homes of many of the singers to talk to them personally. He collated their memories and their poetry and their stories to make a song. The excitement they shared at going to Florida was palpable. Their bonding was obvious. Some of these people had been quite isolated and having a group task and a group identity meant a huge amount to them. This is what Gareth does: he stays outside and tries to enable the group to make bonds together, but he doesn't mind showing sympathy when necessary. He always seems like a cold fish but in one programme he cried his eyes out - can't remember what that one was. He stayed dry-eyed this time. I didn't expect to watch this programme the whole way through but it was put together in such a way that I never got bored with it or felt it was superficial. I thought it was an excellent programme.
Available for only 27 days, watch here!
Prince Harry came into this programme - the servicemen love him and personally I think he'd make a very good king. He just sort of fits in with our lives.
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