Is the BBC As Good As It Can Be? – Page 2
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The newspaper for BBC pensioners – with highlights from Ariel online Patten on the BBC Is the BBC as good as it can be? – page 2 March 2012 • Issue 2 Carer’s row over world More older allowance – are service party women on air you entitled? Page 4 Page 8 Page 11 NEWS • MEMoriES • ClaSSifiEdS • Your lEttErS • obituariES • CroSPEro 02 baCk at tHE bbC Is the BBC as good as it can be? In a speech to the Oxford Media Convention 2012 in January, BBC Trust Chairman, Lord Patten of Barnes, called for the BBC to be ‘on the top of its game’ as it moves towards Charter Review. he Trust chairman devoted most of is at work here. What are we about? What that can only be a good thing for the long- tag ‘intellectual’, nor become too attached his speech to praising the BBC for should the BBC be trying to do? term health of our society. to it for our own good. The BBC occupies a its distinctiveness and the latter part I remain unashamedly of the view that broad cultural territory peopled by that great to the Trust’s initial conclusions on Optimism, ideas and ambition introducing people to good books, great majority of the audience who do not seek to Tthe Delivering Quality First process. We have It seems like the right time to think hard about paintings, or beautiful music – allowing be members of any kind of clique but who reproduced much of his speech below: this, given the degree of uncertainty in the them to better pursue and appreciate their want to be informed, educated and inspired current political and economic situation that passions and interests – helps to enrich them and not merely entertained. is causing us all to ask existential questions. as individuals and to improve the quality of It can have enormous impact by providing There are those who look at recent events civic life for all of us. an introduction to concepts, subjects and and diagnose inexorable decline: a collapse of But to do any of these things, the BBC artists that viewers and listeners can go trust in political and financial institutions, a needs to be at the top of its game. away to pursue further for themselves if crisis of morality in capitalism, a diminishing they choose. And increasingly, its internet- of Western power in contrast to the rise of A popular art form connected services will help people China; and at home and perhaps beyond, That is partly about taking ourselves more do that by providing immediate links, a debasement of public sensibility and a seriously and giving our audiences the recommendations and opportunities to share decline in contemporary culture. respect they deserve. Television at its best is their knowledge and passions with others. It’s not for me to judge whether they are a popular art form. It is not absurd to argue It’s a false dichotomy to say that the right or wrong, although I would observe the that it is the closest we get in modern life BBC must seek either to be popular or to long heritage for this brand of pessimism: to the sort of collective experience that was be intelligent. It ought to be both. It can from TS Eliot to Matthew Arnold, from Swift created by Sophocles or Shakespeare. combine broad reach with a distinctive to Shakespeare, even back to St Augustine Lord Reith, although he hated television, edge. Through a range of programmes that and Tacitus. identified in the earliest days of broadcasting run from Strictly Come Dancing to Live from the The BBC has an obligation to report these an opportunity to extend this noble artistic Met. And through a determination to make views and the alternatives, to challenge them lineage. When he said it was ‘better to every programme as stimulating as it can and as far as possible to get underneath them. over-estimate the mentality of the public than be. To take one unlikely example that I To try to explain and analyse what is actually to under-estimate it’, he wasn’t being elitist. stumbled across: if you watch the Great Sport going on. But our responsibility goes beyond He was being meritocratic. Relief Bake Off, you can learn something about Lord Patten, BBC Trust Chairman. reporting. We are an important part of the importance of tea rooms as places for contemporary culture. We should be able to Suffragettes to meet and organise, even while Introduction demonstrate through what we do that Britain you hone your crumble-making technique. This conference will not be the last in 2012 is not going to the dogs. “We are an important to debate the future of the creative industries; In this sense, I believe the BBC is part of the Living dangerously indeed politics, technology, economics and argument, and a force for optimism amidst part of contemporary The BBC should never simply look to past consumer behaviour make this topic ever any gloom. And that while we live in serious successes as proof of its right to exist. It has more interesting. So conferences like this are times we need not be perpetually solemn. culture. We should be some lofty ideals to live up to, and it can only likely to become a sort of creative industry First because of the quality of escapism able to demonstrate do that by taking brave decisions and setting themselves. But there is no denying there is and entertainment the BBC can provide. off in some new directions. It will never a slightly febrile tone to the debate at this Watch 90 minutes of Sherlock and I defy you through what we do prosper simply by playing safe. particular moment as we await the arrival to recall the precise details of Standard and Think of the disruptive, challenging, of a Communications Green Paper and the Poor’s latest credit ratings. that Britain is not intellectually seditious nature of great art – Leveson Inquiry continues its investigations. Second because it remains a trusted Goya or Beethoven or Grossman. Think of The BBC has an interest, of course, in the national institution. And by upholding its going to the dogs.” the wild potency that we celebrate in art policy debates around the Communications standards, its civility, and its democratic and artists, so difficult to fit into any kind Review. We will have a point of view to intelligence the BBC remains something for of mould. No wonder Denis Donoghue said, express. But on the whole, the big questions us all to be proud of. The BBC itself has never been, and should in his Reith lectures on The Arts without for us will come in the next Charter Review. Third because of what it does to take the never be, too self-consciously highbrow. Mystery, that ‘there isn’t much point in having One question will be about the case for UK to the world, through both the cultural To remind yourself why not, look at the the arts at all unless we have them with all public service broadcasting. And perhaps that and democratic contribution made by the queues for the Proms. Virginia Woolf might their interrogative power. They are not cosy case is best made by looking at our 90-year World Service and the economic contribution have thought this sort of popular success a or ornamental.’ history, at public trust in our purposes, and at made by BBC Worldwide. little too, well, middlebrow, a bit (to quote How do these ideas affect us? We need people’s respect and affection for the quality Finally, and most importantly, because her) ‘betwixt and between’. But year by year be aware of the challenge for the BBC. Any of what the BBC does. it can carry ideas and ambition to many the queues grow. large organisation or bureaucracy will tend to But a second crucial question lies in the millions of people. And if millions of people What does any of this mean for the BBC stifle creative people – so how can we make attempt to define better the philosophy that are able to pursue new ideas and ambitions today? That we must neither be afraid of the sure this one doesn’t? And while parts of the Prospero is provided free of charge to retired BBC Editorial contributions: Write to: Prospero, employees, or to their spouses and dependants. BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Prospero provides a source of news on former Cardiff CF5 2YQ. Email: [email protected] colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are issues, plus classified adverts. scanned at 300 dpi. To advertise in Prospero, please see page 12. To view Ariel online, please visit www.bbc.co.uk/ariel. The next issue of Prospero will appear in April 2012. PROSPERO MARCH 2012 baCk at tHE bbC 03 BBC need to feel cosy and unthreatening – guarantee of continuing viability. We must It has pointed to some areas where it feels think of the superbly professional Antiques be wary of that dynamic. It will tend to stifle more can be done and more risks can be Roadshow – other parts need to retain their full new ideas and new ways of doing things. taken. The peak time schedules of BBC CONTACTS interrogative power. The BBC has to use the The BBC should be hugely confident One and BBC Two, in particular, provide security of its licence fee funding to take risks about its position and its place in public opportunities to reach significant numbers of Visiting Scheme that a commercial broadcaster would never life.