Television
Private thoughts
Richard Ingrams
I'm glad to see that my idea of 'privatising' the BBC is being more and more talked about. Maybe one or two BBC executives are even beginning to get worried by the possibility, though one anonymous gentleman was quoted in the Sunday Times just before Christmas as saying that privatising the BBC was as far-fetched as `privatising the Church of England'. Aside from the meaningless analogy, it is in- teresting to note that the idea still persists at the BBC of the Corporation pursuing a
Reithian role of impartial newscasting, cultural edification and so forth; any cor- responding idea of turning it into a com- mercial operation like the ITV companies being likewise unthinkable. My own view however is that so long as things go on as they do, privatisation will come to seem a more and more logical idea, especially at- tractive to a government which is finding it harder than it thought to cut taxes and which would therefore welcome a scheme which would save the average family about £50 a year in licence fees.
In this context, it ought to have dawned by now what a disastrous mistake it was to scrap the old-fashioned newscaster in the mould of Robert Dougall, Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall. If anything stood for the old-fashioned BBC rt was the authority with which the news was delivered. Bogus, perhaps, but vital to upholding the image of the BBC as an indispensable part of our na- tional life, like the C of E. But now at times of crisis and disaster, like the terrible Har- rods bombing before Christmas, it is especially noticeable how the BBC can no longer provide that reassuring note, especially when it is represented by the shifty-looking Welshman John Humphrys.
Christmas itself is another occasion on which the BBC, if it was fulfilling its tradi- tional role, would come into its own. It is a time when people like to be reminded of what they have in common and when even the irreligious don't mind being asked to reflect for a moment about the Incarnation and all the extraordinary consequences in terms of our civilisation that flowed from it. This year as far as BBC television was concerned there was not a single pro- gramme, apart from the standard Songs of Praise etc, which threw any light on these matters. You might think that, on the lowest level, a performance of the Messiah or the Christmas Oratorio could have been laid on: or that the Kings College Carol Ser- vice might have been televised. Not so. We did not even get the Christmas Oratorio on the radio.
Aside from its religious meaning Christmas ought to be a time for first-class films. Now that the films have become so bad this means old films — the older the better. The much maligned Channel 4 had the right idea by putting on M. Hulot's Holiday at 4.20 on Christmas Day. Exactly the right film at exactly the right time. But the BBC cannot even get this kind of thing right. In past years they have made a gesture in the right direction by putting on a Marx Brothers film, usually very late at night. This year some bright spark had the notion of putting on about six Marx Brothers films on successive days, all of them very late at night. Apart from the lateness of the hour, who on earth, except for a few ghastly film buffs, wants to see all the Marx Brothers films at once? One a year perhaps, as a Christmas treat but not all of them.
I feel certain that 1984 will see a great leap forward in the progress towards privatisation.
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