Episodes
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Sir Richard Eyre, the renowned theatre and film director, who has served as a BBC Governor, shares his concerns over the cuts to radio drama programming, the broader challenges facing the BBC's cultural remit, the tensions between the BBC's public service mission and commercial pressures, and role of the BBC in nurturing and sustaining the UK's cultural landscape.
"I would say the BBC is the most important cultural organisation in the world, and the Director-General of the BBC should be standing up, saying that, and putting his heart and soul and practical application into making sure that the BBC lived up to that proclamation. Well, they don’t, and they’ve pitifully ignored the arts. They've cut the arts department in television, and now, they're cutting drama on in radio."
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Conservative MP, Dame Caroline Dinenage is the Chair of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee. We discuss the upcoming debates around the renewal of the BBC's charter, the crucial issues of the corporation's funding, impartiality, and role in public service broadcasting, as well as the future of the BBC World Service and the Greg Wallace revelations.
“We're entering a winter period when there's a number of pensioners who've just had their winter fuel tax removed, when energy prices are rising because the energy fuel cap has come to end, and to suddenly find that you've your licence fee’s going up as well. I just thought the timing was unfortunate.”
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Missing episodes?
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Peter York is a cultural commentator, author, and former Style Editor of Harper's & Queen magazine. He is best known for co-authoring the iconic Official Sloane Ranger Handbook in the 1980s. More recently, Peter has shifted his focus to more serious topics, including co-authoring The War Against the BBC with Professor Patrick Barwise.
This week, we discuss Peter’s latest book, A Dead Cat on Your Table, which delves into the world of "culture wars," the role of media personalities, influencers, and think tanks. We also explore Elon Musk's potential $100 million donation to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party and assess the extent to which the BBC is constrained in addressing "culture war" issues due to government pressure and funding concerns.
“It's the one structural fault that dates from the 20s. The government has too much power over the BBC’s funding and too much power over the BBC in other ways too. And you look at the manipulations of the last decade, and you can absolutely see that.”
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Andrew Greystone, writer and broadcaster, has played a pivotal role in exposing the abuse committed by John Smythe within the Church of England. In this discussion, he addresses the ongoing debate around the assisted dying bill, the media's approach to religion in ethical discussions, and the decline of religious literacy among journalists. He also shares the story behind uncovering Smythe’s abuse, the Church of England’s response, and discloses further revelations are set to break next year.
“I know that there are at least three major church abuse stories affecting the Anglican Church that will break in 2025. Now Lambeth Palace knows that as well; the Church of England knows that as well. Why do they want to wait for everything to be dragged out of them, rather than putting it on the table?"
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Roger Mosey, a former Editorial Director of the BBC, Head of TV News, and Director of Sport, discusses his lecture to the Commonwealth Journalists Association on the challenges facing public service media, the mainstream media's lack of understanding of political landscapes in the UK and US, clickbait, interactivity and audience connections, as well as cuts and talent drain at the BBC.
"The BBC’s Charter says it must engage the public to a very high standard with the issues of the day and inform our democracy. And that's non-negotiable. It's got to do it, and it does many times do that. It doesn't do it enough, and I think its political coverage is particularly weak. Why? Because the Westminster bubble dominates the political coverage, and there's too much about who's up, who's down, and there's too much about short-term headlines."
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Professor Catherine Johnson from the University of Leeds discusses her role on the recently announced DCMS committee, which is examining the future of TV distribution. New research indicates that some viewers could be excluded from the general shift towards online viewership. We also explore the rise of YouTube, ways to ensure access to public service content, and how a household tax might work.
“There is a ticking time bomb here, to be honest, in relation to digital terrestrial. So most other countries have upgraded their digital terrestrial infrastructure, or committed to upgrading their digital terrestrial infrastructure.”
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Steven Barnett, Professor of Communications at the University of Westminster, discusses BBC Chair Samir Shah's inaugural speech. We explore what devolving, democratising, and depoliticising means, loosening regulation, re-evaluating the roles and remits of other public service broadcasters, and alternative funding models.
“I'm not sure a permanent charter is the way to go, but I think some kind of independent body to whom the responsibility is devolved for making funding decisions and for appointing the BBC chair, I would incidentally add the Ofcom chair, which is accountable to Parliament but is out of the control of government. I think those are really important changes that are necessary.”
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@BeebRoger
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Jamie Angus is the former director of the BBC World Service and the former editor of 'Today' and 'Newsnight' who now works in the Middle East. We discuss what the budget announcement means for funding of the World Service, why HardTalk makes the world 'a less stupid place', original journalism, the unintended consequences of commercialisation and US election and Middle East coverage.
"The BBC is not protecting its essential news services enough when it comes to allocating the cuts. The case for the BBC’s existence relies on its utterly distinctive public service remit.”
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Richard Sambrook, former Director of BBC News and the World Service, and now an Emeritus Professor of journalism at Cardiff University discusses the challenges the BBC faces in dealing with the rise of disinformation, the balance between free speech and responsibility, the BBC's 'follow the sun' strategy, World Service funding and the impact of budget cuts on BBC News.
"I do have the concern that what sometimes gets lost in the mix is the depth and significance of BBC journalism, as opposed to simply competing with what everyone else is doing. I'm sure if I were to talk to Deborah Turness or anyone else, they would come up with a whole list of examples that would illustrate how they are maintaining depth and significance. But I think, to the public, when they look at some of these cuts, that’s what worries people."
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In the same week that BBC Director General Tim Davie pitched for an increase in government funding for the BBC World Service, while simultaneously axing the global interview programme Hard Talk in another round of cuts, we speak with Gareth Benest, Director of Advocacy at the International Broadcasting Trust. We discuss the decline in international coverage by UK broadcasters, his analysis of the shrinking breadth of countries featured in news and current affairs programming, and the potential impact of new media legislation, algorithms, and public service broadcasting.
“Last year, it surprised me that there was, as far as I could see from the logging that I did of linear schedules, there was not a single programme outside of news broadcasts about Rwanda. The most spoken about African country, perhaps in the history of UK media, last year, there wasn't a single documentary. There wasn't a single current affairs programme that actually gave UK citizens an opportunity to understand the country.”
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On our 100th episode anniversary we talk to another journalist who has started out on a new venture. The Guardian’s former media editor, Jim Waterson, has set up London Centric, a news outlet focused on in-depth coverage of London. We discuss his reasons for taking this step, the challenges traditional media faces, billionaires owning media outlets, the sale of The Observer, regulation, adapting to modern consumption habits and the merging of public service broadcasters.
“I'm sure, Beeb Watch listeners are very aware of Project Kangaroo and the missed opportunities of the late 2000s when there was a plan to combine all the public service broadcasters in one streamer that would have gazumped Netflix. I think that's the sort of radical thinking you should be looking at with this licence fee negotiation.”
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Mark Urban spent many years as the diplomatic and defence editor at BBC Newsnight before leaving in May, after 34 years at the corporation. Prior to joining the BBC, Mark was the defence correspondent for The Independent newspaper for four years. He is the author of several military books and served briefly in the British Army. He is now a writer for The Sunday Times. We discuss allegations of BBC bias against Israel in its Middle East coverage, the challenges and cultural biases in reporting conflicts, changes made to Newsnight, and his life after the BBC.
“If you put those two things together, which is a tight focus on victims and a scepticism about the ethicacy of the military instrument, then it's pretty obvious in this current situation that Israel is going to have problems. And I think this is more to do with the way that journalists as a sort of cohort or professional culture define a story, and less to do actually, specifically with the BBC.”
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The controversial Asserson Report sparked headlines in The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail for its critique of the BBC's Middle East coverage at the height of the Israel-Hamas war. The report has drawn both praise and sharp criticism. We’re joined by the report's author, British-Israeli lawyer Trevor Asserson, to discuss its origins, funding, methodology and its interpretation of impartiality.
“I think the faults that we've demonstrated are probably found throughout the BBC’s coverage of other news stories as well. It's very unlikely that they're being impartial elsewhere, but I can tell you that they're not impartial in their coverage of this story.”
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Journalist and broadcaster David Aaronovitch worked for the BBC in a senior capacity before becoming a columnist for The Times and the presenter of numerous radio programs, including Radio 4’s The Briefing Room. He now publishes longer articles on Substack under Notes from the Underground and contributes to Tortoise Media. In this episode, we discuss the fallout from the Jewish Chronicle scandal, where fabricated articles led David and other prominent writers to resign. We also explore accusations of BBC bias in its coverage of the Israel-Gaza war, and the broader challenges facing journalism today.
“If you want to look at lack of balance in the world, look at what's reported and what isn't reported, and how what's not reported is effectively given a kind of second or third class status. I regard this as a big journalistic problem.”
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Richard Ayre spent thirty-five years at the BBC, serving as the former controller of editorial policy, deputy chief executive of BBC News, and a BBC Trustee. Richard is also a former member of the OFCOM Content Board and is currently the chair of the UK's independent press regulator, Impress.
We discuss BBC Director-General Tim Davie and BBC Chair Dr. Samir Shah’s appearance before the House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee, where they were scrutinised for their handling of the Huw Edwards scandal and local news. Their views on BBC funding and governance were also revealed.
“I think paying him the additional annual increment was indefensible—completely indefensible—and there was no legal risk at all.”
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Sir Trevor Phillips presents Sky TV’s Sunday Morning programme and is a columnist for The Times newspaper. He was previously a reporter on the Thames TV This Week, head of current affairs for London Weekend Television, Chair of the London Assembly, Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, and Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, as well as having run several businesses.
In the first episode of our seventh series we discuss why Trevor never became a BBC staffer, what the events over the summer revealed about the culture of the BBC, the BBC's approach to ethnic minorities, multiculturalism, his career, his friendship with the Chair of the BBC, Samir Shah, and the importance of public service media and local coverage.
"We're talking on the day that the Grenfell Inquiry Report is going to be published. There is no way in a million years that Grenfell, 30 years ago, would not have been a story before the fire, because, certainly, the programme that I presented, the ITV London programme, would have been all over it, year after year."
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Sir Peter Bazalgette was until recently part of the previous Government’s committee to review how the BBC was funded. In his distinguished career he has been responsible for shows such as Big Brother, Changing Rooms and Ready Steady Cook, he’s also a former chair of Arts Council England and in September 2023 he stepped down as chair of ITV. He is now co-chair of the Creative Council. On this week’s programme we discussed the Media Act (was anything left out), BBC funding and the future of public service broadcasters.
I see Freely, which has recently been launched as an online way of getting all the public service broadcasting in a streaming service, I see that is just the beginning. I think there needs to be further mergers. And it'll be interesting to see what happens to Channel Five. Now that it looks like the owners Paramount are selling out, because I don't think it's going to be a priority for the new American owners. And it may well change hands in the next six to nine months.
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Academics from Loughborough University’s Centre for Research in Communication and Culture have conducted news audits for every General Election since 1992, and their audit for this election is out now. We talked to one of its authors, Professor Dominic Wring, about whether the public was well served by the media, whether legacy media still has a role when against social digital media, populism, media bias, media scholarship and devolution.
"When we talk about people getting news from social media, when they're talking about that, often those are things that are recycled from legacy sources."
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Dame Elan Closs Stephens was the acting chair of the BBC after the resignation of Richard Sharp in June last year until her retirement in March. She was a member of the BBC’s governing body since 2010, first serving as Member for Wales on the BBC Trust, until its dissolution in 2017, and then as the Welsh member of the BBC Board.
On this week's episode we discussed what Dame Elan would like from a new Culture Secretary, her tenure as chair, impartiality, budget cuts and the decision making process, BBC future funding and regulation, Ofcom, BBC election coverage and appointment of BBC chairs.
“I would like to go for some sort of cross party commission, I think it would give the chair more freedom to embrace, to be seen to be embracing different sides.”
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Olivia O’Leary has been a television and radio broadcaster on both the BBC, ITV and RTÉ – the Irish public service broadcaster in her native Ireland. In 1985, Olivia became the first female presenter on BBC’s Newsnight. She later returned to Ireland, presenting once again ‘Today Tonight’ – RTÉ’s flagship current affairs programme. She has also presented BBC Radio 4’s ‘Between Ourselves’ and delivered a regular column on RTÉ Radio 1’s drive time.
This week, we get an Irish perspective on the UK election, discuss the complex relationships between Ireland and the UK, and examine how RTÉ, the Irish public service broadcaster, is faring after a series of scandals and the challenges they are facing with funding. Also, as a former presenter, Olivia shares her views on the changes to Newsnight and the future of journalism.
“The government has refused to make a decision on the future funding of public service media, and particularly RTÉ. They've kept putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. Our old licence fee system, because of the scandals last year, is now under enormous pressure. One fifth of people never paid it anyway. And even a bigger percentage don't pay it now.”
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