"The BBC Stinks"

In the last year alone, there have been many splendid programmes about railways broadcast on the telly [not including Trainspotting Live, perhaps] and almost all of them, including the series by Michael Portillo, have been on the BBC.

However, as a youngster, the BBC meant nothing to me. It did not play my music. Instead, I twiddled for hours with the dials of my dad’s radio trying to keep Radio Luxemburg tuned in, as it slowly crackled into and out of the adjacent programmes on the waveband, while evening turned to night.

Salvation came in the form of Radio Caroline North [1964-1968]. The pirate station operated from an old light ship moored in the Irish Sea, near the Isle of Man. We identified strongly with Caroline and its cool DJs, like Tony Prince and Mike Ahern, and we thought of it as our radio station.

In fact, radio had become a bit of a free for all. One guy set up his own radio station in a bed-sit in Seacombe, from where he took on the Postmaster General, lambasted the established providers and officialdom in general. “This is Radio Two Five Five. The BBC stinks. Long live the voice of free radio.”

That was never going to last, but unfortunately neither did Caroline. The Government took action, the BBC eventually realised they were not really up to speed as far as catering for a young audience was concerned and that led to the setting up of Radio 1.  

Today the BBC today seems to be under attack from all quarters. Since the early 1960s, I have always turned first to the BBC - for news, current affairs, sport, comedy and drama. Throughout its existence, people around the world, including many denied their own freedom, have clung to the world service broadcasts as a trusted voice of truth and reason. Equally, the BBC is revered abroad, like the NHS, as an example of what is best about Britain. The idea that a tax-funded, national institution can retain political independence and not simply be a mouthpiece of the state has, surely, never been so marked elsewhere as it has been at the BBC.

The BBC has always been accused of bias. I know people who see it as an establishment tool helping to maintain the status quo, and those who view it as being full of trendy lefties, whose sole purpose is to stir things up and push their own radical agenda. It is partly because these views are so forcefully held on both sides that I think the BBC is probably getting it about right.

The BBC remains my default position as far as media is concerned. Its journalists are generally expert communicators who pursue accountability from policy makers on all sides. The BBC is a mainstay of daily life in this country and a reassuring presence for me. It offers a counterbalance to the opinions of the most prominent newspapers, who tend to take sides, politically.

I’ve watched the Last Night of the Proms every year since my folks first ran it past me. I know it’s a very “establishment” event – nationalistic, even jingoistic, in tone, but the music is brilliant. I can make the distinction. The BBC is now under attack for supposed anti-Brexit propaganda because a pianist wore an EU lapel badge and because part of Beethoven’s Ninth symphony, “Ode to Joy,” written in 1824, but also used today as the EU anthem, was played during the current season of concerts.

With democracy comes freedom within the law, pluralism, reasoned argument and tolerance. If the BBC were ever to be cowed by such ludicrous attempts at censorship by external forces, it would be a dark day indeed. Far from stinking, the BBC usually comes up smelling of roses. It just reeks of cultural excellence. Like the railways, it is an important part of our heritage and is well worth fighting for.