The BBC is currently in negotiations with the Government, the objective being to agree upon the corporation's strategy and objectives in the coming years. The government believes that changes are needed while, perhaps naturally, the corporation believes it's wonderful as it is.
Looking at one day's television schedule should tell anyone who's interested where the rights and wrongs of this are. In fact, today's schedule, Wednesday 11th May, will do.
To start with, broadcasting begins on BBC 1 at 06:00 with 'Breakfast'. This pseudo-news programme lasts for over 3 hours with most of it's output being repeated every half hour or so; much of it is dedicated to what amounts to advertising for various special interests, often pop singers or actors, or even the BBC itself, promoting their latest 'blockbuster' songs, tours, shows, films or programmes. The news content is minimal, often much of it is yesterday's news and much is also covered on Radio 4, with the same people being interviewed for the same stories. This whole programme is basically unnecessary and is only on air in order to provide competition for ITV's 'Good Morning Britain' which is equally lightweight and rubbishy.
Following this start to the day, the morning continues with numerous lightweight consumer orientated tripe, much of it repeats. 'Homes under the Hammer', 'Neighbourhood Blues', 'Oxford Street Revisited', and 'Bargain Hunt', before the news at 13:00. Two of these programmes are repeats and none of them while 'Bargain Hunt' also continues the BBC's obsession with antiques programmes which really are well past their time. The 'News' is mostly a rehash of what was broadcast earlier during 'Breakfast'.
Next comes more drivel. 'Doctors', a shockingly 'PC' serial, followed by another obsession - a game show called 'The Code'. Then it's another consumer repeat in 'Escape to the Country' followed by what are three, yes three, more game shows - 'Money for Nothing', 'Put your Money where your Mouth Is', and Pointless'. On this day, two of these afternoon programmes are down as repeats, but there are days when everything seems to be repeated.
The evening schedule, while it tends to be less full of repeats is, instead, full of rubbish. The 18:00 'News' is usually much the same as earlier broadcasts and is followed by 'The One Show', an amalgam of drivel. This is another opportunity for the promotion of those in the media plus assorted 'socially' orientated bits and pieces. 'Lightweight' doesn't suffice, this is really 'flyweight' television. Tonight, we are then treated to the 'Invictus Games' at 20:00, hardly prime time entertainment, and this is followed by 'Nature's Epic Journey's at 21:00. This latter programme is no doubt scheduled on the back of an expected boost to viewer's interest in such programmes because of David Attenborough's 90th birthday, but it's nothing more than yet another wildlife programme, another BBC obsession. Sadly for viewers, this one is presented by Liz Bonnin, a woman who has an incredibly annoying style and voice but who now appears all too often.
At 22:00 it's another opportunity to rehash the, by now, very tired old 'News', though usually with some that's a little more up to date, and then the evening really goes downhill. 'A Question of Sport', a programme that used to be interesting and amusing but is now so dumbed down as to be no more than puerile and crude. After that, it's 'I Want My Wife Back', a new comedy show that has drawn mixed reviews but, on limited viewing, seems to be an excruciatingly dreadful programme and is, anyway, another repeat. Finally, we get to 23:45 and a repeat of more puerile rubbish in 'Live at the Apollo'. For the rest of the night, there is a continuous 'News' broadcast, though one has to wonder why this is necessary.
The story on BBC2 is even worse. This opens up at 06:15 with a repeat of 'Neighbourhood Blues' followed by a repeat of 'Homes under the Hammer'. At 08:00, it's 'Sign Zone' which usually has repeats of old programmes, but with signing for the deaf. 09:00 brings us 'Victoria Derbyshire', why, I have no idea. This is an egregious load of rubbish, part news, part chat and seemingly aimed at a female audience, almost as televised 'Woman's Hour', except that this goes on for 2 hours. Then we get another 30 minutes of 'News', more repeats from earlier on BBC1, followed by the highlight of the day, 'The Daily Politics'. Andrew Neil is, without doubt, the best political broadcaster around and his knowledge and skills are perfectly displayed here; the coverage of 'Prime Minister's Questions' is always interesting if not exciting, but Neil's astute and detailed questioning of his guests is frequently a delight.
Sadly, the rest of the afternoon does not live up to these heights. Repeats of 'Pressure Pad', a game show, 'My Life on a Plate', a celebrity food programme, 'The TV that Made Me' , an opportunity for supposed celebrities to gain media exposure, and 'Holiday of My Lifetime with Len Goodman', yet another programme for pseudo-celebrities - dear, oh dear. 15:45 brings a repeat of 'Indian Ocean with Simon Reeve' followed by 'Great British Railway Journeys' an excellent programme but yet another repeat. This is followed by another repeat of another antiques programme 'Flog It', 'Eggheads' which is more often a repeat than not, and 'Big Blue UK', a wildlife programme and yet another repeat.
Whoopee ! At 19;00 it's not a repeat, but it is another antiques programme, with 'Antiques Road Trip'; then come the evening's highlights, with Horizon looking at research into Alzheimer's disease, followed by Mary Beard's examination of the Roman Empire in 'Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome; Empire without Limit'. Next it's what promise to be a pretty awful piece of so-called comedy with 'Cunk on Shakespeare, and then it's 'Newsnight' which, while not a repeat is usually highly repetitive in its content and coverage of current issues. The night ends with yet more repeats, this time of the 'Hairy Bikers' followed by another foray into 'Sign Zone' until 02:45. At least BBC2 then goes off the air until 06:00 on Thursday.
This diet of repeats, 'celebrity' programmes, outdated topics and rehashed and repeated news surely tells us all we need to know about BBC television. If we exclude news, politics and chat shows, more than 36 hours of broadcasting contains around 10 hours of original programming, much of which is pretty outdated and less than inspiring. That the hierarchy of the corporation can possibly believe that this is a satisfactory or suitable output for a national broadcaster beggars belief. The BBC is ripe for change, and massive change at that.
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