Welcome to part two of the story of the BBC. The Second World War is over, radio is booming and television is back. The BBC is stronger than ever, with new talent, new formats and new opportunities. But there are new challenges too: stormy waters over the Suez crisis and a brash new competitor in the form of ITV.
Under director general Hugh Carleton Greene, the BBC plugs into the revolutionary energy of the 1960s: Radio 1, Doctor Who, Cathy Come Home, That Was the Week That Was. Meanwhile, David Attenborough’s highbrow upstart BBC2 introduces the nation to colour TV and landmark documentaries. The 70s and 80s are a golden age for ratings, from Morecambe and Wise to Live Aid to EastEnders. Yet there’s also a looming existential crisis thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who loathes the corporation as the embodiment of the bloated state and centre-left groupthink. After the defenestration of DG Alasdair Milne, John Birt gives the BBC a Thatcherite makeover that fends off the Tory assault, but at what cost?
In the 21st century, the BBC has lived under the shadow of scandals, cuts and relentless salvos from the right — every blunder, from the Iraq War to Jimmy Savile, becomes another cudgel for its enemies to beat it with. Too successful and it’s accused of stifling competition. Not successful enough and it’s not worth the license fee. The crisis never ends. Yet more than nine in ten of us use it every week and would be devastated to lose it.
How has the BBC lived up to the Reithian imperative to inform, educate and entertain, and why did Reith himself end up hating it? How can an organisation so powerful be so vulnerable? Is its unruly pluralism a blessing or a curse? Is it really politically biased — and if so, in which direction? And who did Mary Whitehouse personally blame for Britain’s “moral collapse”? Tune in.
Reading list
Patrick Barwise and Peter York – The War Against the BBC (2020)
John Birt – The Harder Path: The Autobiography (2002)
Bill Cotton – Double Bill: 80 Years of Entertainment (2000)
Desert Island Discs with Sir Hugh Greene (1983)
Simon Elmes – And Now on Radio 4: A Celebration of the World’s Best Radio Station (2007)
Lionel Fielden – The Natural Bent (1960)
Grace Wyndham Goldie – Facing the Nation: Television and Politics 1936-1976 (1977)
David Hendy – The BBC: A People’s History (2022)
Charlotte Higgins – This New Noise: The Extraordinary Birth and Troubled Life of the BBC (2015)
Sam Knight – ‘Can the BBC Survive the British Government?’, New Yorker (2022)
Ian McIntyre – The Expense of Glory: A Life of John Reith (1993)
Eric Maschwitz – No Chip on My Shoulder (1957)
Hilda Matheson – Broadcasting (1933)
Joe Moran – Armchair Nation: An Intimate History of Britain in Front of the TV (2014)
JCW Reith – Broadcast Over Britain (1924)
JCW Reith – Into the Wind (1949)
Jean Seaton – Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the Nation 1974-1987 (2015)
Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Produced by Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production
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