More choices, but after 100 years BBC reigns supreme

When the BBC celebrated their 50th anniversary in 1972, there were just three national TV channels, two of which were run by the BBC and four national BBC wireless services. BBC local radio was very much in its infancy and confined to urban areas. 

How different the world of broadcasting is as the BBC marks its centenary: at least fifty free -to-air channels, plus thirty-five satellite and cable channels. There are also multiple streaming services, thousands of podcast and YouTube channels and each one of us can send moving and speaking messages around the world in an instant. As we found out during the Covid lockdown, even the smallest church can run a weekly broadcast.

Between 1922 and well into the 1950s, the BBC was very much on its own in the UK, albeit with competition from Radio Luxembourg and propaganda services such as Radio Moscow and the wartime Germany Calling. Yet, despite this recent competition, the BBC continues to dominate much of our viewing and listening.  It created the ethos for public service broadcasting which is consciously observed, or ignored, around the world. The BBC’s history is worth understanding.

How the BBC Began (BBC2) takes us back to the very early days of broadcasting when fledgling radio services were eventually handed over to the paternal care of John Reith, the son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister. There was no template and Reith’s team had to start many programme and service ideas from scratch. A lovely interview from former Prime Minister Edward Heath revealed the excitement that he and many other children in the 1920s and 1930s had experienced as they heard live voices and music broadcast into their living rooms for the first time.

The BBC didn’t always get it right. The rolling news format had yet to be invented but that is exactly what happened on the fateful evening in 1963 when President Kennedy was shot. Confusion and chaos reigned behind the scenes but for those of us in the bar of the Bermondsey Territorial Army Drill Hall,  the news and comment filtered through as we absorbed the news. No one who saw it will ever forget the edition of the satirical programme ‘That Was The Week That Was’ the following evening. 

BBC TV brought us some special moments to mark its centenary: King Charles appeared on The Repair Shop (BBC1), the contestants of Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1) had to make the best of various BBC programme theme tunes, and BBC 4 devoted an entire week’s evening programming to replaying over fifty situation comedies from the last forty years.

It was BBC radio which devoted some serious time to reflect on the role of the BBC, especially in those critical first decades of its existence.  Archive on 4: The Battle of the Brows (Radio 1) detailed the very real strains and stresses within the BBC during the 1930s as they tried to live up to John Reith’s mantra that their role was to “inform, educate and entertain”. The concept of people of intelligence and education as having “high brows” and the rest of us, was part of the cod science of phrenology which emerged in the nineteenth century. Some in the BBC believed that opening the sounds of the concert hall and theatre to all would enable millions more to enjoy the finer arts. Others were convinced that there needed to be programmes which were aimed at different audiences. This led to the creation of two services which opened shortly before the war: The Home Service and The Light Programme.  The Third Programme was started within fourteen months of the cessation of hostilities and was seen as a force for good by focussing on the arts. During my time in BBC local radio, I was very conscious that our training and the station management were constantly trying to keep a delicate balance between popular culture and serious local issues.

Sunday Worship (Radio 4) is commemorating the BBC centenary with a visit to the highest peaks in the UK. Radzi Chinyanganya and Reverend Grace Thomas started with Scafell Pike in the Pennines. Admittedly I was driving on the motorway with a very heavy storm raging around me, so I may not have been paying enough attention, but it left me feeling “is that it?”.  They talked about the benefit of praying on a mountainside, always a special blessing, and then talked about “hope” without mentioning Jesus. In fact, the only time Jesus was mentioned, as far as I can remember, was a reference to “Our saviour” to introduce the Lord’s Prayer and another reference to “the Son” in the blessing. My fears were confirmed when they played out to William Blake’s mystic and speculative “Jerusalem”; great song, but not a Christian hymn. 

James Bond aka the actor Daniel Craig and I have our shoes handmade at Crockett and Jones in Northampton. It isn’t cheap, but the shoes last much longer than the imported stuff on the high street.  The OO7 Shoe Factory: We Are England (BBC1) went behind the scenes and showed us the skill and patience that went into every pair. It was especially encouraging to know that they regularly employ apprentices who they train  to keep this British industry alive. There used to be 250 firms of shoemakers in Northampton, now there are just seven firms left. It was good to see such a happy workforce.