A A Gill on the BBC

Were he not someone whose intellect and writing I admire, I would not bother to comment on Gill's article "Why Our TV Is In My Sights" in today's Sunday Times (£), except to say that I had not realised how very like Charlton Heston he looks when he takes off his specs and dresses outdoorsy, complete with rifle.

For my generation, there were two incontrovertible British beliefs: we had the best bobbies in the world, and the BBC was the best television in the world [surely the NHS being the "envy of the world" was another?] . . . . So, of Lord Reith's famous troika mission statement, the BBC is still alpha plus at information and education.

Wot? How can he possibly believe that? Since at latest the mid 1970s (when any illusions about our wunnerful bobbies went down the toilet as the judges ripped apart the police SOP of fitting people up), the BBC has been relentlessly committed to an agenda well to the left of centre. Even honest leftists admit it, and recognize that it is bad for democracy.

It's very odd that Gill, who accurately describes "the tired old agitprop aspirations of exposing socially infuriating subjects with a liberal shrillness" that infects the BBC's "entertainment" output, fails to see that the same ethos pollutes its news and documentary product as well.