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‘Yes there is a problem. Yes we are correcting it’

2 May 2009

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In an exclusive interview, Sir Michael Lyons, the BBC chairman, talks to Matthew d’Ancona about the licence fee, the Ross-Brand affair — and hints at flexibility over funding

Not when those services include shouting obscenities down a phone at Andrew Sachs about sex with his granddaughter, they don’t. The Jonathan Ross-Russell Brand affair was arguably a more important event in the history of the BBC than the Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly. It established Radio 2 as the unlikely front line in a new culture war, and it forced the BBC to confront its priorities, its ethos and the exorbitant sums it was spending on potty-mouthed ‘talent’.

Sir Michael deploys language with the political caution of a man with decades behind him at the apex of local government and the Audit Commission. He says that ‘what you don’t want to do is squeeze out risk-taking’. But it is clear that the words ‘Ross’ and ‘Brand’ are still like the screech of fingernails on a blackboard, and he is unequivocal about where blame lies in that affair. ‘It actually showed,’ he says, ‘at a very senior level in the BBC, a dereliction of duty.’

A big review of editorial guidelines is underway. But what did the episode tell him viscerally? ‘My suspicion is that the one thing that is absolutely out of bounds is bullying and I think that was what people responded to, both in the Sachs case but also in the Gwyneth Paltrow case [Ross told the actress on his BBC1 show last year that he would ‘f*** her’]. Lots of people don’t like bad language at all but when bad language is used in combination with bullying, that’s a place where the BBC shouldn’t go.’

Sir Michael Lyons is, I suspect, one of those apparently diffident Englishmen who are capable of quietly menacing effectiveness. He is well aware of the BBC’s flaws and the fury, justified or otherwise, it is capable of inspiring. My hunch is that he will put his head above the parapet more and more. And, for what it is worth, I walked out on to Marylebone High Street a little more convinced that, for now, my £142.50 a year is in good hands.

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Roy

April 30th, 2009 10:22am Report this comment

Having read Francis Gilbert's 'Yob Nation', Theodore Dalrymple's 'Our Culture What's left of It', and last but not least Melanie Phillips 'Londonistan', any chairman of the BBC should seemingly resign forthwith. To have been at the helm of the nations premier cultural centrepiece must have known it's failure to grasp the responsibilities to promote an impartial public funded body was disgraceful. Unknowingly the public have promoted its own mindless cultural dismemberment. While receiving a sanitized, misguided, a left of centre interpretation of world news and events.

Merlyn

April 30th, 2009 10:24am Report this comment

What gets me about the BBC is the continual use of thousands of pounds in license payers money to bury the Balen Report.This report states unequivocally that the good old BBC is wholly biased in its documentaries and news reportage against Israel. These are standards that I am forced to uphold by my payment of their license fee ...or I don't get any telly.

David

April 30th, 2009 1:17pm Report this comment

"This report states unequivocally that "

Um, if the report is buried, how do you know what it states

itstrueekse

April 30th, 2009 2:23pm Report this comment

I live in Mandelaland but lived in London over the Millenium years. I refused to pay for a license and suffered 3 years of what can only be described as threatening abuse. I didn't refuse to watch BBC for any other eason than the BBC considered that I was a captive consumer with no other choice - obviously, in this world, a ridiculous proposition.
How can anybody now defend a compulsory license fee?

David Short

April 30th, 2009 5:20pm Report this comment

Not a very tough interview at all.

Don't let's forget D'Ancona receives more from the BBC than he pays to it in the licence fee.

Perhaps the Spectator should have sent an interviewer who is not a paid freelance broadcaster for the BBC.

robert

April 30th, 2009 9:02pm Report this comment

Thompson & Lyons need to address the simple point that the BBC's political output is indistinguishable from that of its house-newspaper version, The Guardian. No matter what subject is being covered on the Today programme, by whichever of its journalists, we ALWAYS know the viewpoint from which it will be addressed: lefty-liberal, big government, high tax, high immigration, crime-sympathising, multi-cultural, politically correct, mealy-mouthed bleeding heartdom. Is it any wonder that BBC journalists are on record as saying they celebrated Tony Blair's election victory with champagne?

Lyca

April 30th, 2009 9:52pm Report this comment

A question Mr D'Ancona forgot to ask:
If the BBC is an ad-free medium, why does it buy rights to sprting events which are festooned with adverts?

Tom

May 1st, 2009 9:44am Report this comment

This interview ignored the main problem with the BBC, its left of centrre cultural and policital bias. The Jay report, and that oddly named Wagon wheel report confirm this. And there is no external body to handle complaints about bias.
The BBC is a sort of ideological vatican, monocultural, committed to 'diversity', to furthering Islam, according to Lyon and the DG himself.
The BBC shapes and demonises opinion, it must be worth several marginals at any election, for Labour/Lib Dems.
But this interview ignored this, the main problem! Why should we pay for the broadcast arm of the the Guardian?

Martin

May 1st, 2009 1:40pm Report this comment

It's nonsense to keep funding the BBC in the way it has been for over 60 years.

The BBC is no longer the main player out there. Sky, Virgin, the internet etc all offer services that you can either get free or pay for what you want.

The BBC offers me a white English male very little. BBC programming is aimed at minorities and women. So let them pay for it.

Mike

May 1st, 2009 5:33pm Report this comment

I bought a television set last year and licenced it. The licence expired so I detuned the set. Brand and Ross were irrelevant to me; I don't watch as there is so much dross that I can't be bothered to sift through it for anything worth watching, on any channel. I'd rather read.

Twisted Root

May 2nd, 2009 10:35am Report this comment

This article is not so much 'champagne for the brain' as 'soma for the subnormal'.

Nick Chambers

May 3rd, 2009 9:31pm Report this comment

The licence fee should be abolished. Let's not kid ourselves that the BBC is a public service broadcaster. The BBC 6 O'Clock news for instance is puerile in the extreme. When it's not bashing the USA or any cause that doesn't adhere to its earnest sixth form view that is. The BBC is so out of touch it's painful.

james currin

December 11th, 2010 2:55am Report this comment

Yes, there is a problem. You are posting items from last April and May, in December. No, you are not correcting it. You are not posting the current crossword. Does anyone read the postings? Does anyone care? Is anyone home. Hello. . . Hello.

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