Watching the increasingly bleak and depressing Peep Show the other night I was pleased to note that my on-screen alter ego Mark Corrigan is a big fan of Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, which is I think my all-time favourite documentary. To me Civilisation, and the then controller of BBC2 who commissioned it, David Attenborough, represent what the BBC should be, and is at its best: a strangely Freudian father figure to the nation, erudite, intelligent, open-minded and very British.
The BBC was a product of a strong national culture, but it also helped to further cement it, making events like the Proms or FA Cup final part of our collective experience. When people my age move away from Britain it’s things like the Grandstand soundtrack that really prove evocative in reminding them of home.
Yet the world in which Lord Reith established the BBC has gone, and so it is harder to justify the expense and domination of a corporation that now reflects the values and concerns of a relatively smallish group of the population.
The fact that the Beeb is attacked by everyone, whether it’s the left or right, Scots or English, reflects the fact that we have become a far more diverse country, and that most people no longer share much in common with that elite.
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