Lord Grade: BBC luvvies made total idiots of themselves

FORMER BBC chairman Lord Grade has said that the ‘luvvies’ who criticised ministers’ plans for the broadcaster made ‘complete idiots’ of themselves.

The Conservative peer said the recent Government white paper on the future of the BBC has turned out to be an ‘amazing deal’ for the corporation and gave its commercial rivals nothing.

Lord Grade, 73, said it ‘demeans’ stars such as Peter Kosminsky and Mark Rylance – who hijacked the Bafta TV Awards with speeches defending the BBC – not to apologise given the ‘good result’.

He told The Guardian: ‘I do think that all the luvvies have made complete idiots of themselves. Bleeding all over the TV screen. Honestly, you’d think they’d have the good grace to speak out and say, “We were wrong”.’

The white paper, published earlier this month, told the corporation to consider axing long-running daytime shows such as Bargain Hunt and Homes Under The Hammer in order to focus on ‘more ambitious’ programmes. It also called on the BBC to stop chasing ratings at peak times. In exchange, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale agreed to give the BBC a new 11-year Royal Charter that safeguards the licence fee until 2028.

At the Baftas, days before the white paper’s pub-

‘Should have the good grace to say they were wrong’

lication, Wolf Hall star Rylance, 56, described the BBC as ‘the mothership of the whole profession’.

Wolf Hall director Kosminsky compared Government intervention to what happens in ‘those bastions of democracy: Russia or North Korea’ and added: ‘This is really scary stuff – not something I thought I’d see in my lifetime in this country.’

Tory MP Philip Davies said afterwards: ‘They were making some hysterical warnings about things the Government aren’t even proposing. It was pathetic.’

Lord Grade, who was chairman of the BBC from 2004 to 2006, said of the white paper: ‘The only criticism I would have is that they haven’t really looked at the sheer size of the BBC.’

He also put his weight behind the privatisation of Channel 4, of which he was chief executive for a decade until 1997. This is despite fighting off two attempts to do this while he was in charge.

The peer, who was later executive chairman of ITV, also spoke of his outrage that the EU referendum’s official Out campaign Vote Leave threatened legal action against ITV for choosing Nigel Farage, of rival group Grassroots Out, to take part in a TV debate instead one of their own senior figures. He said it was political bullying, adding: ‘It’s just not acceptable.’