The BBC should stick to its founding values

SIR – According to Anne Bulford, the BBC’S deputy director-general: “There is a real risk that British stories that speak directly to British audiences will reduce and that over time, if we allow that to happen, our British sense of identity will weaken” (report, March 9).

However, the BBC needs to consider what British identity is. The Collateral miniseries, for example, was an expensive display of political correctness on steroids.

The BBC does some things very well. On June 16 2012, it broadcast a fantastic dramatisation of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Much of the content on BBC Four television is excellent. However, most of Radio 4 is like an audio version of The Guardian.

I agree with your suggestion (leading article, March 9) that the BBC should stick to its core Reithian mission: to educate, inform and entertain. The BBC is a public-service broadcaster, and it should not be seeking to compete with commercial rivals by frittering away millions of pounds on misnamed “talent”, and on making programmes that diminish, rather than enhance, the nation’s cultural and intellectual sensibilities.

Dr Nicholas Dobson

Doncaster, South Yorkshire

SIR – In your report, “BBC favourites face the axe” (March 7), you printed a group picture of the presenters of Gardeners’ World. There were eight.

When I started watching this programme, there were just two: Percy Thrower and Arthur Billitt. There has been similar “presenter inflation” on other programmes, such as Countryfile.

Don Hadfield

Cardiff

SIR – Anne Bulford has a nerve to say that the BBC needs to join forces with its commercial rivals in Britain to take on American programme-makers such as Netflix and Amazon.

For the past 20 years, the BBC has been putting smaller rivals, such as local newspapers and radio stations, out of business by using its money from the licence fee to stifle the opposition with its local news websites.

David Stanley

London SW6