Prime time no place for arts, says BBC boss

Broadcaster must focus on story-telling ‘that people want to watch’ instead of niche interests

‘We do have to try and find things that will play at eight o’ clock and appeal to all sorts of broader audiences’

‘[The BBC cannot simply offer audiences an] esoteric arts chat. It has an obligation to make TV that people want to watch’

THE BBC needs to make mainstream programmes instead of offering an “esoteric arts chat”, its head of cultural commissioning has said.

Mark Bell said programming now had to be made to appeal to broad audiences in prime-time slots, as opposed to catering only for niche cultural interests.

The BBC cannot simply offer audiences an “esoteric arts chat”, Mr Bell has argued, saying that the broadcaster had an obligation to “make TV that people want to watch”. He added that “TV is more about great stories”, and producing programmes with great story-telling would ultimately attract a wider audience to arts TV.

He spoke alongside fellow commissioners at a Royal Television Society event discussing whether or not the British public were enjoying a “golden age” for arts television.

Mr Bell, a former Newsnight producer and BBC4 executive, suggested that a golden age for arts TV could be seen as the 1990s, when there were a slew of “post-newsnight” culture programmes.

But the audiences for these late-night shows were “capped”, he said, and limited to arts devotees dedicated enough “to stay up and watch it”.

He added that while he supports experimental productions at the BBC, such as an award-winning Delia Derbyshire docudrama, the broadcaster had an obligation to provide mainstream shows catering to prime-time viewers on BBC One and Two.

Mr Bell said: “We do have to try and find things that will play at eight o’clock and appeal to all sorts of broader audiences.”

While he stressed the need for broad appeal, he added that changes at the BBC could mean that arts programming was no longer relegated to being “just on at quarter past 11” like long-cancelled culture roundups Newsnight Review and The Review Show.

A similar recent iteration is Front Row Late, hosted by Mary Beard, which covers conversations on the arts.

Mr Bell has said there was still a place for dedicated arts programming online which might struggle to deliver on prime-time ratings, including the work of BBC Four regular Ms Beard.

Mr Bell said he was concerned by the ratings performance of art history series Civilisations when it originally aired in 2018, because by episode six the programme co-presented by Ms Beard was still failing to draw in viewers, but its long stint on iplayer had since allowed it to find an audience.

His comments come after a raft of changes to the BBC’S approach to its arts output, with its main culture channel BBC Four shifting focus from making original content earlier this year.

It was announced in March that the channel – known for its original documentaries on music, visual art, and history – would “become the home of the most distinctive content from across the BBC’S archive”.

The relegation of BBC Four confirmed fears for the future of arts output on the BBC, with a source claiming that cultural programming had already been “ghettoised” as executives focused on attracting an elusive youth demographic.

Concerns were also raised in 2020 that condensing all arts content into limited slots on channels like BBC Two would squeeze places for programmes and presenters, diminishing the broadcaster’s range of cultural output.

A BBC spokesman said: “BBC Arts is for everyone and prides itself on creating high-quality arts programmes for a wide range of audiences, from BBC Two programmes like Between the Covers and Inside Culture, to documentaries and performances on BBC Four such as recent programmes on Hemingway and Delia Derbsyhire and Salt by Selina Thompson.”