That’s rich..
Beeb plug Cliff’s disc despite court case bill
THE BBC has defended its decision to debut the Cliff Richard single inspired by his privacy case against the corporation.
Sir Cliff, 77, said Rise Up represented his “bad times” which ended in the BBC being ordered to pay him €235,000 damages and €950,000 towards legal costs. The record was released one month after his court win over the corporation’s 2014 coverage of a raid on his home by police probing an historic child sexual assault claim.
Some listeners complained after the song made its world debut on Radio 2’s Ken Bruce show. But a spokesman for the station said: “The BBC has often featured Cliff Richard’s music throughout his career and nothing has changed.
“Radio 2 premiered Cliff ’s new record as we thought that our audience would like to hear it.” The singer – who was never arrested or charged and saw the investigation dropped in 2016 – was also interviewed on the Radio 2 show.
He said Rise Up felt personal as he had “managed to rise up out of what seemed like a quagmire” following his “bad period”. The song’s lyrics say: “They’re never gonna break me down, they’re never gonna take me down, they know I’m gonna rise up feeling stronger”. One listener wrote on social media after the song’s Radio 2 debut o n Wednesday: “After being sued by Cliff Richard, why have the BBC just interviewed him on BBC Radio2? I presume that they used licence-payers money to pay the court case.”
Another said: “If he was so traumatised, why is he on Radio 2? If the BBC had behaved like that to me I wouldn’t give them the time of day.”
Sir Cliff’s representatives did not comment. New single