Auntie’s new elitism
WITH lofty condescension, BBC boss James Purnell pledges to eradicate ‘elitism’ from documentaries (though what a former career politician knows about making television programmes is anyone’s guess). To back his case, he cites the Corporation’s 2017 remake of Kenneth Clark’s 1969 series, Civilisation – to be renamed Civilisations in the plural, which presumably means it will give equal billing to non-Western cultures.
‘It won’t be the Auntie that dispensed culture from on high,’ he says. ‘It will be much more a thoughtful friend, prodding us to keep our resolutions, helping us ask and find answers.’
Yes, erudite Lord Clark was certainly an elitist – though that didn’t stop Civilisation becoming a smash hit in 60 countries.
But isn’t the new-style, ‘we-know-best’, politically correct BBC every bit as elitist in its way, constantly prodding us to reach its own liberal-Left conclusions?
Indeed, does anyone better epitomise that elitism than Mr Purnell himself, the New Labourite who slid effortlessly from the Cabinet into his top job at the ‘politically impartial’ BBC?
A BBC boss has pledged to banish ‘elitism’ from the broadcaster’s programmes.
The Corporation’s radio chief James Purnell, a former Labour cabinet minister, said it would no longer ‘dispense culture from on high’ – instead taking the position of a ‘thoughtful friend’ in a bid to broaden its appeal to viewers and listeners.
The move will see the remaking of Kenneth Clark’s popular Civilisation series to move away from the idea of audiences being dictated to by a single expert. In a blog post, Mr Purnell argued that the BBC should modernise by helping audiences to find answers themselves, rather than lecturing them from a position of authority.
‘The BBC that turns a hundred [in 2022] will have come a long way from its beginnings. It won’t be the Auntie that dispensed culture from on high,’ he wrote.
‘ It will be much more of a thoughtful friend. Prodding us to keep our resolutions, helping us ask and find answers. Just as any friendship, it will be mutual. With our audiences asking the questions, helping choose and curate, reflecting and taking part.’
He added: ‘We can’t turn the clock back and we would not want to even if we could. We can try, though, to get the best of both worlds ... Expertise, without the elitism.’
The £ 295,000- a- year BBC executive has himself benefited from a certain amount of elitism in the past.
In 2013 the BBC controversially named him director of strategy and digital without ever advertis- ing the position. Last year it did the same again, anointing Mr Purnell as director of radio and education without advertising the role, even though he had no radio broadcasting experience.
The Oxford-educated former politician had previously served as secretary of state for culture, media and sport, and later as work and pensions secretary, under Gordon Brown. Mr Purnell’s declaration would mark a major shift for the BBC, which describes its remit as being to ‘inform, educate and entertain’.
He said it means that major series like Civilisation belong to a bygone era.
The 1969 documentary series outlined the history of Western philosophy, literature and art, and is fondly remembered by viewers as one of the BBC’s ‘seminal’ productions.
But Mr Purnell, 46, who was born the year after it aired, said the BBC would now tackle the same subjects
‘Dispensed culture from on high’
in the ‘opposite’ manner, as it revisits the series, which will be presented by historians Mary Beard, Simon Schama and David Olusoga
He wrote: ‘[We have] Civilisations — inspired by Kenneth Clark’s seminal documentary series, but in many ways the opposite of the original. Rather than a single view of civilisation, we will have three presenters.
‘Rather than looking at Western civilisation, we will look at many, and question the very concept of civilisation.’
And, in a somewhat ironic move, Mr Purnell further laid out his plans for a war on elitism with references to an obscure film and the late Cambridge English literature professor FR Leavis. ‘Learning is not just a means to an end,’ he said. ‘It’s about meaning – about asking and answering the big questions. Not in an FR Leavis kind of way – there’s no canon, no set texts, nobody is handing down tablets of stone.’
Later, Mr Purnell explained his position by discussing Paterson, an art house film by the director Jim Jarmusch.
He said: ‘In Paterson, a ten-yearold girl meets ... a bus driver who writes modernist poetry. “A bus driver who likes Emily Dickinson!”, she shouts in delight but also unintended slight.
‘Why shouldn’t a bus driver like Emily Dickinson? Culture and knowledge are for everyone.’
Mr Purnell also highlighted rising concerns about ‘fake news’, adding that the BBC ‘can be a trusted guide through [the] abundance’ of information – and that today’s media is ‘the greatest educational resource the world has ever seen’.