BBC must grow up

THREE cheers for Today programme presenter Justin Webb in stating the obvious but essential truth: people tend to grow into more serious forms of broadcasting, and dumbing down radio output in pursuit of an ever more fickle and elusive ‘yoof’ audience is doomed to failure.

The BBC has one genuine rallying cry in its struggle to defend high-quality public broadcasting: an unwavering commitment to excellence. This means trusting not only your audience but yourself – challenging ignorance, stretching minds and choosing the high not the low road when innovating.

The world’s complications cannot be explained in ‘news-bites’ delivered by intellectually lightweight presenters, promoted by a hierarchy panicked into jettisoning quality in the hope of appeasing some passing fad. The BBC fights best on battlegrounds of its choosing – like superior, well-resourced radio. It should concentrate on these, rather than failing to be all things to all audiences.

The Corporation is 100 years old in 2022 and its founding role as national educator is as valid as ever. It doesn’t need to be ‘woke’. But it does need to be awake – to its core purpose. Ultimately, the low road leads nowhere.