BBC’s value to public has never been clearer

WITH almost all its entertainment filming suspended and much of the public facing potentially months of being stuck at home, the BBC has announced a huge array of new programming to keep our minds active: educational content for schoolchildren, cookery shows for those on a tight supplies, exercise routines to do in living rooms, and exhibitions, plays and other arts performances beamed into homes.

But it’s also a huge and serious challenge. The BBC is being relied on more than ever before as staff are at risk of sickness or self-isolating. At a

Dear Scott

YOU’RE not wrong about the challenge. I agree that it’s an opportunity for the BBC. What does public service mean if not this? The corporation and its tireless staff should absolutely be applauded for jumping in, with a nimbleness I haven’t seen in the creaky old behemoth for a while.

Yet there is another challenge, which is the BBC’s ability to default to being cringingly patriarchal. At a time when it is making time when the BBC licence fee funding model is under relentless pressure, this is an opportunity for the corporation to show what they do differently to subscription services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. Many people on social media point out that none of the streamers would ever contemplate such programming, and they are right.

The public service changes are welcome, but we look forward to the BBC returning to what it was.

Scott Bryan

TV critic and reviewer on the

Must Watch podcast

Arts Editor

redundancies and fighting equal pay claims from female employees, it’s got a hill to climb before some will be convinced by Auntie’s prescribed diet of Good Things, especially after the incremental cuts to this kind of programming up until now. It must not just turn to the usual suspects but let younger, vital voices be heard, and proving its undeniable worth as a great public service can only help reverse the worst of its own troubles.

Nancy