Media Matters
Coverage of Prince Philip’s funeral was depressingly dumbed-down
Jeremy Paxman is almost certainly wrong. Not any fool can read the news with moderate competence, as he claims.
But equally not every newsreader can provide an instructive and historically grounded commentary on a Royal funeral. Never have I felt the retirement of David Dimbleby from our national life so painfully as when his replacement, Huw Edwards, blundered his way through the Duke of Edinburgh’s obsequies on BBC1.
Because Mr Edwards is a perfectly good newsreader, he and his employers seem to believe that it is the most natural thing in the world for him to step into Mr Dimbleby’s shoes. But why? There were painful silences when one hoped he might offer a little useful information with some historical perspective, and when one wanted him to say nothing he nattered on. Empty words such as ‘splendour’ and ‘magnificent’ tumbled from his lips. He mixed up his Ecclesiastes and his Ecclesiasticus.
Meanwhile, his newsreader colleague Sophie Raworth was given a bit-part role, prowling the outer reaches of Windsor Castle, providing commentary that could hardly be described as illuminating.
The rise of newsreaders to fill ancient offices of the BBC traditionally occupied by the likes of the Dimblebys is part of a wider phenomenon. By and large, over the past few years, heavyweight figures leaving the Beeb have been replaced by slighter and less authoritative people.
Instead of the sometimes infuriating but always substantial Jeremy Paxman on BBC2’S Newsnight, we now have the less commanding figure of Emily Maitlis. (All the regular presenters on the programme are now female, as is its editor.)
John Humphrys has left Radio 4’s Today programme without having any obvious heirs in terms of gravitas, while on the same station’s Any Questions the comparatively lightweight Chris Mason is struggling to assume the mantle of Jonathan Dimbleby.
Where the solid if possibly occasionally pompous Roy Plomley once reigned on Desert Island Discs, we now have Lauren Laverne, a DJ and singer. David Dimbleby’s old job on BBC1’S Question Time has been filled by the agreeable, but much less politically astute, Fiona Bruce.
We’ll have to wait and see whether Clive Myrie (another newsreader) is an adequate replacement for John Humphrys on BBC1’S Mastermind; I have my doubts. Andrew Neil, Auntie’s most formidable interviewer of recent years, has jumped ship for GB News, leaving a great void at the Corporation.
Now it could be my imagination, but I think I hear an ungenerous voice suggesting that what I really want are Oxbridge-educated, middle-class males ruling the roost. This is not true.
John Humphrys left school at 15. Andrew Neil was born into a workingclass family in Paisley. Roy Plomley did not go to university. All of them became substantial figures on television and radio through merit and hard work. The important point is that none of them dumbed down.
I am thoroughly in favour of greater diversity. Let’s have more female, working-class and non-white presenters on our screens and airwaves – provided that they have the depth and substance and knowledge of the figures whom they replace. Why not more oldies, too? They are the subject of appalling prejudice at the hands of the BBC.
What is unfortunate is the BBC’S propensity to promote people for ticking the appropriate boxes. Just because Huw Edwards is an ambitious, Welsh newsreader, it doesn’t follow that he is qualified to commentate on State occasions.
The Corporation should be looking for the best person, regardless of class, ethnicity or gender, to fill such an important role. And if there is a younger David Dimbleby being forced to mark time, he should be given a fair crack of the whip.
The truth is that the BBC cares more about fulfilling what it regards as the dictates of political correctness than about meeting the expectations, and matching the intellectual level, of its audience. Lauren Laverne was conceivably not intended by her maker to introduce Desert Islands Discs, yet I dare say there are all kinds of things she can do far better than Roy Plomley ever could.
Why can’t we have the best horses on the right courses?
The circulation of all newspapers has been badly affected by the pandemic, partly because some shops selling them have been closed, and partly because some people have been reluctant to venture out for fear of catching COVID.
Some magazines, particularly those with a large subscription base, have fared better. On the marvellous occasion of its 400th issue, I am happy to report that The Oldie is among them.
The magazine’s most recent monthly subscription sales are a record 42,176. Add in news-stand and digital sales and the figure is nudging 50,000, an all-time high.
The BBC may have lost its way, and once-great organs of public opinion may be floundering, but The Oldie continues to prosper by striving to give its discerning readers what they want.
Empty words such as ‘splendour’ tumbled from Huw Edwards’s lips