Good TV is merely down to point of view

WHAT an interesting letter from Mr Eels (Dec 16). He vehemently attacks the BBC suggesting it should be sold off. I hope that he has a purchaser in mind. Mr Murdoch perhaps whose Fox News has a certain reputation or RTUK which is based in Moscow? Extreme suggestions perhaps, unlike your correspondent’s “objective” view!

His attack stems from his low opinion of ‘Have I got News for You’. He fails to prove that it is politically unacceptable.

Several years back Mr Johnson was the chairperson (oh dear; a woke word which Mr Eels will find distasteful) on many shows with J. Clarkson doing the same job and N. Farage enjoying participation. The range of people who have participated proves its widespread popularity amongst the “British people”.

Surely the range of comedy programmes available now is to be celebrated as one of the joys of contemporary life (especially with the shadow of Covid hanging over us all)?

And even if there are left-leaning people on some BBC programmes the corporation overall achieves a “world-beating” balance. The “experts” who analyse global media agree that the UK broadcaster is the envy of the Chinese and the American governments to name but two; it is a major tool for our newly independent coastal state in maintaining political and cultural influence and it certainly does a lot to persuade worldwide consumers to buy British.

Even a little left-leaning humour is to the good; all those who read more than one British newspaper agree that around 80% of our press is rightleaning. Now that is truly worrying.

But if attacking the BBC is trendy it should be done objectively.

Mr Eels however is obviously a comic himself since he insists that BBC drama productions such as Shakespeare and modern greats like David Hare and Alan Bennett are “schoolyard”.

Correspondent says that HIGNFY participants are “screeching”, that Ian Hislop is “shouty” and Paul Merton “claps everything”.

I think such statements must prove that my NHS specs and hearing aid are second rate while Mr Eels must have “gone private”; he sees and hears things that most of us don’t!

And to level criticism at Hislop’s appearance is not worthy of mature discussion; we can’t all be as fit as “butchers’ dogs” as Mr. Johnson says he is.

Ian Hislop’s very impressive documentaries on WWI and on the war memorials commemorating that war show that he is much more than just a comedian; if we were all as talented as that...!

And what comedy programmes would your correspondent recommend: Fawlty Towers, The Goon Show, Monty Python, The Navy Lark, Les Dawson, Bernard Manning....your personal choice does not mean that the rest are worth nothing. Even in our Brexit world we must accept that other people have the right to disagree.

Jeremy Hall, Crockernwel