Front foot

"We don't yet know what the Charter is gonna ask us to do, so we don't know what our future remit will be".  Thus, BBC DG Matt Brittin in his 'keynote' to this week's meeting at the Royal Television Society in London. 

Enough of this slow, empty stadium bicycle race between BBC apparatchiks and DCMS officials. What we need from the BBC is a clear description of the remit it wants, and the content it thinks will meet that remit over the next five to ten years. 

PS Please do not be distracted by the 'channel closures' to come in the days ahead. The world has moved on to cheap and cheerful fast streams, and, on Freeview, Freesat, Freely,  Sky there are mutiple 'channels' to deliver the variants of BBC1 and BBC2 seen in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and to carry the local news optouts from English Regions. Arguably, the BBC could produce more 'channels'; in the United States, Amazon's Freevee service carries channels called BBC Comedy, BBC Gameshows, BBC Sci-Fi, BBC Travel and Silent Witness/New Tricks 

Esther and radio

 Harry Barnato Rantzen was a senior BBC engineer in the days of Lord Reith, working at Savoy Hill, in charge of 'lines and design' and very much part of the 'Control Room'.  He had to ensure the delivery of the first radio Christmas message from Sandringham in 1932 (a Reith idea), and was on hand for the abdication address in 1936.  He enjoyed mixing with 'artists' including Henry Hall, and the engineering team would have a 'Worker's Playtime' of their own, featuring Claude Dampier and Tessie O'Shea.

He went on to work for Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, running laboratories in Harlow, and wrote “Uncertainty in nature and communications”; reviewed as "not an easy read with some obscure maths and a proposed new fundamental physical constant derived from the curvature of the Earth – the ‘Curth’". 

Was Esther a 'nepo baby' ? Her father certainly encouraged Esther academically, and, after graduating from Somerville, Oxford, she joined the BBC as a trainee sound engineer in 1963.  By 1965, she was also socialising at BBC tv studios in Lime Grove, and had decided that the life of a junior studio manager was not for her - "essentially a dogsbody who was expected to do the chores". In particular, this meant providing sound effects for the recordings of radio plays, either from disc or 'real'. 

In 1965 she was working for drama producer Betty Davies, in the radio recording of a long, dull play called "The Waters of the Moon", a 1951 stage play by N. C. Hunter about oddball guests stranded by a snowstorm in an isolated hotel on Dartmoor.  Lead actors were Coral Browne and Virginia Maskell. Two young things go ice-skating, and the girl falls. Esther remembered she thought the scream from the actress would be enough, but Betty disagreed. A plank was found, and Esther fell to the ground a number of times til Betty was happy with the effect.  That night, Esther handed in a letter of resignation to her head of department, and was unemployed until being taken on the production team of Ned Sherrin, making "BBC3". There, the glamorous life was complete when she was in the back of the gallery as Kenneth Tynan uttered the 'f'-word live on air.

Here's an extract from "The Waters of The Moon", Betty Davies (pictured) producing, Esther on spot effects.  Was it worth it ?

            

tradingaswdr · waters of the moon

Climb every mountain

BBC Deputy DG Rhodri Talfan Davies was at the heart of switching resources out of local radio and into 'digital', and continues to laud online hits. Of course, the switch started in BBC Wales/Cymru, when Rhodri was Director there. And the practice of promoting stories that have a marginal relationship with most definitions of 'news' continues. 

Take this, from Monday, constructed from one Disney+ clip, an Instagram post, and some repeating of public comments.  

Webbed foot

The Commons Culture Committee's Charter review has played back many of the BBC's requests for a new Charter; so many, indeed, that we're no closer to a workable way forward.

Dangerously, though, they talk about a leaner BBC, with more people paying, but a lower sum than at present. They suggest any household with a PC, Tablet or Smartphone should be liable to pay for a 'reformed licence', but with no suggestion on means of enforcement - and so, we're just in the same place. Evasion is evasion, whether the licence fee is £200 a year or £100, and evasion, silently encouraged by the BBC's traditional opponents, is still the problem. 

The launch of the report provided Justin Webb with a moment he'll want to recall in the golf club. 

tradingaswdr · Webb woopsie

Retire

The BBC's Ben Chu is on the digital frontline churning out gobbets of Verify for social media. But this one, has got the tone wrong, pitting yoof against stereotpyed oldies, according to more than one of my correspondents.

Push the button

 

Is this what the BBC want ?  Will all smart screen television sold in the UK be compelled to have a Freely button and a BBC News button ?  Really ?

Not gelling

The extraordinary efforts of BBC News online to 'win the weekend' with click-baity tosh continue, but are beginning to be noticed. 

This weekend, Sydney-based BBC World journalist Tiffanie Turnbull and London-based Simran Sohal put together 1500 words on "How the bare nails trend became a class issue".  It's filed under "Health", subheading "Wellbeing". The Daily Mail spotted the ensuring Twitter pile-on, including this from (Professor) Alexandra Wilson: 

The politicisation of absolutely everything is becoming deeply tedious. We used to be a sane country. Women could wear nail varnish or not, according to their preference, and nothing further needed to be said, certainly not by the BBC. https://t.co/7uXdOwt2rJ

— Alexandra Wilson (@amwilson_opera) September 26, 2026

Is this about 'pursuing the truth with no agenda' ? 

Extra e

 "A globally renowned media company borne of the BBC" is the latest tagline in job adverts for BBC Studios. 

Both 'born' and 'borne'  are past tense forms of the verb 'bear'. In the UK, we are pretty clear that 'born' is the past tense of  the verb meaning 'to give birth'.  'Borne'  is more commonly associated with 'carrying a physical or figurative burden', or, when combined with another word, transmitted. E.g. airborne, water-borne bacteria, wind-borne pollen, mosquito-borne diseases. 

I suspect the tagline comes from the US side of studios.... 

Pardon ?

 The BBC should be on Netflix, says BBC DG Matt Brittin.  Is this what he means ?

Why ?

A little bewildered. I have watched the YouTube 33 minute version of Laura Kuenssberg;s interview with BBC Director General Matt Brittin. Cui bono ?  Why did Matt accept the request ?  Very little pitch-rolling, very little vision, a sort of Ken Barrington innings, largely defensive strokes. And why didn't Laura push a bit harder for some vision of a future BBC, beyond Matt's platitudes ?