Articles tagged bbc:

Reaction Media Review Column 40: Donald Trump Takes on the World & the Mile End Institute Podcast

  • 23 Feb 2021

This column first appeared on Reaction.   Trump Takes on the World, BBC2 Why, oh why, doesn’t the BBC commission more contemporary documentaries like this? As an institution, the BBC has unparalleled access to all the leading political players in the world. Just menti...

Reaction Media Column 19: Normal People & Payne's Politics

  • 3 Sep 2020

This article was originally published on Reaction.Life.   Normal People – BBC3 & iPlayer “And now it’s time for BBC3 on BBC1”. Eight words which usually encourage me to change channel more quickly than Boris Johnson can execute a screeching U-Turn. Its programmes ...

The BBC Must Redefine its Mission & Get on the Front Foot

  • 9 Mar 2020

About a month ago I was asked to contribute to an instant new book on the future of the BBC. Last week it was published by Bite-Sized Books as an eBook and £6.99 paperback, under the title Is the BBC Peril? Does it Deserve to be? Other contributors include John Simpson, Gillia...

Telegraph Column: The BBC Should Get on the Front Foot and Stop Navel Gazing

  • 7 Mar 2020

This article appeared in the Daily Telegraph on 6 March 2020. The Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, didn’t beat around the bush in his first major speech yesterday. He said the BBC must do more to reflect the country and avoid providing a “narrow urban outlook”. There must ...

Is the BBC in Peril? Does it Deserve to be?

  • 26 Feb 2020

  I've got a chapter in a new book, which is being published this week. It's all about the future shape of the BBC and contains contributions from all sorts of people with views on this important subject, including David Cox , Rob Wilson, Brian Winston, Jean Seaton, Ivo...

Wanted by the BBC: Professional Northerner

  • 26 Jan 2020

This article is an updated and amended version of a piece I wrote for ConservativeHome on Friday.   The latest madcap idea dreamt up in the corridors of power to prove that the BBC is in touch with the whole country is to despatch Nick Robinson to be Today's "Friend in t...

Telegraph Column: The BBC is trapped in a Remainer London bubble of its own making

  • 20 Dec 2019

This is an extended version of an article which first appeared in the Daily Telegraph "Adapt or die” is a maxim the BBC would do well to adopt if it is to survive the coming years. Following its questionable coverage of the general election, it is going through one of its o...

Telegraph Column: 'Question Time' Has Become a Bear Pit & Needs to Change

  • 11 Sep 2019

In 15 years of political TV punditry it had never occurred to me to walk out of a show, live on air. But it nearly happened on last Thursday’s Question Time. The thought flitted through my mind as, yet again, the other panellists talked over each other and I was barely ...

The Three Women of 'Newsnight'

  • 23 Mar 2019

This article originally appeared in The i Paper. “Where are the men?” was the somewhat tired and predictable response from the more unenlightened (male) social media users to the BBC announcement on Wednesday that Emily Maitlis is to lead a Newsnight presenter team of three...

What's Happening to BBC News & Current Affairs?

  • 16 Feb 2019

Let's go back to basics. What is the BBC for? What does 'public service broadcasting' actually mean? How does the BBC adapt to a world in which TV (not radio) audiences are on an apparently inexorable decline as young people consume their media via anything other than a TV scr...