Ructions at the Beeb

I've never understood quite what it is about Jonathan Ross that merits 18 million pounds of licence payers money, but I always assumed I wasn't 'getting it' - whatever it was he had. In the current interesting difficulties, it's hard not to indulge in a measure of schadenfreude.
I've a softer spot for Brand's irreverent idiocy than Ross's carefully calculated performances. Davina McCall called them 'silly boys' today. Well Brand may be but it's a very long time since Ross could be called a boy. And beside them both, the incomparably funny Ricky Gervais, emphatically NOT commenting on it all last night, looked like a model of wit and wisdom.
What did surprise me, just at first, was that - as I know from bitter experience - even the word 'Christ' when used in a radio play, has to be 'referred up' as the expression goes, for permission to use it. So how in God's name did they get away with it? And then it struck me that the whole BBC structure allows certain people to become so powerful that nobody in immediate authority dares to question them .
Still, I suspect the furore isn't so much shock as a kind of generalised outrage that public cash should be draining down this particular black hole, cash which, moreover, is so frequently collected with menaces from a cross section of increasingly hard up souls. And I do mean menaces. I am the frequent recipient of communications from the TV licensing authority sent to a television-free holiday house which I look after for some friends. And they are outrageous. If I were to pursue somebody for money - especially somebody who didn't actually OWE me that money - in the inflammatory terms employed by the television licensing authority, I reckon I'd have been taken to court long ago.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

quote: And then it struck me that the whole BBC structure allows certain people to become so powerful that nobody in immediate authority dares to question them .

You're telling me. A case in point being 'Wake up to Witless.' the high fat school of sociological insight ...

Catherine Czerkawska said...

Chris Evans, of all unlikely people, spoke the most sense last night. He was very emotional about the Radio 2 Controller's resignation, but said 'They should pair a strong producer with a strong performer'. How right he is!

pete said...

Catherine, your titles of each post don't seem to work as links ... it's difficult to find the individual posts to read the comments.

is 'post pages' enabled?

Catherine Czerkawska said...

Yes post pages is enabled. Not quite sure what you mean though. I can link to individual pages and other people seem able to as well. Are you having problems?

pete said...

the previous posts link in the side bar works, but the title of each post (e.g. Ructions at the Beeb ) isn't working for me (using Firefox). If everyone else is happy, that's fine :)

Catherine Czerkawska said...

Thanks Pete, wonder if it's something to do with Firefox. I've got it on this PC but it's not my default browser, so I shall investigate!

Anonymous said...

Catherine
I may be on the wrong track, but to make your post titles into links, you may need to change a setting. Try 'settings - archiving' and make sure 'enable post pages' is set to 'Yes'. Should work in any browser. Hope this helps.
Alison
http://debutnovelist.wordpress.com

Catherine Czerkawska said...

Hi Alison, yes, they were ALL set to yes, but I've double checked and clicked on save settings again, just to be sure! Nobody else, including me seems to be having the problem, but I wonder if it's possibly a new version of Mozilla? Or just a glitch in my blog....
Thanks for the suggestion anyway.
Cheers,
Catherine