{"id":10140,"date":"2022-01-19T15:58:25","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T14:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1551062"},"modified":"2022-01-19T16:29:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T15:29:10","slug":"help-and-his-dark-materials-writer-jack-thorne-why-we-need-the-bbc","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/help-and-his-dark-materials-writer-jack-thorne-why-we-need-the-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Help and His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne: Why we need the BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Lidia Molina-Whyte\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 19 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

By: Jack Thorne<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the BBC. I\u2019ve always loved the BBC. Just as I\u2019ve always loved Channel 4. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019ve watched other channels too, and indeed worked for them. But there is something about the ethos of the public service broadcaster, the British public service broadcaster which warms my insides with joy.<\/p>\n

So this is written with extreme bias. I am not impartial, but I do think there are several impartial reasons for the BBC to be protected, for the licence fee to be protected. I\u2019m not going to list them all but the one, personally, that I think hasn\u2019t been given enough focus in the debate is the local versus the global.<\/p>\n

Television has an importance beyond just a means to pass the time. It isn\u2019t just chewing gum for the eyes. I said in my MacTaggart lecture that it is an empathy box and I truly believe it \u2013 a connection to what this country is beyond the hamlets we live in. I talk to people for work, but my circle of family and friends beyond that is extremely small. I\u2019m 43 and I think that\u2019s pretty standard for my age. Similarly my reach online in terms of what news I read, and what social media I associate with, is also limited. I have never, on any of the places I check, seen a single article expressing fears about vaccines. In fact, not one of my friends has expressed such fears to me. But I don\u2019t doubt for others that fear is all they see and talk about.<\/p>

And then we turn on the TV and the radio, and are presented with a complication of lives, many different ways of living. There is less curation \u2013 there is still some, and representation on that television is far from good enough, but there is a spread of reaction. And most importantly of all, with drama these views aren\u2019t just stated, they\u2019re explored. We are shown people who look and feel and are different from ourselves. From The Archers to EastEnders<\/a> to Line of Duty<\/a>, we are given windows to other peoples\u2019 worlds. A British Social Attitudes survey revealed 36 per cent of respondents don\u2019t know any disabled people. Where better to see the complication of their lives but on TV?<\/p>\n

Netflix, Disney, Amazon will not provide these windows in the same way that public service broadcasters will. They will not provide them because they are predominantly concerned with reach not representation. Of course they\u2019re not, it\u2019s not their responsibility. It is the BBC and Channel 4\u2019s responsibility, it\u2019s in their charter. And that is my big concern if the BBC is threatened with commercial pressures: when does their responsibility change from representing and reflecting the glorious diversity of Britain to watching their share price or subscription numbers?<\/p>\n

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