Beeb Must Ditch the Dumb Shows

http://cuttingsarchive.org/images/b/b9/2006-03-15_Daily_Star.jpg

Publication: Daily Star
Date: 2006-03-15
Author: Anthony Walton
Page: 11
Language: English

BBC bosses were ordered yesterday to give viewers a better deal for their licence fee.

Producers were warned to ditch "dumbed down" programmes and focus on high-quality shows.

And the Beeb must provide more shows that "entertain" to justify the fee, currently £126.50, said the Government in its key White Paper on the corporation's next 10 years. That means fewer home and lifestyle makeover shows like DIY SOS and copycat rip-offs such as Just For Laughs.

Recent flops like celebrity singing show Just The Two Of Us are unlikely to be made again.

And home-based programmes like Cash In The Attic, Homes Under The Hammer, Bargain Hunt and Car Booty are set to vanish altogether.

Value

Instead, TV and radio channels must provide quality hit shows that are "distinctive", according to Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.

Entertainment must be "central to the BBC's mission", she urged.

There will also be a "public value" test set to rate a show's popularity. The Government is demanding more shows such as:

Spectacular wildlife hits like Planet Earth and Blue Planet.
An updated version of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, starring Billie Piper, 23
Charles Dickens's Bleak House which starred Gillian Anderson, 37, Johnny Vegas, 35, Denis Lawson, 58, and Charles Dance, 59.
The new Dr Who starring Christopher Eccleston, 40, and then David Tennant, 34.
Walking with Dinosaurs with its award-winning special effects.
Strictly Come Dancing which was praised for its "fresh new format".
Top quality radio shows like Radio Five Live's 6.06 soccer phone-in.

Tessa Jowell said the Government had spent the past two years asking the public what they want.

And in a statement to the Commons, she said that fun must be ingrained into the BBC Royal Charter, which expires this year.

BBC chairman Michael Grade confirmed that the programme makers would take the ideas on board.

"We certainly want fewer repeats — fewer derivative and cloned lifestyle programmes," he said. "One or two have been weeded out in the schedules recently. The Director-General has taken that to heart.

"People tend to think of public service broadcasting as rather worthy but it isn't.

"The public tell us they regard Only Fools and Horses, Strictly Come Dancing and EastEnders just as much part of the public service as any arts documentary.

"We mustn't lose sight of the fact that everybody pays the licence fee and part of what they pay for is some entertainment."

Caption: MORE, PLEASE: Scenes from shows that won praise include Tom Ellis and Billie Piper in Much Ado About Nothing; below left, a snow leopard in Planet Earth; below right, Gillian Anderson in Bleak House; above right, a killer whale attacks a seal calf in Blue Planet

Beeb Must Ditch the Dumb Shows

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