Risky? It's all a matter of taste
- Publication: Liverpool Echo
- Date: 1968-10-22
- Author: Frank Johnson
- Page: 9
- Language: English
B.B.C. DEFENDS ITS CHOICE OF PLAYS
The B.B.C. to-day come out in defence of their right to Lake risks In !tome of their television plays.
The Corporation's annual report admits that the television play is one type of programme which occasionally puts the B.B.C. is the centre of heated controversy about taste and morals.
"It is then that so people challenge the B B C to show how it can claim to be preserving its established standards," it adds.
"The answer is not as simple as is sometimes assumed. It has in be remembered that a television service which provides the right conditions and atmosphere for creative work must inevitably take risks.
"Moreover, standards of taste are always changing. It is difficult to assess at any given time what is and is not good taste. The B.B.C. acknowledges its obligation to the public not willfully or unnecessarily to cause general offence.
Artistic freedom
"At the same time the B.B.C. seek to fulfill its parallel responsibility to achieve for the creative artist the maximum amount of freedom consistent with this obligation."
The report was written before the controversy aroused by Mr. Anthony Wedgwood Benn's speech criticising the B.B.C.'s reporting of Politics.
But the repot does contain a passage stressing the difficulties involved in reporting news and current affairs on television and radio. The temperature of political controversy was so high in the last year that the difficulties were even more disturbing than usual, says the report.
Taking sides
"But when public opinion is split down the middle or when there are several competing and widely supported views, the B.B.C.'s role becomes particularly arduous, as it has been in 1967-68.
"Then it is that keen supporters of each side in a controversy complain that the B.B.C., which has no editorial opinion of its own, is paying too much attention to their opponents or to little attention to them."
Detailing a growing export business in television programmes, the report says that many productions have been or are being dubbed into Spanish, including "Dr. Who," "The Great War," and "Z Cars."
On an average day, during the year, three out of every four people in the United Kingdom viewed television. Fifty-three percent viewed one or more programmes on ITV.
The Corporation made a net loss of £2,087,183 for 1967-68 after a year of increased expenditure on both television and radio.
This compares with a net surplus in the previous year of £5,201,543.
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- APA 6th ed.: Johnson, Frank (1968-10-22). Risky? It's all a matter of taste. Liverpool Echo p. 9.
- MLA 7th ed.: Johnson, Frank. "Risky? It's all a matter of taste." Liverpool Echo [add city] 1968-10-22, 9. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Johnson, Frank. "Risky? It's all a matter of taste." Liverpool Echo, edition, sec., 1968-10-22
- Turabian: Johnson, Frank. "Risky? It's all a matter of taste." Liverpool Echo, 1968-10-22, section, 9 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Risky? It's all a matter of taste | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Risky%3F_It%27s_all_a_matter_of_taste | work=Liverpool Echo | pages=9 | date=1968-10-22 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=29 May 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Risky? It's all a matter of taste | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Risky%3F_It%27s_all_a_matter_of_taste | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=29 May 2025}}</ref>
