The BBC is a brilliant, diverse, and vital organisation. I can’t imagine life in Britain without it. It isn’t just a broadcaster, it’s an institution, part of our national fabric – there’s a reason we call it Auntie Beeb. I’m not even going to attempt to list some of the amazing programmes, both on television and radio, that it’s produced over the years, we all have our favourites. What constantly amazes me is the breadth of its ambition. This is an organisation whose remit spreads from Strictly Come Dancing to the World Service, from Eastenders to Radio 4. It can encompass tastes from the opera-going Radio 3 listener to the soap and reality TV watching viewer.
It doesn’t just have a glorious history, but it’s still making innovative television and radio today, and its enthusiastic embracing of new media has led to it producing one of the best websites in the world (although I’m not exactly convinced by their enthusiasm for DAB radio). Its news gathering is the first place I turn to when I want both factual descriptions of what’s going on and decent analysis.
What I’m trying to say is that I’m proud of the BBC. And I’m not the only one. Mitch Benn is so proud of it that his next single is about shouting that very fact to the rooftops. It expresses the same sentiments I would like to, but more eloquently and with a degree more panache.
