The third and final episode of How the BBC Began will be broadcast on BBC Four on Sunday 3rd March at 9pm. This is well over a year since the broadcast of the first two episodes (still available on the iPlayer).
The series, commissioned as part of the BBC’s centenary, looks at the first 50 years of the corporation. In my opinion this is the most important of the three episodes.
With the subheading, Shooting the Rapids, Episode 3 centres on the thorny issue of BBC Impartiality and covers a number of historical moments when impartiality was shaped, challenged and compromised. These include big events like the General Strike and the Suez crisis, but also includes individual programmes (e.g. Yesterday’s Men, Steptoe & Son), as well as the vexed subject of the BBC’s coverage of Northern Ireland.
The film manages to unpick the strained relationship between the BBC and government, and ends with a paean for the BBC’s independence from Charles Hill, the BBC Chair at the time of the 50th Anniversary, and this warning for the future;
“A broadcasting service that does not match the audience experience of life, all too rapidly loses the trust of that audience”
The story behind this eventual broadcast of Episode 3 speaks to many of the problems the BBC now faces. Initially commissioned as a 2-part series, we discovered that we had more than enough material to make a third programme. Indeed it became clear to us that only by making three programmes would we be able to do justice to our rich seam of stories.
We lobbied for a third programme. The cost of an extra film was minimal because the shooting had already been done and we’d already shaped the stories that would go into Episode 3. But the BBC said no.
There’s never been a satisfactory answer as to why. It may be that the extra cost of a third episode, despite representing good value for money, was too much for the BBC to bear; a consequence of the terrible cuts to the BBC perpetrated by the Tory government. It might also have been that a programme focusing on BBC impartiality, and the often-pernicious influence of government, was too difficult to countenance in the current climate.
My amazing director, John Bridcut, would not let the matter lie. In a remarkable bout of charm and arm twisting he eventually made the BBC see the importance and need of Episode 3.
I hope you enjoy it.
How the BBC Began Episode 3 Trail from Pika Productions on Vimeo.
