Sunday morning

T'was the Sunday before Christmas when all through the blog not a creature was stirring, not even a frog. But I'm up and about nonetheless and reading the Sunday papers online, primed to pull out all the best BBC-related bits and stuff them into your Christmas stocking, ready for when you wake up...

First, Julie Birchill, writing in The Sunday Telegraph, isn't full of Christmas cheer about the BBC, writing "This was the year that the right-on echo-chamber completed its grisly castration of Radio 4 comedy – now all virtue-signalling mutual gratification with fewer laughs than the Christmas Day episode of EastEnders". She adds:

The standard of Radio 4 drama is positively subterranean, more often than not tracing the journey of an autistic asylum seeker contemplating a mastectomy while coping with being a single parent to a dyslexic non-binary child in danger of being taken into care and being bullied online. A recent Archers storyline had resident Lovely Gay Couple hiring a Bulgarian fruit-picker to incubate a baby for them only to have Brexit (hiss, boo, behind you!) wreck their rainbow-hued happiness. There is a strong feminist case against surrogacy and an equally rigorous socialist argument against keeping down working-class wages by hiring cheap foreign labour – but Auntie knows best, and debate is hate speech, and he is she, and self-defence is aggression. Oh, to have Orwell alive and back working at a BBC that appears to have taken 1984 as a How to Doublespeak manual!

Meanwhile, Decca Aitkenhead's interview with Dominic West in The Sunday Times finds the actor casting doubt on the BBC's claims about the "unconventionally diverse" casting for its flagship BBC adaptation of Les Misérables: 

The good news is that the BBC has dispensed with the songs and opted for a straightforward drama, written by the wonderful Andrew Davies. The dialogue sounds contemporary, and the casting is unconventionally diverse, with Valjean’s nemesis played by David Oyelowo. “In Paris in those days there was a large number of people from foreign climes, so the BBC is claiming the casting is historically accurate,” West says. “To be honest, I’m not sure. My guess is it’s not strictly historically accurate, but it gives a flavour of what we understand now, in that everyone talks in a modern British way and it resonates with what an immigrant class looks like.”

Incidentally, the "wonderful Andrew Davies", as per The Mail on Sunday, talks of another aspect of BBC social engineering, saying that BBC bosses veto any "droopy, soppy" girls he wants to pen, and that he's not allowed to make his women anything but feisty: 

I started writing lead characters for women who disconcerted men quite early on in my career. Now it's compulsory because drama networks are run by strong women who like to see themselves reflected. I often find myself pleading, 'Can't I write a really droopy, soppy girl?' And they say, 'No, she's got to be strong and independent.' 

And the same paper features further criticism of the BBC's new Poirot adaptation under the headline 'BBC’s new Poirot story ‘is turned into anti-Brexit propaganda’ by writers who have built on racial tensions that ‘barely feature’ in the novel. The article features a quote from Agatha Christie biographer Laura Thompson:

‘The ABC Murders is a stunning book and is incredibly atmospheric. Why does anyone feel the need to do more to it? Some of the changes sound awful. It’s like everyone who is a Brexiteer has to be shown the error of their ways.’ 

Back to The Sunday Times though, where the doyenne of radio reviewers, Gillian Reynolds, thinking of a Christmas present for Evan Davis, hits the snail on the shell when describing Evan as sounding "possibly too relaxed" on PM these days. No "possibly" about it, I'd say. It's as if he's already in his dressing gown and wearing his favourite slippers:

You will recall that, after Mair quit PM, there was a decent interval while BBC contracts sorted out what it could afford to pay his replacement, Newsnight decided whether it wanted to keep him, and he carefully considered the bliss of never again having to express admiration for the dress sense of Emily Maitlis. Now he has had a couple of months in the new Radio 4 job, Davis sounds relaxed. Possibly too relaxed. So he’s going to get a giant pack of impatience tablets, as used by John Pienaar and Emma Barnett, guaranteed to get an answer even out of Theresa May. 

Ah, now for some bacon and eggs...

Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble

A lady who favours BBC Radio 4, for some reason

One of the things I like about The Spectator is its range of opinion. 

I mean, yes, I'd probably prefer James Delingpole to do the Radio reviews each week rather than Kate Chisholm, but I like reading drippingly-pro-BBC Kate too. 

And whilst reading her today I came across this: 

I wonder what Michelle Obama, the former First Lady who remade that role in her own image, would make of Hannah’s attempts on The Archers to embody the 2018 version of an empowered, liberated woman? Does Obama secretly listen in to Ambridge each night? Has she been impressed by the soap’s attempt, via Hannah, to address the #MeToo movement? Does that explain why she blessed Radio 4 (rather than an online audio provider) with the great coup of reading herself from her new autobiography, Becoming?

Now, I don't listen to The Archers myself but I know at least one of you does. So, did you spot the very BBC "attempt, via Hannah, to address the #MeToo movement"?  (On the flipping Archers?)

(And if I know the BBC, you'll probably have found it very hard NOT to spot it, as it will almost certainly have been laid on with an American-tractor-sized trowel.) 

As for the lovely Michelle having "blessed Radio 4", well, I suspect Radio 4 laid verbal rose-scented red carpets in front of her mouth to entice it to move so eloquently on their behalf  for the Book of the Week spot. 

And maybe she just read all those many, many, many lovely BBC articles about her over the years and, thus, developed a soft spot for the very friendly BBC.

If so, I'm guessing Melania won't be quite so personally motivated to say 'yes' in years to come.

An everyday story of Leave and Remain folk

Amber Rudd and Boris Johnson

Though I've listened to Radio 4 every since I was in my teens I've never paid any attention to The Archers. 

For me The Archers has never been anything more than a happy opportunity to go and brew a nice cup of tea until the next programme comes on. 

I know, however, that plenty of people are hooked on The Archers - including (as has become apparent in recent weeks) lots of surprising people who I'd never have expected to be Archers fans.

And I'd have to have been away on holiday to Proxima Centauri not to be aware that a remarkable number of people were glued to their radios last Sunday for the much-hyped one-hour trial special broadcast and that many of them apparently sobbed with joy when Helen was cleared of attempting to murder nasty, abusive Rob by the jury of famous actors.

I would have continued ignoring it but I saw the following tweet from the Salisbury Review/Spectator's Jane Kelly: 

That got my interest. Was Jane right? Could it really be that the BBC would use the 'biggest' Archers episode ever to promote an anti-Brexit worldview? Would Radio 4 be that shameless?

Well, I've now listened to the famous episode - my first ever episode of The Archers (the longest episode of The Archers in the history of the programme). 

I can't say I've been converted though. All those star-name jurors still couldn't convince me that the script was anything other than wooden and the emotional ending made me laugh. The word 'melodrama' popped into my head near the very end.

And, yes, Jane was right.

Another Twitter user quipped: Bloody hell it's like Brecht wrote the worst episode of Columbo  during a drunken Brexit dinner party.

That Brecht reference struck me as a telling one - especially as it occurred to me too. Brecht had strong propagandist designs on his audience. The committee who wrote this Archers script seemed to have propagandist designs too.

(The comparison isn't spot-on though. Unlike Brecht - who liked his audiences to stay emotionally detached - the Archers' scriptwriters were clearly trying to pull on their audience's emotional levers at every stage).

There were certainly quite a lot of 'agitprop' bits. 

I will simply post my notes on what I heard below, unedited - except from an embarrassingly misplaced apostrophe. (The quotes are exact). See if you can spot any agendas being pushed:

18.04 An unpleasant pro-Rob juror rants in Brexitspeak.

22.29 "I've been meaning to say, Parveen, that's a beautiful headscarf you're wearing. Very elegant", says the nice, wise character played by Eileen Atkins. (You couldn't make it up!!!)

23.25 Nice, dopey-sounding girl with no strong opinions: "It was all the stuff around Brexit.....What if we get the verdict wrong? It's going to effect so many lives.... It feels like way too important a decision to be left up to us". (!!!!!!)

25.04 "She's just a sort of bigoted woman". (A good juror about guilty-supporting Lisa).

26.14 Nice chap (Tristan) says to nice girl (Holly): "I'm more than upset. I'm ashamed. This is meant to be a cross-section of British society but (guilty-supporting) Dennis and Lisa haven't got a clue".

28.44 (Jackie, Eileen Atkins's character): "Yes, an old post-grad student of mine has been up at Bradford for years in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Anyway, we were chatting over the summer. He's terribly worried where his funding is going to come from now. So much of his research is in partnership with other universities across Europe. For once I'm glad I'm retired!"

Obviously Muslim Parveen is leaning towards not guilty, therefore good. Love how the nice ones want Helen freed and the not nice ones want her convicted. It's so Brechtian!

33.37 (Jackie) "The whole reason we have a jury system is because some decisions are too important to be passed by a simple majority."

38.48 (Nasty juror, Dennis, Nigel Havers, delivers a Brexiter-style 'rant'): "You are kidding me! So-called experts without the slightest clue what it's like to live in the real world thinking they know best about how the rest of us should be governed! Well, at least in this room ordinary folks get to make the decisions".

(Nice  juror, Tristan) "Give me a break! It drives me insane. People going on about the real world. Who doesn't live in the real world? Just because you don't like the fact some people might be more educated than you and actually know what they're talking about!"

40.17 (Nasty 'bigoted' juror Lisa to Parveen): "What do you know? Aren't you supposed to obey your husband?"

Squabble at around 43.30, with Brexit slogans being yelled by the baddies. Holly calls a halt and Jackie takes over. Nigel Havers puts the bad side. Eileen Atkins puts the good side.

Eileen Atkins, Tony Hancock and Nigel Havers

Our sub-Brechtian Archers writers made the 'good jurors' into Remain/Helen supporters and the 'bad jurors' into Leave/Rob supporters, with the in-betweeners going on a journey towards the (Remain/Helen) light. It was very schematic. 

Plus, the specific messages the Archers scriptwriters sent out about the Brexit vote were pretty clear, weren't they? That is, that the result was a result of ill-informed people having a say and that it should have been left in the hands of people who know what they're actually talking about (parliament?) Plus that our EU membership was too important a decision to be passed by a simple majority in a referendum. (Parliament to overrule the result?) Plus that racism and bigotry played a part in the campaign. 

Add the Archers scriptwriters obvious intent to also make a point about Muslims and 'Islamophobia' and the agenda-pushing all becomes a bit heavy-handed. 

Of course, serious Archers fans may have been so wrapped up in the outcome of the trial that they missed these political messages but, from what I've seen on Twitter, I very much doubt it.

To end, here's a representative sample of Twitter reaction to all the Brexit references:

Wow! One of #thearchers jurors slates 'the experts'. #Brexit allegory goes into overdrive. Will 48% of them find Helen not guilty?

Just so we are all on the same page - does everyone have the words brexit, referendum & political metaphor in their #TheArchers notepad? 

Correct decision pulled from morass of biased idiocy: it's not-Brexit #thearchers #freehelen

it's all going a bit #brexit   #thearchers

'Experts' - it's Brexit bingo! #TheArchers

Thank you #TheArchers for mentioning the problem of university funding and EU links post-Brexit in their biggest ever episode.

Given they have turned #TheArchers into a Brexit allegory, Helen is surely screwed.

I THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT THE ARCHERS BUT ITS ACTUALLY ABOUT BREXIT 

'Bigoted woman' Brexit' is this a kind of political bingo game? #thearchers

Helen's trial as a metaphor for Brexit. Discuss. #thearchers

Remember: not all Brexit supporters are pro-Rob #thearchers

#thearchers hating this jury, getting flashbacks to #Brexit. Do I know my own country? Aaargh democracy...

"Well thank you Dennis. I'm sure a lot of us #BrExit fans feel it's got very unfair for rapists" #TheArchers

HOW EXACTLY DID BREXIT BECOME A THING IN THIS?! #TheArchers

This is worse than I ever imagined. Helen = Brexit. Come on! Nigel #thearchers

#thearchers this jury is a great example of how we got the Brexit vote we got 

*winces at this jury* cf Brexit #thearchers

Cheeky #Brexit reference in #TheArchers. Let's hope Helen #Remains at Blossom Hill and Rob #Leaves Ambridge for good.

On no! The jury's made up of people who couldn't decide on the #EURef ... & probably voted #Brexit #thearchers

#thearchers Are we having the #Brexit debate NOW!?

Brexit reference! #thearchers

An everyday story of country folk?

Though I've listened to Radio 4 ever since I was a teenager I've never been an Archers fan. I've barely sat through an entire episode of it in the past thirty or more years, so I'm not really able to judge its overall trajectory. 

David Keighley, however, isn't just a long-time listener. He used to write blurb for The Archers in the early '80s. And his account of his falling-out-of-love with Radio 4's "everyday story of country folk" makes for an interesting read. 

His basic point is that The Archers abruptly turned into just another agenda-ridden, politically correct BBC offering back in 1991 when a new producer arrived, and it's been like that ever since.

The current Rob & Helen Tichener domestic-abuse-and-stabbing story - which has been the talk of the newspapers as well as the Radio 4-listening public - comes in for particular criticism as presenting a melodramatic, false, feminist, black-and-white storyline. 

And the fact that Radio 4 devotees and Daily Mail columnists are delivering their jury verdicts on whether Helen should be found guilty or not guilty and domestic abuse charities are receiving lots more money on the strength of it, doesn't stop it being a fiction.

And that, David thinks, is dangerous.

Peter Hitchens agrees:

The Archers is currently harrowing its listeners with a heavy-handed melodrama about a bullied woman who eventually stabs her overbearing husband. I am not a regular listener, but as far as I could see she could have avoided the whole episode by leaving home before he got back from work. Yet the scriptwriters plainly want us to sympathise with the stabber. 

...and goes further: 

It’s no use saying it’s just fiction. These dramas have a huge influence on national thought. 

And the remarkable reaction to the Archers 'melodrama' seems to prove that. 

Others have asked this before, but it's worth repeating - via Peter Hitchens:

How is it that this amazingly influential sector of broadcasting [drama] is not in any way covered by the rules on impartiality? Isn’t it time we took it as seriously as it deserves to be taken?  

An everyday tale of simple people and gay cooks

A.N. Wilson, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, thinks Radio 4's The Archers has lost the plot. 

Before saying why he thinks it's got so bad, he offers an overview of the programme which explains why it embodies the spirit of BBC Radio 4, right down to its muddy fingertips:

It is known as an everyday tale of country folk. But in the half a century I have been tuning in, The Archers has always portrayed an absurd alternative universe bearing little or no resemblance to the actual English countryside.

Sometimes an editor or script-writer on radio’s longest soap opera gets carried away by political correctness, as when the vicar Alan Franks married Usha Gupta, the Hindu solicitor - possible, yes of course, but so Radio 4. My favourite example of this Radio 4-think happened when every real English village sent demonstrators to London to protest against the hunting ban. Every English village except Ambridge, of course, which sent men on a Gay Pride march.

Alongside this political correctness, there has also always been a self-parodying bucolic, in which figures such as old Tom Forest the gamekeeper, or Walter Gabriel (“me ole pal, me ole budey”) spoke and behaved in a way unknown outside Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden. Current examples are Bert Fry and Jo Grundy, ridiculous Mummerset-speaking rural clowns who would seem unrealistic even in Cold Comfort Farm. They rub shoulders with gay cooks, feminists, demonised venture capitalists and other cardboard cut-outs from the Radio 4 toy cupboard.

Oi thinkz that be a vairly accrut zummary.

And talking of The Archers: