This New Noise

by Charlotte Higgins

  Grist, J., Grace Wyndham Goldie: First Lady of Television, Sandy, 2006

  Harries, M., and S. Harries, A Pilgrim Soul: The Life and Work of Elisabeth Lutyens, London, 1989

  Hendy, D., Life on Air: A History of Radio Four, Oxford, 2007

  Hines, M., The Story of Broadcasting House, Home of the BBC, London, 2008

  Horrie, C., and S. Clarke, Fuzzy Monsters: Fear and Loathing at the BBC, London, 1994

  Hunter, F., ‘Hilda Matheson and the BBC, 1926–1940’, in S. Oldfield (ed.), This Working Day World: Women’s Lives and Cultures in Britain, London, 1994, pp. 169–74

  Kenyon, N., The BBC Symphony Orchestra: The First 50 Years, 1930–1980, London, 1981

  Koch, L., Memoirs of a Birdman, London, 1955

  Lambert, R. S., Ariel and All His Quality: An Impression of the BBC from Within, London, 1940

  Lean, T., Voices in the Darkness, London, 1943

  Lee, H., Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life, London, 2013

  Le Jeune, M., To Inform, Educate and Entertain? British Broadcasting in the Twenty-first Century, London, 2009

  Lewis, C. A., Broadcasting From Within, London, 1924

  Lutyens, E., A Goldfish Bowl, London, 1972

  Nicolson, N., (ed.), The Harold Nicolson Diaries, 1907–1963, London, 2004

  MacGregor, S., Woman of Today, London 2002

  McIntyre, I., The Expense of Glory: A Life of John Reith, London, 1993

  Mair, J., R. Tait and R. L. Keeble (eds.), Is the BBC in Crisis?, Bury St Edmunds, 2013

  Mansell, G., Let Truth Be Told: 50 Years of BBC External Broadcasting, London, 1982

  Maschwitz, E., No Chip on My Shoulder, London, 1957

  Matheson, H., Broadcasting, London, 1933

  Mayhew, C., Time to Explain, London, 1987

  Milne, A., DG: The Memoirs of a British Broadcaster, London, 1988

  Mitchell, C., Women and Radio: Airing Differences, London, 2000

  Moran, J., Armchair Nation: An Intimate History of Britain in Front of the TV, London, 2013

  Muggeridge, M., The Thirties, London, 1940 (paperback edn, 1989)

  Murphy, C., ‘“On an Equal Footing with Men?” Women and Work at the BBC, 1923–1939’, doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2011

  O’Carroll, L., ‘The Truth Behind Real Lives’, theguardian.com, 12 December 2005

  O’Hagan, A., ‘Light Entertainment’, London Review of Books, 8 November 2012

  Perkins, A., A Very British Strike, London, 2006

  Purnell, J., ‘The BBC Should Learn from the Birt Era’, Financial Times, 13 November 2012

  Reith, J., Broadcast Over Britain, London, 1924

  —Into the Wind, London, 1949

  Robertson, E., ‘“I Get a Real Kick out of Big Ben”: BBC Versions of Britishness on the Empire and General Overseas Service, 1932–1948’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 28 (4), 2008

  Rolo, C. J., Radio Goes to War, London, 1943

  Saltire Society, Broadcasting: A Policy for Future Development, Edinburgh, 1944

  Scannell, P., and D. Cardiff, A Social History of British Broadcasting, Volume 1: 1922–39, Oxford, 1991

  Schlesinger, P., D. Miller and W. Dinan, Open Scotland? Journalists, Spin Doctors and Lobbyists, Edinburgh, 2001

  Stuart, C. (ed.), The Reith Diaries, London, 1979

  Trethowan, I., Split Screen, London, 1984

  Tusa, J., A World in Your Ear, London, 1992

  Webb, A., London Calling: Britain, the BBC World Service and the Cold War, London, 2014

  West, W. J., Truth Betrayed, London, 1987

  Williams, M., Inside Number 10, London, 1972

  Williams, R., Television: Technology and Cultural Form, London, 1990

  Wyatt, Will, The Fun Factory: A Life in the BBC, London, 2003

  Wyatt, Woodrow, Confessions of an Optimist, London, 1985

  Wyndham Goldie, G., ‘Viewing Television’, Listener, 16 June 1937

  —‘Television’, in F. Laws (ed.), Made for Millions, London, 1947

  —Facing the Nation: Television and Politics 1936–1976, London, 1977

  Young, H., ‘The Reality of the Real Lives Disaster’, Guardian, 17 October 1985

  Acknowledgements

  To Alan Rusbridger, who commissioned this project and who edited the nine original newspaper articles from which this book sprang; my grateful thanks are due for his kind encouragement and rigorous guidance, and for the opportunity to undertake an assignment that at times seemed overwhelming, but was always fascinating.

  To Laura Hassan of Guardian–Faber, who with grace and enthusiasm helped me shape the articles into a book, and to all the publishing team including Sara Montgomery, Jill Burrows and Anna Pallai.

  To the many BBC staff and ex-staff who guided my understanding of the BBC and who gave me generous insights into their work; and to the many scholars of the BBC and observers of its workings who shared their views with me. I interviewed around a hundred people, some of whom spoke anonymously, others of whom are not quoted directly, but from all of whom I learned a great deal.

  My thanks to the many friends and colleagues who offered support and wisdom, and to those who helped bring the original essays to the page: they include Michael Becker, Andy Beckett, Emily Bell, Chris Clarke, Alan Davey, Jon Day, Susanna Eastburn, Rupert Higgins, James Hislop, Paul Johnson, Paul Laity, Richard Nelsson, Andrew O’Hagan, Anne Perkins, Joshua St Johnston, Fiona Shields, David Teather and Will Woodward. Particular thanks to Clare Margetson.

  To Dan Sabbagh, who generously offered many insights gleaned from his former life as a media correspondent; and to the collective wisdom and generosity of the Guardian’s media reporting team.

  To Professor Jean Seaton, official historian of the BBC, for her encouragement.

  To Katie Ankers and her colleagues at the BBC Written Archives Centre. To the staff of the Rare Books & Music reading room at the British Library. To Laurie Klein of the Beinecke Library at Yale.

  To Matthew Fox for the ‘big stride of your mind’ and for your love.

  Georgina Henry died on 7 February 2014, aged fifty-three. She had been deputy editor of the Guardian, founded Comment Is Free, and, as head of culture, was, for a time, my boss. Earlier in her career she had been a fierce, strong and principled media editor. She was, to quote a description of Hilda Matheson, ‘pure gold all the way through’. This book is dedicated, with love, to her memory.

  Illustrations

  John Reith (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

  Hilda Matheson

  (NPG P1384, © National Portrait Gallery, London)

  Vita Sackville-West (© BBC/Corbis)

  David Attenborough (© Popperfoto/Getty Images)

  That’s Life! (© Nils Jorgensen/REX)

  1950 televised election (© BBC)

  Grace Wyndham Goldie

  (© George Konig/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

  Alexandra Palace (© Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

  John Birt (© Times Newspapers Ltd/REX)

  Tony Hall (© Graeme Robertson/Guardian)

  Portrait of Hugh Carleton Greene by Ruskin Spear

  (© BBC)

  Alasdair Milne (© Bill Cross/Daily Mail/REX)

  George Entwistle

  (© Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images News)

  1930s Transmitter at Broadcasting House

  (© Imagno/Getty Images)

  New Broadcasting House

  (© Oli Scarff/Getty Images News)

  Index

  Page numbers in italics refer to photographs.

  Adam, Kenneth 1

  Adams, Mary 1, 2 on Goldie 1

  retires 1

  Africa Survey 1

  Al Jazeera 1

  Alexandra Palace 1, 2, 3, 4 Goldie describes 1

  Amazon 1

  Apple 1

  Apples, Pears and Paint 1

  Archers, The 1

  As You Like It (Shakespeare) 1

  Astor, Nancy 1, 2

  At the Edge
of the Union 1

  atomic power 1

  Attenborough, Sir David 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 on Hill 1

  Attlee, Clement 1, 2

  Auden, W. H. 1

  Bakewell, Joan 1, 2

  balance and impartiality, see under BBC: news and current affairs

  Baldwin, Stanley 1

  Banks-Smith, Nancy 1

  Barker, Ronnie 1

  Barnes, George 1

  Bartók, Béla 1

  Baverstock, Donald 1, 2 becomes BBC1 controller 1

  ‘man of huge talent’ 1

  Bazalgette, Peter 1, 2

  BBC (see also individual programme titles): and accents 1

  age-group reach of 1

  audience’s historical interactivity with 1

  and banned texts 1

  becomes corporation 1, 2

  birth of 1

  Blue Room in 1

  and Britishness 1, 2

  ‘climate of fear’ at 1

  ‘closed corporate culture’ of 1

  cultural heterogeneity of 1

  as definer of Britishness 1

  Digital Media Initiative abandoned by 1

  and digital technology 1

  directors general of, discussed 1

  (see also individual DGs by name)

  drama on (see also individual programme titles): radio 1, 2, 3

  television 1, 2

  early outside broadcast of 1

  and establishment, not offending 1

  first politicians’ debate on 1, 2

  first woman chair of 1

  foreign-language services established by 1

  (see also BBC Empire Service; BBC World Service)

  governance of 1 (see also BBC Trust)

  and Greenwich time signal (‘pips’) 1

  income of 1

  independent sector provides programmes for 1

  to ‘inform, educate and entertain’ 1, 2

  languages broadcast in, number of 1

  and ‘lefties’ v. ‘righties’ 1

  and licence fee 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and over-75s 1

  as passport to equality 1

  well tolerated 1

  and listening/viewing times, changes in patterns of 1

  local radio 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  and manager pay-offs 1

  Muggeridge on 1

  and New Labour 1

  news and current affairs 1

  (see also BBC World Service; Newsnight; Panorama) accelerating pace of 1

  agreements with newspaper proprietors concerning 1

  and balance and impartiality 1

  passim, 1

  in early days, seen as unimportant 1

  first throughout-the-day bulletins 1

  and Hole 1, 2

  huge growth of 1

  and Hutton Report 1, 2, 3, 4

  and interviewing, tone of 1

  number of employees in 1

  online, and distortion of marketplace 1

  and ‘sexed-up’ WMD dossier 1

  TV, in sound only 1

  Woolf on 1

  NHS compared to 1

  and Northern Ireland Real Lives documentary 1

  number of employees in 1, 2, 3, 4

  and on-demand services 1

  online and digital 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  and BBC Three 1

  and over-remuneration 1

  ‘overly bureaucratic’ 1

  and Producer Choice 1, 2

  Radio 1 1, 2

  rising listenership of 1

  on YouTube 1

  Radiophonic Workshop 1

  regional services of 1, 2

  research and development in 1

  ‘risk-averse’ culture in 1

  royal broadcasts on 1

  and Saddam’s WMD 1

  Salford MediaCity HQ of 1

  and Scotland 1, 2, 3

  shortwave transmissions begun by 1

  and Snowden 1

  TV news on, see television news

  as ubiquitous companion 1

  ‘universal Aunt Sally’ 1

  in World War Two 1

  BBC Dance Orchestra 1

  BBC Earth 1

  BBC Empire Service 1, 2, 3, 4 (see also BBC: foreign-language services established by)

  BBC Handbook 1

  BBC iPlayer 1, 2, 3

  BBC Lifestyle 1

  BBC News (formerly BBC News 24) 1

  BBC Philharmonic Orchestra 1

  BBC Proms, founding of 1

  BBC Scotland 1, 2, 3, 4 Special Branch raid on 1, 2

  BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO) 1, 2 Boulez becomes chief conductor of 1

  idea for 1

  BBC Three 1 online move of 1

  BBC Trust 1, 2 Wilson’s communications to 1

  BBC: The Voice of Britain 1

  BBC World News 1

  BBC World Service 1, 2, 3, 4 (see also BBC: foreign-language services established by; BBC: news and current affairs)

  Empire Service as precursor to 1, 2, 3

  Foreign Office ceases to fund 1, 2

  BBC Worldwide 1, 2

  BBC2, launch of 1

  Beckett, Prof. Charlie 1

  Bennett, Alan 1

  Berg, Alban 1

  Beveridge Parliamentary Committee 1

  Billy Cotton Band Show, The 1

  Birt, John 1, 2, 3 passim, 1, 2, 3

  birth and early life of 1

  Bland on 1, 2, 3

  as divisive figure 1

  on future of broadcasting 1

  as Hall’s intellectual ‘ancestor’ 1

  last DG speech of 1, 2

  lasting legacy of 1

  memoir of 1, 2, 3

  and news as route to DG post 1

  resignation of 1

  Blair, Tony 1, 2, 3, 4

  Bland, Sir Christopher 1, 2, 3, 4 on BBC Trust 1

  on Birt 1, 2, 3

  on Dyke 1, 2

  on Entwistle resignation 1

  on Grade 1

  Boaden, Helen 1

  Board of Trade 1

  Boulez, Pierre 1

  Boult, Adrian 1, 2, 3

  Bowen, Jeremy 1, 2, 3

  Bowser, Charles 1

  Bragg, Melvyn 1, 2 on Goldie 1

  Brand, Russell 1, 2

  Bremner, Rory 1

  Bridson, D. G. 1

  Briggs, Asa 1, 2, 3, 4

  British Gazette 1, 2

  British Rail 1

  British Steel 1

  British Worker 1

  Brittan, Leon 1

  Britten, Benjamin 1

  Broadcast Over Britain (Reith) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ‘Uncharted Seas’ chapter of 1

  Broadcasting (Matheson) 1, 2, 3, 4 on BBC Symphony Orchestra 1

  Broadcasting Act (1990) 1

  Broadcasting Council for Scotland 1

  Broadcasting House 1, 2 Gill sculpture for 1

  Latin inscription in 1

  transmitter at (1930s) 1

  Bronowski, Jacob 1

  Brown, Gordon 1

  Buckly, Bill 1

  Bull, Sir William 1

  Burgess, Guy 1

  Burns, Lord 1, 2, 3, 4

  Burrows, Arthur 1, 2, 3

  Burton, Humphrey 1

  Butler, David 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

  Byford, Mark 1

  Cameron, David 1, 2

  Campbell, Alastair 1

  Campbell, Gavin 1

  Campbell, Gregory 1

  Canal Journey 1

  Carpendale, Charles 1, 2

  Cathy Come Home (Sandford) 1

  Cave, Julia 1

  CBeebies 1, 2

  CCTV, China 1

  Centre for Cultural Studies 1

  Centre for Policy Studies 1

  Chamberlain, Neville 1, 2

  Changing Rooms 1

  Channel 4 News 1, 2

  Chase, Charley 1

  Checkland, Michael 1, 2, 3

  Cheshire, Leonard 1

  China, BBC shortwave transmissions jammed in 1

  Churchill, Winston 1, 2, 3,
4, 5

  Civilisation 1

  Clark, Dolly 1

  Clark, Edward 1, 2, 3 complaints against 1

  resignation of 1

  Clark, James 1

  Clark, Kenneth 1

  CNN 1

  Cold War 1

  Collins, Norman 1, 2, 3, 4

  Comedy of Danger, A (Hughes) 1

  Conservative Party 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 politicians 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  Constant Nymph, The (Kennedy) 1

  Cooper, Ben 1

  Corbett, Ronnie 1

  Cotton, Bill 1

  Cotton, Billy 1

  Cox, Prof. Brian 1

  Cox, Doc 1

  Crawford Parliamentary Committee on Broadcasting 1

  Crawley, Aidan 1

  Crowdy, Rachel 1

  Cumberbatch, Benedict 1, 2

  Curtis, Adam 1, 2

  Dacre, Paul 1

  Daily Mail 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 as prominent BBC critic 1

  Daily Record 1

  Daily Telegraph 1, 2

  Damazer, Mark 1, 2, 3, 4

  Dancing Daughters 1

  Dancing with the Stars 1

  Dane, Clemence 1

  Davies, Gavyn, resignation of 1, 2, 3

  Davies, Nick 1

  Day Out, A (Bennett) 1

  Day, Robin 1

  de Cordova, Rudolph 1

  de Jaeger, Charles 1

  De-rating Bill 1

  Debussy, Claude 1

  Democratic Unionist Party 1

  Desert Island Discs 1

  Dimbleby, Richard 1, 2

  Dr Abernethy (Ramsey, de Cordova) 1

  Doctor, Dr Jenny 1, 2, 3

  Doctor Who 1, 2, 3, 4

  Double Bill (Cotton) 1

  Dove, Catherine 1

  Downing, Taylor 1

  Drummond, Norman 1

  Dyke, Greg 1, 2 Bland on 1

  and New Labour 1

  resignation of 1, 2, 3, 4

  and Saddam’s WMD 1, 2