Ten reasons to love the BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation has been a part of the national fabric for many years now, and since her inception has withstood not only the test of time, but has carried out her duties with magnificence and ultra-professionalism. She is the broadcaster many national television companies try to emulate. The one which comes closest, in my opinion, is the VRT of the Dutch-speaking Belgian community. So what has the BBC given us?

1. She was the number one morale booster in the Second World War, providing radio broadcasts to the Allied Forces overseas as well as assuring Charles De Gaulle could send radio messages back to France from his HQ in London. She remained on air all through the dark days of the Blitz while all around was being bombed, and she (probably) was the main reason why Londoners kept their spirits high, providing entertaining shows as well as important radio transmissions on the situation as it stood. But she turned disastrous events like the Dunkirk withdrawal into spectacular acts of bravery by stressing the audacity of the shippers who crossed into enemy territory to collect the defeated men.
2. She actually started experimental TV broadcasting before the Second World War but stopped at the outbreak of war as it was feared the transmissions would interfere with other signals and make it easier for the enemy to use the signal as a guide. A Mickey Mouse special was on at the time the signal was abandoned and one of the first programmes to be transmitted when TV was resumed in June 1946 was that very same feature. But first up came Jasmine Bligh, who apparently said, "Good afternoon everybody, do you remember me?" Another show a little later in that period featured an announcer, Leslie Mitchell, who, referring to the war, said, "As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted..."
3. Discovery, development and execution of young talent has always been the main reason the BBC has stayed in touch with the modern world and yet it has some of the oldest traditions the the media world, for example the BBC Proms season, the largest classical music festival in the world. As for young talent, she has never ceased to let the most up-to-date screenwriters, playwrights, comedians, radio broadcasters and TV presenters have a free hand in their airtime. One of the earliest, and most celebrated, would be the Goon Show which ran for nine years from 1951. It was even exported to NBC in the USA. From that one show, fifty years of comedy was born which tried to copy it, outdo it, or evolve from it. Michael Bentine, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellars and Spike Milligan were the comedians behind the Goon Show and the successors to that show would be Monty Python, the Pink Panther, Not The Nine O'Clock News, and many others.
4. Bringing great events to our homes is a talent only the BBC knows how to do. When I watch coverage of historical occasions, sports tournaments or breaking news on other channels, there is often that little something missing: continuity. On the BBC, it seems to glide from one place to the next as though it was an effortless act of logic. But in fact, it is simply because of the meticulous planning done by the backroom staff. Some of the most memorable events have been shown live on the BBC over the years, for which we don't give enough thanks: the BBC was the first broadcaster in Afghanistan after the recapturing of Kabul; the Queen's coronation was the first major live broadcast anywhere; and guess who refused to leave Belgrade when the Kosovo war broke out?
5. Major sporting events have been the greatest pull over the years, none more so than the popularisation of previously obscure sports like snooker, golf and darts. The BBC has been at every Olympic Games since they were first reported on; she has been at Wimbledon every year without fail; she has been the champion of the smaller event too, bringing us rowing, curling, decathlon and making household names out of Sir Steve Redgrave, Rhona Martin and Daley Thompson.
6. She has played a part in the intrigue of modern politics, never afraid to ask difficult questions, never avoiding to interrogate politicians until they succumbed. On one famous occasion just before the general election of 1997, Jeremy Paxman, also known as The Rottweiler, asked the then prisons minister Michael Howard the same question thirteen times on TV, each time receiving an evasive reply. The BBC has been known to get on the nerves of US presidents, who are often quizzed politely by American press and television journalists. However, the fundamental reason behind it all is that she assures us that the questions the general public would most like answered are put to the interviewee.
7. She has supported some untried talent and given it airtime, like allowing John Peel to play unknown music on his radio show http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Peel and bringing some of the Edinburgh Festival discoveries to wider audiences. Some of those are: Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Steve Coogan and Emma Thompson. Many performers are found through the Cambridge University Footlights - probably the greatest talent factory in the world. To name but a few, Sir David Frost, Clive James, Ben Miller, Eric Idle and Griff Rhys Jones, and most on the list above from the Edinburgh Fringe.
8. She is paid for by, and solely by, the British people, through a licence fee which costs about £120 per year. That's TEN POUNDS A MONTH! And people still complain... But complaints are also aired on the BBC. Points of View, a weekly programme airing people's grievances, gives us an insight into the kind of letters and emails she receives from her viewers and listeners.
9. She runs the most visited website in the world which is not a search engine or an online email provider. The ones above her are Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft affiliates. In fact, she has TWO entries in the top ten - her news website and her homepage. And what a website it is. You can listen to radio on there and see the news, like any other serious broadcaster. But you can also learn languages, read about history, gardening, astronomy, travel, literature, finance, sport, weather, education, science, health, technology and anything else you can think of.
10. Her efforts over the years have brought us some of the most memorable television. I could name them all, but here are a few:

BBC Wildlife: The BBC has the largest collection of wildlife and nature footage at her offices in Bristol, and along with the unforgettable voice of Sir David Attenborough, has made us delight in the habits of the meerkats, shed a tear for the solitude of the polar bear, wonder at the meticulousness of the bird of paradise and bring into our homes the phenomena of our planet.

BBC News: Every hour of the day someone somewhere is working on an article for BBC News online, filming for a news report or editing a documentary. She has more reporters worldwide than any other broadcaster and is to be found in more homes and hotel rooms than all the rest.

BBC Films: Billy Elliot, Wild About Harry, My Summer Of Love, Match Point, Mrs Henderson Presents... Need I say more???

BBC Drama: Silent Witness, Life On Mars, Jane Eyre, Rome, Spooks, Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House, Doctor Who?, The Virgin Queen, Waking The Dead... ditto.

BBC Personalities: John Motson (football commentator), Gary Lineker (broadcaster and ex-footballer), Terry Wogan (broadcaster, radio DJ, Eurovision presenter), John Simpson (news reporter), Alan Johnston (news correspondent recently released from Gaza), Daniel Craig (now James Bond), James Nesbitt (accomplished actor) Dame Judi Dench (Oscar-winning actress), Catherine Tate (comedian), Anne Robinson (dangerous primetime quiz redhead), and I'm sure I could sit here until morning writing more but I won't.

Simply because if you don't know the BBC, you simply haven't lived!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/