Lord Reith is dead. Let's hear it for Big Brother. (British popular culture is a vibrant culture)

Lord Reith is dead. Let's hear it for Big Brother. (British popular culture is a vibrant culture)

21 Jun 2007

Director-General of the BBC in the late 1920s and 1930s, Lord Reith was committed to using broadcasting as a public service; a way of enlightening the masses. Critics of modern British television and radio argue that programming has greatly decreased in cultural and artistic merit since Reith’s time, whilst others argue that the Reithian monopoly was just as damaging, stifling choice and leading to a stagnation of ideas.

The panel address the question: is British popular culture really in such dire straits?

Arguing in favour of the motion are Toby Young, David Elstein, and Tim Gardam.

Toby Young opens the defence of the motion by arguing that 'Reithian' programmes still exist and can be found in abundance on television, from news and current affairs programmes, to documentaries and programmes about the arts. Young sees the motion as essentially a debate between those who favour the current television regulations, and those who favour tighter regulations. However, he believes that allowing one group of people (the educated middle classes) to determine whether or not programmes are broadcast based on their cultural or artistic merit, is to reduce the public's 'sovereignty over themselves', and is more culturally dangerous than allowing them to be exposed to 'low-brow' culture. David Elstein argues that, whilst the introduction of satellite and cable TV – and thus the ending of 'spectrum scarcity' – has undoubtedly brought more ‘dross’ to our television screens, it has also produced much more high quality programming. Choice, he argues, was the word that Reith's BBC most feared. Elstein notes that the introduction of ITV, which broke the BBC's monopoly on television, increased the quality of programmes on the BBC, which was spurred on by competition. Tim Gardam suggests that Big Brother has been made a scapegoat for all that is bad about television. When Big Brother began, he argues, it was an intriguing social experiment, and was genuinely interesting viewing, but it has since retained little of its character. Gardam blames the dumbing down of British television on the producers of other programmes, whose 'deadly conservatism when it comes to subject matter' leads to the endless recycling of old ideas.

Arguing against the motion are Stephen Bayley, Lloyd Evans, and Howard Jacobson.

Stephen Bayley begins the opposition to the motion by arguing that British popular culture in its current form perfectly fits Herbert Gans' definition of low-brow culture: form over function, and content concerned with immediate gratification. Bayley has no problem with modern popular culture – he can appreciate the beauty of a Jaguar car over a Henry Moore sculpture – but he points to the differences between the 1951 Festival of Britain, which had clear standards of cultural excellence, and the more recent Millennium Dome, which seemingly had none. Whilst he is not anti-choice, Bayley explains, he is pro-standards. Lloyd Evans acknowledges the view that the 'culture of celebrity' is a damaging one, but argues that celebrity is in fact 'harmless, irrelevant, and morally neutral'. He argues that the desire to be educated is equally indulgent as the desire to be famous. Howard Jacobson points out that, whilst he is not nostalgic for a 'golden age' of television, he does miss the time when intelligent programming permeated television, rather than being sidelined to minor channels, and a time when intelligent people were not derided on television. He suggests that a society is in decline when people who suggest what is good for you – like Lord Reith's BBC did – are afraid to voice their concerns for fear of being branded 'paternalistic and elitist'. There is much that is good and vibrant about our culture, he says, but you won't find it on television.

First vote: 216 For, 386 Against, 260 Don’t know

Final vote: 287 For, 567 Against, 17 Don’t know

The motion is defeated by 280 votes.

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