Jasper Jackson in iNews:
“The row over BBC coverage of Prince Philip's death exposes its no-win role in the culture wars
What would be best for the BBC, and its audiences, would be if we stopped viewing it as a proxy battleground for our cultural and political divides
April 11, 2021 3:27 pm
In any UK newsroom, the one event that is both the most feared, and best prepared for, is the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Nowhere is that truer than at the BBC, which as “the nation’s broadcaster” comes in for more scrutiny than any TV channel, newspaper or radio station, especially when it comes to subjects that are so closely intertwined with the country’s identity.
The death of the Queen’s husband Prince Philip was, by dint of his title if nothing else, a smaller challenge, but one that underscores the BBC’s no-win role in the UK’s culture wars.
As the news broke, the BBC threw its entire weight behind wall-to-wall coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh’s life and death. Schedules were scrapped, with Eastenders and Have I got News for You replaced with news and only news. Dance beats on radio stations were interrupted with the national anthem and BBC 4’s erudite programming was taken off air for an entire evening.
This did not please everyone. Viewing figures compiled by Jake Kanter, international editor of entertainment industry magazine Deadline Hollywood, show audiences were down at the BBC, as they were everywhere else that ditched their usual schedules for Philip-themed news and reflection. On a day when the nation might have been expected to turn to the Beeb, the highest rated show on a single channel was Channel 4’s Gogglebox.
But viewers didn’t just switch off. Some were so incensed by the deluge of royal coverage that they began writing complaints. So many, in fact, that the BBC had to set up a streamlined form for those who wanted to register their displeasure at “too much coverage” of the death of the Queen’s husband.
The BBC is used to complaints, receiving tens of thousands each month. Sometimes it even receives complaints about shows on non-BBC channels over which it has no control. The need to set up a dedicated form suggests its programming in the wake of Philip’s death generated an unusual spike, but that’s no big surprise when the country’s biggest broadcaster does anything on this scale.
Are those complaining right? Did the BBC go overboard?
Past experience suggests that the anger of those who missed the Masterchef final, or indeed those with a principled objection to handing so much airtime to a member of the monarchy, would pale in comparison to the outrage that would have greeted a BBC response deemed insufficiently reverential.
The right-wing sections of the news media would have waded in with a combination of real and confected outrage, as they did when the late Peter Sissons had the affront to wear a burgundy tie while announcing the death of the Queen Mother in 2002. Sissons wrote in 2011 that the criticism he received almost a decade earlier “still hurts”.
And of course the howls of outrage would have been music to the ears of a government that has not only signalled its hostility to the BBC, but grasped almost any opportunity to inflame the UK’s culture wars. In this environment, the BBC’s repeated references to Philip’s “gaffes” in early coverage seem almost brave.
Either route would have attracted criticism, but when more than half the British public think the monarchy is a good thing for the UK, and only one in ten think it is a negative, it’s not hard to see the sense in going big on tributes to stifle accusations of inadequate patriotism.
Of course, what would really be best for the BBC, and its audiences, would be if we stopped viewing it as a proxy battleground for our cultural and political divides.
As the Guardian’s media editor Jim Waterson tweeted, the UK “really needs to stop asking the BBC complaints department to rule on all our deepest cultural issues and just go to therapy”.
Obsessing over the symbolism of everything the BBC does distracts, repeatedly, from assessments of how well (or badly) it is doing its job.
And if the wall-to-wall coverage of Philip’s death really upsets anyone that much, they should probably get rid of their TV. As long as the public, press and our ruling politicians remain dominated by vocal royalists, the downsides of being seen to show insufficient respect in the wake of a royal death will far outweigh the benefits of keeping the rest of us glued to their screens for a few extra hours”
Jasper Jackson is a freelance journalist, editor and media commentator