BBC’s New Chief Says Broadcaster Must Represent All of UK, Not Just Liberal London

English Cross of St George flags hang in the windows and a "Vote Leave" poster is displaye
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Victoria Friedman

The BBC’s new director-general is set to “reform” the broadcaster “with urgency” and commission more right-wing comedy, after years of programming pandered to the left-liberal metropolitan elites in London.

Tim Davie, who took over from Lord Hall on Tuesday, set the tone of his tenure by telling BBC staff that they must reflect the diverse opinions of the whole of the United Kingdom. He made a point of his commitment to representing every part of the country by spending his first day on the job at BBC Scotland in Glasgow on Tuesday, before heading to the Welsh offices in Cardiff on Wednesday.

In a short memo sent to staff and seen by The Guardian, Mr Davie said: “Overall, my guiding principle is that we are a universal public service – a BBC for all, that serves and represents every part of this country.

“Our focus must be to ensure that we deliver outstanding and unique value to all audiences – those who pay for us and are in effect our customers – in return for their licence fee.

“To do this, we will need to keep reforming the BBC with urgency so that we are trusted, relevant, and indispensable in this digital age.”

A source told The Times on Wednesday that the new boss wants a “greater diversity of voices” in comedy, including right-wing comedians and seek a spectrum of targets for satire, rather than basing humour at the expense of conservatives, Brexit voters, and U.S. President Donald Trump.

On the day the UK officially left the EU, the BBC children’s network broadcast a skit of Nish Kumar that scorned British history and claimed that “British things” do not exist. During after the 2019 European Parliament elections, BBC Radio 4 aired a programme where comedienne Jo Brand ‘joked’ about throwing battery acid at Nigel Farage.

One BBC insider claimed that they do not hire right-wingers because they are not funny, telling The Guardian there is a “shortage of right-wing comics”. Tory MP Ben Bradley had said that many conservative comedians had been “effectively blacklisted for their views” by the BBC.

Senior sources had also told The Telegraph on Monday that in the longer term, some left-wing comedies — those considered the worst offenders of extreme political bias — may be axed.

Mr Davie came into the role as the BBC is facing the recent controversy of the planned Last Night of the Proms, which was set to feature the patriotic “Rule, Britannia!” and “Land of Hope and Glory”, without the lyrics, reportedly over claims that the words were in some manner offensive. One senior editor had compared singing the lyrics of “Rule, Britannia!” to neo-Nazis singing about gas chambers. However, after public pressure, BBC Proms announced on Wednesday that a choir would be performing both pieces.

The Proms controversy was the last straw for a group of MPs, who wrote to the new director-general warning him that in its current state the broadcaster was failing in its pledge of impartiality, suggesting that the licence fee — the television tax which sustains the BBC — was at stake.

The BBC is already facing a crisis of declining viewership, particularly the younger generation, which is switching off and moving to streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix.

The broadcaster’s news network — as well as the liberal-progressive NBC-owned Sky News — are also set to face competition from reportedly two new channels offering right-wing opinions.

Rupert Murdoch’s News UK is believed to be working on a news channel that may be aired through streaming services, while Ofcom has given GB News UK a licence to broadcast on Freeview, which will reportedly “be a truly impartial source of news, unlike the woke, wet BBC. It will deliver the facts, not opinion dressed up as news.”

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