Yes, there’s a BBC talent exodus. But look at who’s coming in
Opinion
The days when snobbish viewers could safely watch the BBC without fear of commercial TV riffraff is long gone.
As Dan Walker departs BBC Breakfast to become the face of Channel 5 News, the ‘talent’ exodus from Auntie is beginning to assume Biblical proportions.
Walker joins Andrew Marr, Emily Maitlis, Andrew Neil, Mark Kermode, Simon Mayo, Simon McCoy, and others in leaving the Corporation’s embrace to find gainful employment elsewhere.
The reasons?
Presumably, more money (including lucrative speaking gigs), creative freedom (Marr said he jumped ship to “get my own voice back” – whatever that’s supposed to mean) and an escape from what some deem the stifling strictures of bushy-tailed director-general Tim Davie’s impartiality initiatives.
But… it’s not all one way.
Inexplicably, the BBC has continued to squander licence fee payers’ hard-earned cash on over-familiar ‘stars’ who are already doing ‘very well, thank you very much’ at other broadcasters.
The most flagrant example of this is TV cook Gordon Ramsay.
This uncouth, foul-mouthed hash-slinger has long-running (and well renumerated) broadcasting gigs at ITV, Fox and Australia’s Network Ten.
But Auntie saw fit to rope the charmless-but-loaded Ramsay into host flop BBC1 quiz show Bank Balance (oh, the irony!) last year, and currently in derivative grub contest Future Food Stars.
If laying off 500 of his restaurant staff whilst claiming taxpayer-funded furlough funds was bad enough, Gordon’s record of incivility, boorishness and bullying are hardly on-brand for the BBC.
Case in point his treatment of daughter’s boyfriend: “I did something really bad, Megan’s started seeing her ex-boyfriend again, his name is Byron.
“He was OK to begin with, a bit wet.”
“You want a man to date your daughter and he was just a little bit pathetic.”
Ramsay FaceTimed the lad, who, according to the TV mess sergeant, was “shaking” when he picked up a call to be greeted by his bellowing: “‘Byron it’s me! Not your future father-in-law, you little shit!”
What a genuinely nasty piece of work Ramsay either is, or contrives to be (which, if anything, is actually worse).
Still this, and other juvenile antics (“trust me I absolutely love Cornwall, it’s just the Cornish I can’t stand.” etc) didn’t give BBC management pause for reflection – or it appears an opportunity to consult their freshly minted anti-bullying guidelines.
Cuz, duh, he’s a ‘star.’
I guess.
Those thinking the days were over when Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand could cold-call Manuel from Fawlty Towers (Andrew Sachs) to boast about the latter’s sexual conquest of his granddaughter (Sachs’ not Brand’s) must be given pause for thought by BBC’s hiring of the troll-like TV ‘personality.’
But it’s not only Mr Ramsay who BBC licence-fee payers have had the dubious pleasure of forking out for (presumably) lucrative side gigs.
Over recent and coming months we will greet or will have already welcomed shrinking ITV violets Amanda Holden, Holly Willoughby, Alison Hammond, Bradley Walsh, and the ubiquitous Rylan Clark-Neal and Sheridan Smith onto the BBC.
The days when snobbish viewers could safely watch the BBC without fear of ITV riffraff being invited into the family home is (perhaps) sadly long gone.
For those legions of Jamie Oliver-phobes, there must be a fear that since his exit from Channel 4’s golden handcuffs deal, he might (if given the bum’s rush by the streamers) come sniffing round his original BBC birthing pod for a job.
Picture the now middle-aged cook wheezing on his skateboard, maladroitly sliding down the bannisters of another fake flat and wearily bashing the skins in his newly reformed pop band Scarlet Division.
No thankee.
While giving with one hand (cancelling Holby City) Auntie has taken back with the other by bring back soapy school drama Waterloo Road, fronted by two former Coronation Street stars Angela Griffin and Kym ‘HearSay’ Marsh.
Go tell it on the mountain, as the song goes.
Talking about rivals, the BBC didn’t ‘arf miss a trick by not resurrecting All Creatures Great & Small, which has performed wonders for Channel 5.
Still, akin to the Corporation’s reboots of PD James and Upstairs, Downstairs, there is a good chance they would have ballsed it up.
Stephen ArnellI can’t say I am looking forward with breathless anticipation to the BBC’s utterly pointless upcoming crack at Brideshead Revisited and The Elephant Man either, but as a ‘glass half full’ chap, I may be surprised.
But seriously Auntie, if you really want to revisit other networks’ glories, why not have a go at Foyle’s War? The demand is evidently there.
Either an Endeavour-style prequel, or continue with Michael Kitchen as the lead, carrying Anthony Horowitz’s spy stories into the 1950s and early 1960s.
A fit with the middle-aged, vaguely upmarket BBC audience, if such a thing exists nowadays.
Stephen Arnell began his career at the BBC, moving to ITV where he launched and managed digital channels. He continues to consult for streamers and broadcasters on editorial strategy. He currently writes for The Spectator, The Independent, and The Guardian on film, TV and cultural issues. He is also a writer/producer (including Bob Fosse: It’s Showtime for Sky Arts) and has just completed his first novel.
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