Why does the BBC lack grace when it comes to saying goodbye to top talent?

Opinion

BBC senior management’s recent behaviour towards their staff not only shows a lack of common courtesy, but a harsher culture that comes from the very top.

‘Don’t let the door hit you on the way out’ appears to be the go-to phrase from the BBC playbook when saying adieu to onscreen talent.

Recent weeks have witnessed Auntie flipping the metaphorical bird to beloved presenters Ken Bruce, Richard Coles, and Kirsty Lang.

R4 Saturday Live’s Coles commented on his sudden ejection: “If you leave a programme after 12 years, a gentler process would have been nice. But what happens happens. It just feels a little bit rushed. It’s been frustrating for me having to wait for an announcement, and now it’s my last programme on Saturday. I’d rather have had a longer goodbye to listeners.”

Long-time Front Row presenter Lang responded to the news about Coles on Twitter.

Like @RevRichardColes I also feel sad that @BBCRadio4 never announced my exit from @BBCFrontRow & persuaded me not to say goodbye to listeners after 19 years of presenting https://t.co/KWlucV1MWG

— Kirsty Lang (@thatkirstylang) March 23, 2023

The decision to bin the BBC Singers has now been ‘suspended’, in the Corporation’s grudging words, a welcome decision, but one that still leaves a nasty taste in the mouth given the churlish way the original decree was delivered.

Are you being served?

A leaked letter to BBC Board members from the co-directors of the BBC Singers was particularly revealing, especially regarding the attitude of director of music Lorna Clarke (yearly salary approx. £185,000): “Our own experiences of aggressive and confrontational dialogue (particularly with Lorna Clarke) have been echoed time and time again in accounts from other colleagues. A culture of fear and paranoia has been created as seismic decisions on the corporation’s future are taken at speed without any proper analysis or meaningful consultation.”

The letter added: “Lorna Clarke’s behaviour during this process has been questioned frequently — indeed, at a meeting with the BBC Singers last Thursday, Lorna was overtly dismissive of questioning making clear her lack of time for this process. She left the meeting early, leaving her colleague, Simon Webb, who wept in the room in front of the BBC Singers.

“This is not an isolated incident with your team, and we understand a similar situation took place with a senior manager in Radio 2 relating to Ken Bruce’s early departure from the network. It is no coincidence that the calamitous handling of the proposed closure of the BBC Singers came from this same person who is responsible for the management of the departures of Ken, Steve Wright, and Paul O’Grady.”

Please Sir!

Of course, Gary Lineker, like the BBC Singers, was also swiftly reinstated after a public outcry, but again, the manner of his suspension (falsely claiming he had agreed to ‘step back’) was unnecessarily provocative.

Before this, the snarky responses from Laura Kuenssberg, who claimed: “I’ve never been told what to say — or what not to say, maybe more importantly”, alongside other BBC apparatchiks (including Grand Dame David Dimbleby) to the departure of Emily Maitlis together with the demeaning BBC News presenter screen tests, show an organisation grappling with the basics of common courtesy.

Despite boasting legions of HR managers and PR gurus, Auntie is unable to master civilised conduct and effective media messaging. This in the face of the Corporation’s own stated “Values for everyone working at the BBC”, which proclaim (their caps): “We RESPECT each other – we’re kind.”

As the saying goes: “Good manners cost nothing”, but sadly you’d think otherwise at the BBC.

This has been the way for some time at the Corporation, as both John Birt and his successor Greg Dyke (“Don’t stay at the BBC and moan. Please take control of your own life and go somewhere else“) found could be less than felicitous in their language to employees.

Mind Your Language

But the tone has become harsher under director-general Tim Davie with his poorly worded strictures using the Right-wing term ‘virtue signalling’ to criticise social media use by staff, ramped up still further under new Chairman/Boris Johnson financial adviser Richard Sharp, who often comes across as actively rude.

Witness his performance before the DCMS Committee  in January, where he demonstrated an arrogant disdain for the committee and a wilfully obtuse refusal to see that his activities with the former PM could bring the BBC into disrepute — and adversely affect staff morale.

Indeed, the gimlet-eyed Sharpe went further, rubbing salt in the wound by criticising the BBC’s coverage of his own self-inflicted troubles: “It certainly made me more conscious of the value of the BBC in striving for impartiality and accuracy above and beyond other organisations, and it has also made me aware of the consequences of inaccuracy in a very personal way.”

Sharp claimed that BBC News had made, “repeated inaccuracies, regarding the affair,” and, “have subsequently made corrections if they have found themselves to be in possession of inaccurate information.”

Little or no evidence exists of these supposed “corrections”, unless Sharp is referring to incidents where supposed “inaccuracies” were ‘corrected’ before ever being aired by BBC News.

Thanks a bunch, Dick, BBC News journalists would be justified in saying.

Are senior Corporation managers taking their cue from this entitled attitude?

In my experience as a two-time BBC employee back in the 1990s and early 2000s, the higher echelons needed little encouragement to throw their weight around, but this appears to have worsened, despite the HR pieties of recent years.

The BBC is not the first organisation with a ‘kiss up, kick down’ culture, but due to its unique funding by the public, I would posit it is beholden to act with a greater degree of decency in its dealings with staff, as it apparently represents the UK’s cultural and societal values.

This shouldn’t include high-handed arrogance, blind obedience to superiors, truckling to the government of the day, and picking on subordinates.

Although some could argue that this was precisely what won the UK its Empire.

Coupled with the absence of elementary good manners is the lack of foresight as the result of these self-caused fiascos.

Management should have anticipated the public reaction to the BBC’s own repeated rake-stepping, denoting on their part a dearth of simple, good old-fashioned common sense at senior levels.

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 novelist.