BBC Trust

There was a short discussion about recent events, in particular the resignation of George Entwistle from the post of Director General of the BBC with one questioning whether Entwistle could be blamed for events when he had only been in the post for 54 days. The consensus amongst participants was that Entwistle’s settlement upon departing the post of BBC Director General had wrongly become the focus of public concerns when in fact attention should be on the welfare of those caught up in the Jimmy Savile investigations.  There was a strong feeling that “booting someone out” wasn’t the answer and that someone of significance needed to be brought in to help bring the Corporation back on its feet.

Making reference to the licence fee, one participant felt that it should not rise in line with inflation and that serious questions needed to be raised about spending on matters such as first class travel, and expenses. Most other participants felt that the licence fee represented good value for money with one saying “I wouldn’t give Rupert Murdoch the time of day – I’d rather watch the potter’s wheel!”. It was felt that adverts devalued the output with the BBC’s output having more integrity because it had no adverts. One participant was outraged that the licence fee was being spent on broadband roll-out – “I can’t believe that the BBC was willing to pay for this, and monitoring and World Service. This isn’t why we pay the licence fee and is on top of the freeze in the level of the licence fee!”  

. It was felt the BBC shouldn’t have positive discrimination and should treat everyone the same. It was felt that the Welsh were made fun of all the time and that in comedy, all groups should be treated the same.

Guests were disappointed that there wouldn’t be any more Proms in the Park concerts in Swansea for the time being.  They felt that Swansea was a central location and that it was easy to access for audiences in south Wales.

Doctor Who, Weatherman Walking, Spring Watch and The Story of Wales were all highly praised with the latter considered to have been an important programme in terms of “bringing Wales to the wider world”. 

S4C was praised for helping with improving the Welsh of learners and it was said that the channel’s children’s programmes were good. Another participant said that the cultural output on S4C on Sunday is good.

The BBC’s natural history documentaries were widely praised

Last of the Summer Wine was popular with several participants and many felt that at present BBC drama “was back to its best” with drama series being very good. However, some expressed regret at the paucity of good one-off dramas. It was said however, that the very occasional Network dramas about Wales all conformed to a stereotype and that it would be good to have something authentic from Wales – “not just Gwennies and Mams”. Gavin and Stacey was warmly praised  with one participants saying “there’s a sense of place there. If you do it well, you can get that.” 

Radio 4 was praised as were Radio Wales and Radio Cymru. The Today programme was mentioned as the first choice of one participant. Phone-ins divided opinions with one participant making the point that there should be more contributors with expertise rather than just “anyone talking about anything”.

There was a consensus that “when abroad the World Service is a great thing” and one participant commented that he had relatives in Australia, Canada and Holland and despite no longer living in the UK, still preferred to use the BBC’s services as opposed to local content, especially the World Service.

The BBC website was described as “fantastic for children, with plenty of information available in Welsh at the click of a button, and it’s perfect for non-Welsh speaking parents to be able to help their children with homework. Visiting the bbc.co.uk site instantly makes you realise how much information is there – a whole range of things, and more than any other site.”

Participants around the table felt that the BBC was a trustworthy news source, and would choose it over ITV, which was described as a ‘variety performance’.  Most participants said that the BBC showed a wide range of views but some disagreed and felt that the BBC was ‘too left wing’.

Some concern was expressed regarding a recent edition of Newsnight, where basic journalistic checks should have been carried out. “There is a difference between Facebook and the BBC. Sometimes the BBC wants to be cool and jump on the bandwagon.”

One participant called for an end to national Wales news as there was not enough unique and interesting content.  It was felt that stories were repeated too often and that content wasn’t adequately newsworthy.

One particpant was disappointed that her children now seemed to have moved on from the CBBC channel to watching programmes on satellite, which were mostly American imports.  They felt that it was terrific for younger children but older children don’t seem to be catered for anymore.  One participant’s  12 year old daughter watched Eastenders, for example, because it was something that appealed to her.

The Olympics were considered to have been a triumph. Rugby coverage was also considered good. One participant said that Scrum V had gone through a “funny and light” phase but was now back to form with more commentary. Others felt that the BBC showed too much sport. One participant expressed the view that while the Swansea football team’s success was celebrated, it always came last in sports reports.