TV licence

[jayne lee wilson]

I don't know for sure about this, but I think the BBC World Service has some independent funding from the government. It's not propaganda as such, but is a medium for putting across British views on world matters, amongst other things.

I found this: https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2021...ervice-funding

Take a look at a the schedules - very thorough News and Analysis........ I don't think it is just "putting across British Views"....(or at all really; such an approach would be overtly political...).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/schedules/bbc_world_service#on-air

It has always sounded pretty neutral and accurate to me....
AS Davie says.....

"As the world continues to fight the Covid pandemic, the positive role of the World Service in providing trusted, impartial news has never been more critical.”

[kernelbogey]

....Glad someone mentioned the World Service.., this has a huge global audience and would be badly missed by many who rely on it...

It is a superb service, and a wonderful source of soft global influence for Britain.

[gurnemanz]

It is a superb service, and a wonderful source of soft global influence for Britain.

Good tune...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XGn1W6WP0Ys

[ardcarp]

It is a superb service, and a wonderful source of soft global influence for Britain.

I think that's a really good way of putting it, kb. (I certainly shouldn't have used the word 'propaganda' in my post.) However, use of Lilliburlero as a signature tune is maybe more controversial. It has a long history of 'political' use, including I believe in an anti-Catholic context. I'm sure that is not the intention nowadays, but it does seem to have vaguely militaristic overtones.

It is a myth that Purcell composed the tune, though he did make use of it.

The tune used as the World Service in English signature for the news since 21st November 1955 is most commonly known as Lilliburlero. It started life as a jig with Irish roots, whose first appearance seems to be in a collection published in London in 1661 entitled 'An Antidote Against Melancholy', where it is set to the words "There was an old man of Waltham Cross". It was arranged for polite society by the English composer Henry Purcell in 1689, and has been published in his keyboard work 'Musick's Handmaid'.

In 1687, however, the tune was set to different words, at a time when the Roman Catholic King James II was becoming increasingly unpopular. These were satirical verses with the Irish Gaelic-based word "Lilliburlero" as a refrain, referring to the appointment to the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland of General Talbot, just created Earl of Tyrconnel. In this guise, the song was subsequently adopted by William of Orange as a marching tune for his Protestant troops.

Lilliburlero's military association was rekindled in the Second World War, when it was played on the BBC Home Service programme 'Into Battle' in 1943, and as a result was chosen as the regimental march for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME).

At the same time it was chosen as the theme tune for our Chinese Service (by the poet and critic William Empson), before being poached by the English network, (then called the General Overseas Service). The version of Lilliburlero now heard replaces the version by BBC music producer David Cox which was in use for 30 years.

Lilliburlero has always been a controversial tune for the BBC to employ as an anthem. In 1972, the poet Robert Graves wrote a letter to 'The Times' newspaper complaining about the use of the tune in light of its anti-Catholic connotations. It survives, however, and remains one of the world's most distinctive tunes, recognised everywhere as the signature of BBC World Service.

[kernelbogey]

However, use of Lilliburlero as a signature tune is maybe more controversial.

I didn't know that it is still in use, since I don't listen at whatever time that is played. Perhaps it has some 'iconic' value for listeners (like Sailing By ).

I originally wrote 'soft global power', but felt more comfortable changing that to 'soft global influence'.

(In fact is it still in use?)

[ardcarp]

(like Sailing By ).

Yes, that's pretty awful, though I think it was written by Ronald Binge whose Elizabethan Serenade is OK.
My big gripe is that some years ago they stopped using that medley of sea songs put together by Fritz Spiegl. Lovely to hear whilst on watch in the early hours.

[kernelbogey]

...that medley of sea songs put together by Fritz Spiegl. Lovely to hear whilst on watch in the early hours.

I never heard that: I believe all attempts to abandon Sailing By get shouted down by irate R4 listeners.... It's not bad, but anything would get tedious if repeated daily.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Yes, that's pretty awful, though I think it was written by Ronald Binge whose Elizabethan Serenade is OK.
My big gripe is that some years ago they stopped using that medley of sea songs put together by Fritz Spiegl. Lovely to hear whilst on watch in the early hours.

Oh yes! That was one good thing about driving across Devon in the dark to get to my 6am start.

[EnemyoftheStoat]

Why does the BBC feel they need to broadcast the news from Downing Street - I hardly think that Boris is going stick his head out and say ‘ Hi Hugh I’m resigning you should be the first to know!’

Probably hoping to get invited in for wine and cheese, having done his cause no great harm over recent years.

[jayne lee wilson]

Why does the BBC feel they need to broadcast the news from Downing Street - I hardly think that Boris is going stick his head out and say ‘ Hi Hugh I’m resigning you should be the first to know!’

Probably for the same reason Sky does (and the Guardian, Indie, Mirror, Mail, etc etc...)..... oh I'm sorry, are they all in this together?

[ardcarp]

Oh yes! That was one good thing about driving across Devon in the dark to get to my 6am start.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48YxyR-PSi8

[kernelbogey]

A good analysis by Mark Lawson in The Guardian: The Fightback Starts Now! Here's how the BBC can survive the Tory assault.

[french frank]

A good analysis by Mark Lawson in The Guardian: The Fightback Starts Now! Here's how the BBC can survive the Tory assault.

An excellent piece (with some nice sideswipes which made me smile). ML for Culture Secretary, please.

in general, though, I do have a suspicion that the population doesn't want a 'public service' broadcaster if they have to pay for it; or, not unless it provides them with all the shows they like, without advertising - and free of charge. Am I being cynical?

Meanwhile, I was amused to see Wiki suggests that Mozart adapted [the World Service's] Lilliburlero for the opening theme of K. 331 ("Ho, brother Teague, Dost hear the decree, That we're to have a new deput-ee-ee'):

[oddoneout]

A good analysis by Mark Lawson in The Guardian: The Fightback Starts Now! Here's how the BBC can survive the Tory assault.

I think this was meant to be reassuring but I don't find it so.

And which politicians would want the legacy of vandalising that cultural heritage?

Whilst they may not actively want I doubt there are any on the Con side who would be overly concerned. They have been singularly unmoved by evidence of the cultural vandalism of Brexit - and that destruction has hard economic facts attached to it, so what chance the BBC.

[ardcarp]

Did anyone hear David Dimbleby on the 1 o'clock News today? He's pro-licence fee as one might expect, but he suggested that the flat rate of £159 pa is unfair to the less well-off. His idea would be to charge households according to their Council Tax band...less for Band A and more for Band H. It sounds a good plan to me, but I don't see a Tory government adopting a rather socialist idea.