The BBC has to take a lot of flack. As it is publicly funded, people seem to expect that that they should like every programme on it. Last night’s Question Time though perfectly illustrated what a fantastic broadcaster Auntie is.
In the week President Obama made a historic address to Parliament, the BBC had secured for the hour long programme former US Ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer, in addition to Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne.
In the week the twitter mob and John Hemming MP busted Ryan Giggs’ superinjunction, the BBC had secured Charlotte Harris, one of the the lawyers at the heart of new developments in privacy law, for the panel.
Whatever say the parties have in the politicians that appear, the pulling power of the BBC in general, and Question Time Specifically, is such that it could attract a panel that could expertly deal with the key issues of the day. This was not 3 minutes interviews on 24 hour rolling news, this was a relatively in depth look at the weeks developments from people that know. Sky News and Channel 4 undoubtedly provide excellent news coverage, but can you really imagine another channel putting on a programme like that?
Sometimes Question Time can be little more than party point scoring. Other times, like last night and the Paddy and Ken show a few months ago, it provides an excellent look at the week in current affairs, in a way no other broadcaster can support commercially.
May 27, 2011 at 4:05 pm
getting bored by question time – any point to Charlotte Harris being on there apart from making everyone else look good ?