The BBC, alongside the NHS, is the shining light on the hill of Britishness in the modern world. It's what sets us apart, and what is admired by others.

Those who fail to recognise that, be proud of them and prepared to support them, don't understand they are our most valuable assets. Throwing either away because they don't suit individual lifestyles, or politics, would be a grave folly and short-sighted in the extreme.

Everything evolves. TV no less than anything else. The BBC itself is evolving fast. If something better than the licence can be found, no worries. What is important is that it's core mission and status remains untouched, that it is free of government, or commercial, influence and that we all, barring no-one, pay our share, whether we choose to watch, or not. We are British. It is the British Broadcasting Corporation. We pay for it.

The BBC is NOT just another broadcaster. It's the BBC. What it does matters to all of us, whether we approve of it, or not.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

Strange, isn't it? I don't watch Dr Who and never have. The little bits I have stumbled over I find ridiculous.

This for me is not something the BBC ought to be doing at all. It's not it's mandate. So far as I can tell it's just expensive escapism which could be left to those chasing ratings and revenue.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

In some respects the BBC offer a good service, though like any organisation getting money thrown it is, it becomes bloated and drifts from its primary purpose. I'd be all for a more slimmed down BBC with a cheaper fee, but can't see that happening. How people watch TV of changing dramatically and as a service funded by the public it's on borrowed time in my view.

I very much doubt we'll actually save any money though. If the license fee disappears expect Netflix, Amazon Prime and co to hike their prices shortly after.

Yeah it's so good you have to force people to pay for it with the threat of a criminal record if they don't.

Admired by who? The luvvies in other countries certainly as the BBC is a money pit for them of course they would like their own version.

The World service seems to be admired but that is paid for by the government not he licence fee.

Edited by Badger11 (24 Jan 2022 10.25am)

One more point

Wisbech - we all want the BBC to be that shining light - but sadly you cannot polish a turd!
It is no longer fit for purpose but get them to turn that ship around and I would be very happy to keep on paying my license fee.
As for the NHS - the idea is great but the reality is a typical bloated Government run department which is in the most terrible state and only massive changes with some private help can save it.
You only have to spend some time in or visiting hospitals now to know that it is broken and so are the Doctors and Nurses - all betrayed by successive Governments who continually boast about the money they are throwing at it knowing that most of it is just going to be wasted.
Bed reduction is the worst of the lot and weirdly - whilst Mr Blair boasted about what he was doing for the NHS he cut more beds than anyone during his and Gordon Brown's tenure.
Don't get me wrong - they are all bad but they were the worst.

A bit like moving to Cornwall.

Escapism is a large part of Television. In fact, it is one of the things that improves the quality of people's lives, especially when most people have dull, uninspiring ones.

We all pay for programs on all channels through advertising, so the BBC doing escapism is no different. The BBC needs to exercise its imagination on something different because it's normally focussed on avoiding the truth.