Is the BBC still in peril?

This book, a development enlarged and given a different focus of “Is the BBC in Peril?”, is timely following the announcement of the new BBC Director General, Tim Davie. Leading television executives, media academics, prominent journalists of varying stripes, economists and politicians all have their say.

In addition to the Foreword “The BBC and the dispassionate interrogation of those in power” by Peter Snow, and the Introduction by Tom Bradshaw, among the distinguished writers and commentators who have contributed to this book, with the title of their article, are:* Will Wyatt – “Just Imagine: the BBC is a broadcasting wonder and not to be discarded lightly”* Iain Dale – “Adequate reform of the BBC requires a Herculean effort”* Peter Bennett-Jones – “BBC managers must stay one step ahead of the barbarians at the corporation’s gates”* David Cox – “Protect the BBC’s purposes, not the obsolete institution”* Gillian Reynolds – “The causes of the BBC’s real and present danger”* Rob Wilson – “Time to face up and front up for the BBC”* Owen Bennett-Jones – “Life after the end of the licence fee”* Richard Sambrook – “There is opportunity amid the existential threat to the BBC”* Brian Winston and Matthew Winston – “Is its news operation the chink in the BBC’s armour?”* John Simpson – “The BBC will be different and smaller – but it must remain”* Damian Reilly – “In Defence of the BBC”* Ivor Gaber – “The BBC is biased, but…”* Andrew Graham – “With fake news increasing why kill a truth-teller?”* Steven Barnett – “Does Johnson have a Willie Whitelaw?”* Tom Bradshaw – “Auntie on the Sports Journalism Dance Floor”* Ray Snoddy – “The BBC in a political minefield”* Fiona Chesterton – “A Letter to the New DG”* Simon Albury – “Democracy – and not just the BBC – is in peril”; * Jean Seaton – “Putting the National Interest First – Reimagining the BBC for its Second Century”* Jane Martinson – “Just how independent of government is the BBC?”* John Mair – “Dom’s Dystopia 2027”

So how should the new DG re-focus and take forward the BBC? Inside these pages he will find no end of challenging, exciting and controversial ideas and suggestions. This book is a major contributor to a debate important to everyone interested in the health of our body politic.