Roger Bolton's Beeb Watch

One of Britain’s finest reporters Peter Taylor, with numerous books, documentaries and awards spanning a career of over 50 years, discusses his latest BBC 2 documentary based on his book published this week; 'Operation chiffon: The Secret Story of MI5 and MI6 and the Road to Peace in Ireland'. "We spent a couple of weeks just living inside the Maze prison. We were locked up with prisoners and...

Jamie Angus left the BBC last July after a stellar career involving editing the Today programme and Newsnight. He later became director of the World Service, running the teams which produce news in 42 languages to a weekly audience of 500 million around the world. Now he's chief operating officer at Al Arabiya news channel in the United Arab Emirates and is moving into the space left by the axing...

Protests in Israel continued over the weekend against the government's plans which would give Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, the power to overrule Supreme Court decisions with a simple majority and the power to nominate judges. Israel has no second chamber and no written constitution, so if this measure goes through there can be no appeal. Dame Margaret Hodge, who is the parliamentary chai...

Roger Mosey, former editorial director of the BBC, head of TV news and director of sport discusses the handling of the Gary Lineker and Fiona Bruce controversies, the BBC board and its vision and the leaked emails and WhatsApp messages showing BBC editors asking their journalists to avoid using the word “lockdown” in reporting at the start of the pandemic and to be more critical of Labour after pr...

On Tuesday the BBC announced cuts to its orchestras and choirs. Its in-house chamber choir, the BBC Singers will come to an end and there will be a 20% reduction of roles in the BBC's English orchestras - Symphony, Concert and Philharmonic. Paul Hughes, the former BBC Director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and of the BBC Singers left his post last July after 23 years. He gives his react...

Ken Bruce is the most popular presenter in the UK with over 8 million listeners on Radio 2 and he's about to join former colleague Simon Mayo at Greatest Hits Radio. Simon discusses Ken's departure from the BBC. "The situation has been handled badly." Subscribe and support the podcast here . Find all our podcasts  here @simonmayo @BeebRoger @ RogerBolton@mastodonapp.uk roger@rogerboltonsbeebw...

“In 2015 at the time of the Charter Review, more than 40,000 people responded to the BBC Trust on its consultation. The latest BBC consultation there was something like 25 responses because people didn’t know about it.” Colin Browne, chair of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer argues that there is now the absurd position that the BBC’s competitors have more power to influence the BBC’s abil...

Dr Tom Mills, a sociologist at Aston University, has written a book called 'The BBC: Myth of a Public Service'. It claims to set aside both liberal and conservative fantasies about the institution, and says that far from being a sanctuary for independent journalism, the BBC is intimately connected to the power it is supposed to hold to account. We discuss issues raised in the book on organisationa...

On Tuesday Richard Sharp the BBC chairman faced questions from the Department of culture, media and sport select committee. They were examining the process of the appointment of the BBC chairman, and as the committee which approved his appointment were they given the relevant information it could and should have known about.   Richard Ayre, a former controller of editorial policy and deputy c...

As part of its impartiality plan, this week the BBC published its report looking at the broadcaster's coverage of taxation, public spending, government borrowing and debt. The authors found no evidence of bias towards one particular political position, but there were things "that put impartiality at risk". Paul Mason discusses the report's findings and reflects on his own experiences working at th...

Controversy is currently surrounding BBC chairman Richard Sharp amidst allegations that he helped Boris Johnson when the then Prime Minister found himself in personal financial difficulties, and while Mr Sharp’s application to become BBC chairman was approaching the final stages. He did not declare the alleged conflict of interest to those involved. Richard Ayre, a former controller of editorial p...

Conservative peer Baroness Tina Stowell has had an extraordinary career since she left school with 5 O Levels. Leader of the House of Lords under David Cameron, following a period as Head of Corporate Affairs at the BBC, and now chair of the House of Lords Communications and Digital Select committee – a committee that is vital to the future of broadcasting. Baroness Stowell tells us her views on f...

Dorothy Byrne was until recently Editor at Large at Channel 4, having been its head of news and current affairs for many years. We discuss the government's decision not to privatise Channel 4 and its plans for reform. Should the channel start making its own content and should more right wing voices be heard? And is there a need for radical ideas in broadcasting. “I think it is interesting to me, t...

“The public service broadcasting system is undoubtedly facing an existential threat,” so says Sir Peter Bazalgette. He has been responsible for shows such as Big Brother , Changing Rooms and Ready Steady Cook and in September he stepped down as chair of ITV. We discuss the importance of the Media Bill and the existential threat to broadcasters, privatisation of Channel 4, the BBC's visio...

In the second part of his interview with Richard Ayre, a former member of the BBC trust board, Roger discusses why he is a Christian and answers questions on Brexit coverage, diversity and BBC cuts and coverage. Support the podcast by subscribing here .   @BeebRoger @RogerBolton@mastodonapp.uk roger@rogerboltonsbeebwatch.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After over 50 years in broadcasting, and being fired twice by the BBC, Roger Bolton is interviewed on his career by Richard Ayre, a former member of the BBC trust. Roger talks about his departure from BBC Radio 4's Feedback, editing Panorama and Nationwide and discusses the controversy surrounding his 'Death on the Rock' programme in 1988 which examined the deaths of three IRA members in Gibr...

As we experience a wave of strikes in the coming weeks from nurses, train, postal, bus, ambulance and highway workers amongst others, how well is the BBC reporting on this myriad of industrial conflicts we are now faced with, and how does it compare to yesteryear?   Nick Jones, who spent thirty years as a BBC industrial and political correspondent until 2002 gives us his views and reaction to...

On Thursday the first three of six Netflix documentaries about Harry and Meghan were released and BBC News led with the story. Did BBC News fall for the PR and were its correspondents impartial in their coverage? And in the same week the BBC hierarchy began a coordinated campaign to secure its future. The Chairman, the former hedge fund boss and Conservative donor, Richard Sharp gave his first int...

In a week when the 2021 census revealed a 5.5 million fall in the number of people who described themselves as Christian and that 22.2 million people declared they had “no religion” at all, the BBC’s ex-Head of Religious Broadcasting, Ernie Rea, casts a critical eye over the BBC’s coverage of religion and ethics.   “When you think that about 82% of the population of the world cling to a faith...

Peter York, best known for co-authoring 'The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook' back in the 80’s has written another book ‘The War Against the BBC’ with Professor Patrick Barwise. On this week’s programme he bursts some BBC myths, discusses astroturfing and urges the BBC to defend itself more robustly and report on the threat to the corporation for the sake of democracy. “The war against the BB...

If anyone deserves to be called a Renaissance man then one of the leading contenders must surely be Stephen Fry, actor, novelist, comedian, campaigner, Norwich City Football fanatic, long time host of QI, gay icon and the list goes on. Having just closed his twitter account after Elon Musk’s takeover, transferring his loyalties to Mastodon, we talked to him about the BBC, the future of public serv...

The most recent evidence of the BBC’s financial strait jacket are the cuts to local radio, and the difficulties of deciding what to cut is evident in the continuing outcry at the announcement made last week. Not least in parliament. Alice Enders the director of research at Enders Analysis, one of the foremost media research analysts, spells out the financial challenges that the BBC faces.   “...

Ahead of COP27 and free of BBC constraints, former BBC science editor, David Shukman tells us whether he thinks COPS are worthwhile, reflects on his reporting during his 38 year career at the BBC and responds to the charges made by Charles Moore on last week's programme on climate change coverage.   “Looking back, I don’t think we were robust enough about just saying absolutely bluntly, this...

What would Charles Moore, former editor of The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator have done if he had become chairman of the BBC? These are one of the many questions put to one of the BBC's most outspoken critics on 'Roger Bolton's Beeb Watch' this week. We discuss impartiality, group think, climate change coverage and whether the BBC is worth saving and is capable of being sa...

The BBC has been celebrating its 100th anniversary – if you hadn’t noticed - and on ‘Beeb Watch’ this week Roger Bolton talks to one of it's greatest broadcasters – Melvyn Bragg. They discuss arts programming, BBC World Service cuts and the future of the BBC. “I think we should start panicking now. There is an encroaching mass, not dependent or related to each other, but it’s out there i...