Catch up TV

Series 1: 3. Shooting the Rapids

The story of the BBC’s development of impartiality – starting with the General Strike of 1926, when the BBC was only three years old. In this major national crisis, John Reith, as its general manager, judged that his battle to prevent it being taken over by the government as an organ of propaganda was more important than a strict adherence to impartiality. \n\nBut 30 years later, in the Suez crisis, the BBC infuriated Downing Street by allowing the opposition equal time on the airwaves for the first time. Fifteen years further on, a controversial documentary about Harold Wilson’s shadow cabinet, entitled Yesterday’s Men, caused a rupture in relations between the Labour Party and the BBC. \n\nThe programme also describes the way Roman Catholic grievances in Northern Ireland were effectively ignored by the BBC in the years before the Troubles. \n\nAt the same time, Reith’s notion that the BBC should aim its programming 'above the heads' of the audience led to the creation of the Third Programme on radio and the fortnightly arts programme Monitor on television – which set out to make the highbrow popular. \n\nAs the BBC jealously guarded its independence from the state, some producers within the BBC struck out on their own, making programmes which were effectively outside the control of management. \n\nPresenters and producers of those days reflect with some embarrassment on the way women were treated on and off screen – by contributors, and by top BBC executives. \n\nAmong the participants in this landmark series are Joan Bakewell, David Attenborough, Paul Fox, Denis Tuohy, Martin Bell, Tony Bilbow, Monica Sims, David Dimbleby and Humphrey Burton – and Lord Reith’s secretary, Dorothy Singer.

Source: BBC 2