Street Porter points the gun at the Beeb and its local news coverage

Yesterday's Independent on Sunday carried a huge critique of the BBC from one of its former employees Janet Street Porter.

Shooting from the hip.the former champion of  "Yoof TV" compared the corporation to the Titanic.

But it was her thoughts on how the service deals with local news that caught my eye.

Here is what she had to say:

Chris Patten says he wants "more specialist and local content" on the radio, and regional television current affairs protected. Has he ever seen my local news, Look North, in Yorkshire? It is appalling, presented by a weird-looking bunch of people with zero charisma. At 10.15 it regularly features just three items covering a huge part of the UK. In Kent, South East Today has an equally random pick-and-mix agenda that tries and fails to cover a region ranging from wealthy bits of East Sussex to poverty-stricken Sheppey.

adding that

Local television current affairs should be culled. Leave it to newspapers and online coverage. As for local radio – just because bands of people complain, it doesn't mean these stations have a meaningful audience. The BBC is still guilty of massive over-staffing in news and current affairs. Why do we have to have a completely different hourly news bulletin on Radio 3 from Radio 4? News is news. Local bulletins are necessary only twice a day in drivetime. The current local regions are so large as to be pointless. Community radio and television broadcast online and staffed by special interest groups is the only way forward. That way I can watch my council meetings on my laptop

Is she correct.It is an interesting point and I suppose it revolves around whether other providers can step in where the Beeb no longer goes.

That is a question that will take up far much more room than on this blog

Jimmy Savile's nostalgic look back at TV in the north

In his last BBC TV interview before his death, Sir Jimmy Savile talked about the magical beginnings of Top Of The Pops.

Sir Jimmy recalled how the popularity of music TV was underestimated when the show began in 1964: “It was something that had to be tolerated, this pop music and long haired people.

“It was a magic mix,” he said. “The North and Top of the Pops, a magic mix.”

For the first three years, the iconic show was filmed at a disused church in Rusholme, Manchester, and it was here that The Supremes made their world television debut.

Sir Jimmy’s comments were filmed for TV Greats: Our Favourites From The North which will be shown on Saturday 26th November, 8.15pm,on BBC Two.

Presenter Tess Daly will be taking a nostalgic look back at some of the classic television programmes that have come out of the North West of England over the last 50 years.

As the BBC bids farewell to its Manchester studios to move into its new home in Salford, Tess is joined by a host of stars as they recall their favourite TV moments and celebrate the distinctly Northern flavour of shows ranging from It's A Knockout to The Mrs Merton Show, Dragons’ Den and A Question Of Sport.

Like Top Of The Pops, It’s A Knockout was also broadcast from Manchester before the BBC moved into the studios on Oxford Road. Presenter Stuart Hall, who describes It’s A Knockout as “the Olympic Games with custard pies”, reminisces about the early days. He recalls the quick work of the set and costume designers. Other stars, including Stuart Maconie, Debbie McGee and Juliet Morris give their take on the show’s huge impact as they remember the giant costumes, the famous Penguin Game and Stuart Hall’s infectious laugh.

Some of the nation’s best-loved comedians started out in the North West, from Peter Kay to Johnny Vegas, John Bishop to Steve Coogan. Caroline Aherne used to be a secretary at BBC Manchester, but her hidden talents came to the fore with the role of spoof chat show hostess Mrs Merton.

The Mrs Merton Show ran on BBC Two from 1995 and the first guest was Debbie McGee, wife of magician Paul Daniels. McGee recalls the moment when she was disarmed by Mrs Merton’s opening question: “What ever first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?”

Some of the programmes made in Manchester have revolutionised the way television is made. In 1987, Janet Street Porter moved from Channel 4 to the BBC in Manchester. She was tasked with revamping BBC Two to appeal to 16–24 year olds. She talks about how she wanted everything to look radically different to the way programmes had been made before when she created the programming strand DEF II, including Reportage and Rough Guide.

BBC Manchester is home to some of the most popular long-running entertainment programmes on TV. Last year A Question Of Sport celebrated its 40th anniversary. Mastermind was brought back to our screens in 2003 when it was revived by the entertainment team in Manchester and John Humphrys became the host.

Humphrys recalls how when he was approached to host the show, he thought the producers were asking him to be a contender, an offer he was sure he didn’t want to take up! Of the Mastermind contenders, he says: “However experienced at quizzes they are and however clever they are, you know they’re scared!”

Stuart Maconie is one broadcaster who has experienced that terrifying walk to the black chair first hand, when he appeared on Celebrity Mastermind. “When he says our next contender please, you feel a band of steel around your stomach,” he says.

BBC Manchester has also been home to the production team behind Songs Of Praise, which this year celebrated its 50th anniversary. Aled Jones talks about his own childhood memories of the series which has had such long-lasting appeal.

Tess Daly looks back at North West dramas including Life On Mars, Accused and The Street. Paul Abbott pays tribute to John Simm’s performance in the BBC One thriller Exile. Salford-born actor Christopher Eccleston gives his take on why the North West has produced so many great dramas.

“We all think we’re comedians don’t we?” he says. “There’s a great love of language in and around Manchester and Liverpool pubs… a great joy in language and a great joy in storytelling, in conversation actually, in the sense of a community and I think writers have tapped into that and brought it to a national audience.”

BBC announces December of celebrate sport at Media City

The BBC at Media City have Celebrate Sport,described as an action packed two-weeks of shows, events and interactive sessions taking place from 8 - 22 December.

During this time, some of the BBC’s biggest sport brands are inviting in live studio audiences and recording special shows for broadcast.

The ticket ballot opens today, with the first seven of the main audience shows announced:

• Dan Walker chairs a special Audience with Question of Sport with Sue
Barker, Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell bringing an evening of Question of Sport magic and hilarity (13 Dec)

• The BBC Philharmonic will give a unique Christmas Concert featuring the Manchester United Foundation Youth Choir on 15 December, which will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester at 1pm on Christmas Eve, and again on Christmas Day at 2pm (15 Dec)

• BBC Radio 5 live’s Fighting Talk live with Colin Murray who will act as judge and jury to a panel of special guests (17 Dec)

• BBC Radio 5 live’s iconic football phone-in 606 with regular co-host Jason Roberts in front of live studio audience for the first time (17 Dec)

• 5 live’s The Monday Night Club with Mark Chapman and guests including football legend John Motson, for an evening of football conversation and a look at the week's biggest sporting stories (19 Dec)

On the 22 Dec ,MediaCity hosts the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and a limited number of tickets are available for this as well as the BBC Radio 5 live Sports Personality backstage show with John Inverdale and guests including Michael Vaughan and Matt Dawson.

To apply for your free Celebrate Sport with the BBC tickets and get more information on the shows go to bbc.co.uk/showsandtours. The ballot closes at 4pm on Friday 18 November.

Beeb on track over financial savings says the Audit Office

The BBC is delivering value for money from its efficiency programme and is on track to exceed its target of delivering three per cent sustainable, cash releasing savings each year.

That's the conclusion from the National Audit office report on the BBC’s efficiency programme which has been released today.

As at March 2011,the commission says that the corporation has delivered £396 million of its £487m required and is forecasting it will deliver a further £164 million over the final two years of the programme.

Of the future savings, the BBC has classified £64 million as at risk, meaning that there is some uncertainty that the planned savings will be made, or performance maintained. However, the BBC is forecasting that it will achieve its target even if all of this risk materialises.

Head of the National Audit Office said in a statement

"The BBC’s efficiency programme is on track while its overall performance measured in terms of audience has not declined. The efficiency programme is therefore proving a clear success in the terms set for it. However, it is hard to say whether the target set was stretching enough and the BBC cannot say whether all the savings made amount to real gains in efficiency." and added

"To manage within its 2010 licence fee settlement, the BBC must strengthen its approach to targeting savings and create a culture of continually challenging how services are delivered."

The report also found that under the settlement the BBC will need to deliver further savings of at least 16 per cent over the period 2012-13 to 2016-17 to fund the new responsibilities transferred to it such as the World Service and S4C.

This will create a different financial context and the BBC considers that it will not be able to manage within its new licence fee settlement through delivering efficiencies alone.

Last month, the BBC unveiled a blueprint which includes selling off buildings, showing more repeats and shedding around 2,000 jobs by 2016 as part of its Delivering Quality First (DQF) programme that includes savings of £670 million a year by 2016/17.

Shock horror-more BBC bashing from the Mail

It was unlikely that the Daily Mail was going to let the BBC announcement on cutbacks go without another pop at the corporation and its top story this morning lives up to expectation.

The paper reveals that MPs are being handed thousands of pounds of licence fee money simply to appear on the BBC

The Mail says that senior politicians including Diane Abbott, Hilary Benn, Sir Menzies Campbell and Caroline Flint have enjoyed being paid to turn up on panel shows, according to research conducted on the parliamentary register of members’ financial interests.

Leaked report shows Beeb will protect Radio 4

As the BBC prepares to publish its wide-ranging review of its services on Thursday,the Sunday Telegraph contains a few leaked snippets

It claims that Radio 4 and BBC 1 will come out mainly unscathed from the review which aims to cut back the corporations spend following the agreement which saw the licence-fee frozen until 2016, meaning a drop of 16 per cent in its budget in real terms between 2010 and 2016.

According to the leaked information said to be from a BBC Insider,

there will be a particular focus on reducing the number of senior managers who earn more than £100,000 a year, there will be losses across departments with roles and jobs being merged.

with measures including

overnight programming will be axed from BBC One and BBC Two and sports competitions that are currently broadcast exclusively by the BBC could in future be shared with Sky

Trader speaks the truth to the BBC

The BBC has just put out a statement concerning yesterday's news channels interview with the trader Alessio Rastani.

"We've carried out detailed investigations and can't find any evidence to suggest that the interview with Alessio Rastani was a hoax. He is an independent market trader and one of a range of voices we've had on air to talk about the recession."

The trader told the BBC that he 'goes to bed every night dreaming of another recession"

Not the best way to make friends and influence in the current climate.The corporation has come under fire for airing the remarks and the internet has been ablaze with amazement at the remarks with people believing that the BBC had been the subject of a hoax.

Now that we know that these people really exist,one wonders whether he was actually speaking some sense such as.

The big money and the smart money…they are moving their money away to safer assets and that this economic crisis is like a cancer – if you just wait and wait hoping it’s gonna go away, just like a cancer it’s gonna grow and it’s gonna be too late.

Blue Peter moves to its "wired media hub" in Salford

Good news that a revamped Blue Peter is making the move to Salford.

Here is the story courtesy of BBC Manchester

Presenters Helen Skelton and Barney Harwood are on board, but producers have decided not to replace Andy Akinwolere, who left in June.
After 53 years in London, the show is among those to have moved in order to boost the BBC's presence in the north.
Blue Peter will get a new garden on a roof of the MediaCityUK studio complex.
Tim Levell, the show's editor, said the programme's purpose would remain the same but that the move was a chance to refresh it.
"Underlying everything, Blue Peter has the same values," he said.
"We are about telling younger viewers about things that are interesting to them - that's always been the same. The wrapping is slightly different but the present inside is still the same."

The piece adds that

The classic theme tune has been remixed by production duo Banks and Wag. "It is updated," Levell said. "It's got that electro-pop feel."

Eurosceptics triumph says the Spectator-Yah boo to the FT and the Beeb

This week's Spectator magazine is out and the right leaning publication takes on the Euro in its major article.

For Eurosceptics the battle appears to have been won writes the magazine

They were not merely right about the single currency, the greatest economic issue of our age — they were right for the right reasons. They foresaw with lucid, prophetic accuracy exactly how and why the euro would bring with it financial devastation and social collapse.

whilst for those who backed it they

find themselves in the same situation as appeasers in 1940, or communists after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They are utterly busted.

However the magazine turns its ammunition on two institutions who have backed the Euro,the FT which flung itself headlong into the pro-euro camp, embracing the cause with an almost religious passion and the BBC which in 2001 made a case for the euro that was represented by twice as many figures, interviews and soundbites as the case against.

Beeb to make Thatcher amends

According to the Sunday Times,the BBC is to make it up to Mrs Thatcher over its alleged bias whilst she was in power.

The paper reports that it will broadcast

a two-hour drama depicting her as a heroic victim in the final week of her premiership.
In the drama, Margaret, to be broadcast on BBC2 later this month, the actress Lindsay Duncan portrays the former prime minister as let down by a gaggle of pusillanimous, scheming men

Good spot from Iain Dale

Does the BBC know something that we don't

Ht-Iain Dale

Tory onslaught this morning on the Beeb

It appears that the Tories have launched into an attack on the BBC with their usual opportunism.

Their leader leads the charge with an article in the Sun.Whist respecting the age old principles and quality of the corporation he feels

The BBC has lost touch with the values of the people who support it through the licence fee

adding that

It’s become bloated with many of its executives overpaid

But he also attacks its foray into the domain of the local papers and its ventures into what he feels is outside of its remit,

What on earth was the BBC doing taking over the Lonely Planet guides and threatening other travel guide publishers with unfair competition?
Why is it now planning to take on struggling local newspapers with its plans for local online video news?

Meanwhile shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt writing on Centre Right backs up his leader saying

Firstly that the idea that it is ok to chase ratings for their own sake is dead and buried......Secondly the whole issue of salaries. Jonathan Ross's salary is worth the annual licence fee of 43,000 people, and 50 executives at the BBC are paid more than the Prime Minister. This has got to stop...........thirdly on decency and taste I hope it is now established that socially responsible broadcasters should not allow their talent to behave in a way that legitimises unacceptable behaviour

Now we have pro Cameron bias at the beeb

During the last Conservative government,the Today programme was always being accused of anti Tory bias.

Well the tables have turned.Labour MP Dawn Butler has written to the BBC complaining that David Cameron gets a n easy ride when being interviewed.

Three line whip publishes a copy of the letter in which she claims

Government folk think that Today keep asking Mr Cameron on to talk about subjects of his choice, and fail to ask him about "topical events". They claim that DC's last five appearances have followed that cosy format, unlike Gordon Brown and his team, who are regularly beasted on air

The Beeb has refuted the claims calling them rubbish and the Tory see further evidence of Gordon Brown's paranoia