After Richard Sharp: who should chair the BBC?

A lot of people seem to agree that after Richard Sharp’s resignation the Government should no longer appoint the BBC’s Chairman. It’s easy to see why. But does this mean the BBC should be

trusted to appoint his successor?

The crucial point is that the BBC has appointed a terrible series of DGs over the years. Tim Davie (2020-) was appointed because of his supposed commercial acumen. The problem has been that

he has failed to deal with allegations of bias made against BBC News and made a complete hash of the Lineker affair, leading to a humiliating U-turn.

More seriously, Tim Davie’s short tenure has failed to show signs of a renaissance at the BBC. We still don’t know what BBC4 is for, apart from being a channel for repeats, mostly of old pop

music programmes. There is almost no original programming on BBC4 at all and nothing is left of the “place to think” we were promised over twenty years ago.

Tony Hall (2013-20) was dull. As I wrote for TheArticle when he left — unlamented — in 2020, he retired amidst a flurry of claims of sexual

discrimination by a number of well-known female presenters. His retirement came just a month after the worst-ever BBC General Election coverage, which perfectly symbolised the decline of BBC

News and Current Affairs under Lord

Hall. No one from the BBC, and certainly not Hall, explained why the BBC in those years became a home for the cranky Left, from Novara Media to Paul Mason and Owen Jones. Flagship programmes

like the Today programme, Question Time and Newsnight lost authority. That process has continued on Davie’s watch.

Under Hall, the BBC’s coverage of the First World War in 2014 showed a serious loss of ambition, compared to great historical series like The Great War (1964) and ITV’s The World at War

(1973-4). The deaths of Jonathan Miller and Bryan Magee were a reminder of the BBC’s golden age, when programmes like Men of Ideas and The Body in Question were mainstream.

Who can take on the enormous changes transforming global media today? The BBC can’t compete with Sky, BT or Amazon Prime for sports rights. No test cricket, no Champions League, live Premier

League. No wonder they go on and on about snooker.

The lack of money hasn’t just affected sports rights. It has also meant that BBC TV drama, once the best in the world, has struggled to compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Sky Atlantic,

Disney and Apple. If you were Phoebe Waller-Bridge or Jed Mercurio, whose call would you take first, the BBC or Netflix and Apple? They have carefully disguised the fact that some of the

best BBC drama series in recent years were in fact co-productions.

It’s a thankless job. Politicians meddle and threaten. There’s no new cash and the licence fee is under threat. And after years of cuts and sackings, the BBC is completely demoralised.

Well-known reporters and presenters are jumping ship and following the money.

Think of the excitement when Jeremy Isaacs ran Channel 4 (1981-87)  or when Michael Grade returned to the BBC as Chairman (2004). They were real personalities. We have not seen their like

since.

Since the BBC has failed to appoint an outstanding Director-General, a radical new head of News and Current Affairs, or channel controllers to compare with creative figures like Alan Yentob

or Michael Jackson way back when, why would anyone suppose it can be trusted to appoint a successor to Richard Sharp?

Of course, politicians can’t be trusted to appoint a new chair of the BBC either — or a new Director-General for that matter. Not just because of allegations of corruption and nepotism but

because they don’t know anything about the BBC. Damian Green, the acting chair of the cross-party culture, media and sport committee, said recently, “The Government must now ensure that it

recruits a new chair for the BBC who can demonstrate the integrity and impartiality needed for this role.”

That ship has sailed; it was never the central issue anyway. The two questions that matter now are: 1) Who should appoint the new Chair? And, much more important, 2) What is the future of

the BBC after national treasures like David Attenborough, David Dimbleby and (arguably) Gary Lineker, are fast-losing the affection of the nation? It can’t rely on Happy Valley, Strictly and

its superb coverage of royal events alone. Never mind Richard Sharp. That’s small beer. The big picture is far more worrying and it’s hardly surprising that journalists at the BBC or

anywhere else are not going near that one. Like Damian Green, they haven’t a clue.

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