BBC: Under The Mistletoe

The BBC Christmas ad features two fellas kissing - for about two seconds (alongside a lot of other stuff; dogs, people eating kebabs etc).

Obviously the gay media are very excited, and think it's 'adorable'.

Oh, to be so banal and so easily pleased.

Mail On Sunday: What A Load Of Wank (As Per)

Mail On Sunday.

Oh do piss off.

You had a five minute slot on a radio comedy show that runs twelve weeks a year.

You were elbowed out cause the BBC has an admirable commitment to not just having a load of blokes on programmes like that, and you were the unfunniest.

Race never entered into it.

BBC: It's What We're All Asking

Of all the things wrong with the BBC, it would be hard to argue that a shortage of gay people making and presenting programmes is one of them. As Andrew Marr observed a decade ago: ‘The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It’s a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities, and gay people. It has a liberal bias, not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias.’

Why, then, is the government intent on making the BBC even more gay? In one of the less-reported sections of this week’s white paper on the future of the corporation, John Whittingdale lays down a target that 10 per cent of senior leadership roles at the BBC be filled by LGBT staff by 2020...

Spectator blog. 

Does point out that the 'We are 10%' fallacy is now discredited as a gross over-estimate, but that's not really the point here (and the anti-gay right often argues we are a tiny minority with too much influence, bit like the Jews).

It's really about the old right-wing gripe, that BBC stands for Buggers Broadcasting Communism.

QED...

Mail On Sunday.

BBC: More More More

Yesterday's Mail.

Sounds good to me.

Versailles: Bottom

It's the new BBC blockbuster that cost £21 million to make – but it seems not a lot of that was spent by the costume department.

Versailles is described by the Corporation as ‘a delicious treat’ for viewers, but MPs and family rights campaigners are outraged by its nudity and graphic sex scenes, and have described it as ‘porn dressed up in a cravat and tights’.

The lavish French-made series – which depicts the decadent and debauched life of France’s Sun King, Louis XIV – is set to be the most sexually graphic costume drama ever shown on British TV.

The first episode includes gay sex, a cross-dressing prince, and a queen with a penchant for dwarves. In one scene, the king, played by English actor George Blagden, is seen burying his head between his mistress’s thighs...

But in Britain, it is the sex scenes that are getting campaigners hot under the collar. Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said: ‘There are channels where, if you wish to view this sort of material, you would have to pay for it. BBC viewers don’t have a choice. They have to pay for it whether they approve or not.

‘Is this an example of the BBC dumbing down and seeking more sensationalised programming? That’s an arms race to the bottom – quite literally in this case.’

Daily Mail. 

Naturally, no-one is actually 'outraged', so the Mail phoned a silly Tory MP and some-'pro-family' campaigners for quotes.

Good to see Pink News republishing this manufactured outrage without question, and inventing some tosh of their own; 'New BBC drama to show ‘most explicit’ gay sex ever seen on TV' - something that nobody has said.

Well done!

Iain Lee: Flabbergasted

Former BBC presenter Iain Lee said he was “flabbergasted” after the corporation’s trust ruled an interview in which he labelled anti-gay views as bigotry broke its editorial guidelines.

Lee, a former presenter of Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show, left his breakfast slot on BBC Three Counties Radio after the clash with a Christian lawyer and a former prison worker who cited verses from the Bible listing homosexuality as a sin.

Lee told lawyer Libby Powell: “Do you support bigotry? Yes, homophobia is bigotry … People like you break my heart because you’re doing Christianity and religion a real disservice.”

He later told the preacher, who was claiming constructive dismissal at an employment tribunal: “I find the view that being gay is sinful, I find that view completely repugnant and disgraceful.”

The trust’s editorial complaints unit said it was a “serious breach” of the BBC’s editorial guidelines for impartiality. It said Lee “did not show due impartiality” and behaved in an “inappropriately combative manner”.

Lee said on Twitter: “Genuinely, I’m flabbergasted. The report contains examples of where I was wrong. Apart from one line, I kept replying ‘what’s wrong with that?’” ...

Media Guardian.

Fucking ridiculous.

Fagburn usually defends the BBC from its bashers, but this 'Giving bigots airtime unchallenged for 'balance'' is such tosh.

Tweet Of The Day: Gay Mafia

Both #BBC and #ITV are run by gay mafia. Why are we allowing this shit? #justasking

— Alexander Nekrassov (@StirringTrouble) January 25, 2016

A laughable response to the equally laughable Panorama documentary that Putin is secretly MADE OF GOLD!

Alan Bennett: May Days

8 May. A feeling of bereavement in the streets. I shop for supper and unprompted a grey-haired woman in the fish shop bursts out: ‘It means I shall have a Tory government for the rest of my life.’

In the library they say: ‘Good morning, though we’ve just been trying to think what’s good about it.’

I wanted a Labour government so that I could stop thinking about politics, knowing that the nation’s affairs were in the hands of a party which, even if it was often foolish, was at least well-intentioned. Now we have another decade of the self-interested and the self-seeking, ready to sell off what’s left of our liberal institutions and loot the rest to their own advantage. It’s not a government of the nation but a government of half the nation, a true legacy of Mrs Thatcher. Work is the only escape, which fortunately moves along a little.

9 May. My birthday. A nice woman in a leopardskin coat who always speaks wishes me a happy birthday. I say that I wish it was. ‘Why? What’s happened?’ ‘Last Thursday. The election.’ ‘Oh, you don’t want to worry about that. They’re all the same.’ At which point (we are in Shepherd’s grocers) I hear myself as very rarely shouting at the top of my voice. ‘No, they are not all the same. This lot are self-seeking liars, the cabinet included, and we’re landed with them for another five years.’ She tries to calm me down but I tell her not to bother, with other customers peeping round the shelves to see who is making all this din.

She is waiting outside the shop with a cake she has bought me for my birthday and I kind of apologise. But as I walk back home I wonder how long it will be before this crew turn their attention to the BBC.

From Alan Bennett's diary, London Review Of Books.

The drawing is an old one he unearthed of Miss Shepherd, the lady in the van.

PS Alan writes about recording the Christmas edition of Private Passions for the BBC World Service, which you can hear here.

It Ain't Half Naff Mum: Why?

Express.

Well, technically they have made it available again, hence your article.

Can you think of any other 70s sitcom the BBC are currently re-showing?

Never mind the fact this is a load of dated unfunny crapola.

'You bunch of poofs!' Oh, how we laughed...

UK: DPRK

The BBC: The World Service

Well, seeing as the Beeb's just had their funding cut by 20% this makes so much sense.

Unless...

Cliff Richard: Unnecessary Distress

A deal between the police and the BBC to film Cliff Richard’s house being raided has been slammed by a new report.

The previously unpublished investigation says the deal should never have been done.

Senior officials at South Yorkshire Police are branded incompetent and the BBC dishonest in its explanation of how it found out about the raid.

As police swooped on Sir Cliff’s £3.5million home in Berkshire last August over a sex assault allegation from 1985 images of the raid were beamed round the world from a camera filming from a helicopter.

Now a damning report by independent investigator and former chief constable Andy Trotter has concluded that police were wrong to confirm details of the investigation to the BBC.

The report also found Sir Cliff’s privacy had been breached by effectively confirming his identity as a suspect.

Mr Trotter says: “People have seen a search of Sir Cliff Richard’s apartment unfold on television with details of a serious allegation put into the public domain prior to him being interviewed by the police.

“The search and the nature of the allegation... certainly interfered with his privacy and may well have caused unnecessary distress.”

Sir Cliff, 74, has not been arrested or charged and has branded the historic allegations against him as “completely false” ...

Daily Mirror.

I know Beeb-bashing is a favourite pastime of certain newspapers, but this was a truly disgusting, shameful episode - fuelled in part by some 60 years of schoolboy sniggers about Sir Cliff's sexuality.

Gotcha?

Doctor Who: What?

Dear The Independent,

Three (3) people made that complaint in an 18 month period.

This is so statistically insignificant 'one in ten million viewers complained' doesn't come close.

Thus THIS IS NOT FUCKING NEWSWORTHY!

Someone even complained that Miranda made fun of tall women FFS.

Good day, and have a happy new year.

x

PS Fagburn is still on holiday, but by Jesus Christ and Christopher Biggins.

Mary Whitehouse: Ban This Filth!

An image of the late Mary Whitehouse, scourge of TV’s moral turpitude, was projected onto the side of BBC Broadcasting House in London earlier this week to mark the 50th anniversary of Mediawatch-UK (formerly the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association), the group she founded to campaign for “socially responsible media”. Monkey is not quite sure what Whitehouse would have made of the anniversary being marked with a PR stunt previously employed by FHM to project a naked image of Gail Porter onto the Houses of Parliament, but there you go. Mediawatch-UK also marked the anniversary by publishing a survey in which, when asked “Have you ever seen anything on television that you felt was inappropriate prior to the 9pm watershed”, every single one of the 2,009 respondents replied in the affirmative. So that’s a 100% yes vote – the sort of poll result more usually associated with places like North Korea. Did Mediawatch-UK employ Sir Humphrey Appleby to set the survey questions, per chance?

Guardian MediaMonkey.

Mediawatch-UK's website is a constant source of mirth.

BBC Autumn Highlights: Gay Porn And Propaganda

Brace yourself because a whole host of gay characters are about to hit your TV screen.

BBC drama boss Ben Stephenson – paid a staggering £247,800 per year, paid for by your TV Licence – has declared that he is making it his business to make his homosexual persuasion everyone else’s. *

The compulsory TV Licence for television owners in Britain goes entirely to the BBC. Are you happy paying for this kind of television?

From the BNP Facebook page.

Have to say I'm shocked to hear these racists cunts are still going.

The BBC will show gay porn on CBeebies!!

* This is a twisted version of a talk given six months ago.

Thought For The Day: Lenny Henry

“All of those people in the audience who watch those shows and complain that there aren’t enough black and Asian (people), and gay and women and people with disabilities and transgender… they need to start lobbying, to start writing letters, they need to start emailing.

“At some point soon there’s going to be a campaign and we want everybody to get behind it, write letters to parliament, write letters to government, write letters to your MP and say we think it’s time there was a change.”

Lenny Henry in an interview with The TV Collective, and quoted in The Independent. 

Though if you read their article you'll see that Lenny 'said he wasn't advocating non-payment of the licence fee.'

Well done The Indy!

Wonder how or if the Daily Mail will cover this.

Plus side: A chance to bash the BBC.

Down side: Might get more blacks and gays on TV.

Decisions, decisions...

Paul Flowers: Vultures

“There is a phrase for some people, they call them vultures, and I really do hope that somebody quotes me on that, especially the BBC. The BBC have been really nice to me but the rest of you are vultures.”

The Times.

Paul Flowers addresses the good gentlemen of the press after being charged with possession of some very naughty drugs.

'They'll trip you up and laugh when you fall...'

PS The Daily Mail are not happy!

Scroll down for video!

BBC: Boyfriend Broadcasting Corporation!

The BBC has commissioned a five-part TV series written by the boyfriend of its head of drama.

London Spy, billed as a “gripping, contemporary, emotional thriller” is written by Tom Rob Smith, an English author whose debut novelChild 44 was nominated for a number of awards. Smith is also the partner of Ben Stephenson, the BBC’s £240,000-a-year controller of drama commissioning.

The BBC denied that there was any conflict of interest because Mr Stephenson had not dealt with the project. It was instead approved by Janice Hadlow, the controller of BBC Two at the time, and Polly Hill, the head of independent drama. A spokeswoman said: “Ben Stephenson was not involved in commissioning London Spy. He recused himself from the process.” ...

The Times.

Fagburn is offering the heading above for free to the Daily Mail, who I have feeling will be OUTRAGED by this.

PS Last month Ben Stephenson expressed concern at the lack of gay characters on TV. Via Broadcast.

Mail Online readers loved that one, natch.

Letter Of The Day: The Times

BBC: Free Speech

The BBC was accused of censorship on Thursday after its BBC3 debate show Free Speech dropped a question about being Muslim and gay at the request of the mosque where it was being filmed.

The live show, hosted by Rick Edwards and featuring a panel including government minister and Lib Dem peer Susan Kramer, broadcast a pre-recorded question by Asifa Lahore, self-described as Britain's "first and only gay Muslim drag queen" who asked: "One question I would like to ask the Muslim community is, when will it be right to be Muslim and gay?" ...

In a statement, a spokesman for the programme said: "BBC3's Free Speech is determined to discuss the issues that matter to its viewers. However, out of respect to the Birmingham Central Mosque, who hosted the programme on Wednesday 12th March, the decision was made to delay the debate on Muslim gay rights to a future programme.

The Guardian.

An absolute classic masterpiece of meta ironic fuckwittery.

Well done the BBC, another winner! etc etc.

PS The Daily Mail and the usual racist gay journalists will love this. 'Imagine if they said that about muslims! Err hang on...' etc etc.

Update: Or is it? 

Update2: THIS HAS MADE MAIL ONLINE READERS' BRAINS EXPLODE!!!