Topslicing, comedy and death

For those of you who don't know, there is an argument floating around that the license fee should be 'topsliced' and distributed to other channels that have also have public service remits. The reasoning is that these channels have to make public service programming with prvately aqcuired money while the BBC is making commercially viable prgramming with public money. People believe that the BBC should stick purely to making public service programming and leave the commercially viable programming to the commercial channels - The BBC doesn't need to make a commercial product and should not make progamming that competes with the commercial channel's interests while they (commercial channels) still have to pay large sums of money for news programming etc.

Now it's time I waded into the debate. I am wholly against this. i'll focus on the BBC's comedy output, as it's what I know best.

When we think about the public interest and what it is the beeb has to serve, we can delve into many areas. The BBC's MO is to "inform, educate and entertain" - now that does sound like a very fair and rational way to describe the public interest, but i've boiled it down to a sticky reduction.

The media exists to distract people from the fact that they will one day die.

That's it, pure and simple. The media is pure escapism, even factual programming and print media. This is why we preoccupy ourselves at all times, because we don't want to face the prospect of death. Now, what better form of escapism is there than comedy? Comedy completely tkes you out of your element and makes you feel good. Comedy makes people happy. You find me one person in the world who committed suicide after watching Trains, Planes and automobiles - It's impossible.

The BBC has a great pedigree when it comes to holiday. A bit of Fry and Laurie, The Office, Extras, Hancock's half hour, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers The Mighty Boosh, not the nine o clock news, TW3, gavin and stacey, bigipedia and innumarable others that have vastly enriched our lives throught the ages. Now what would be the purpose of stopping the BBC, with a proven track record for making comedy, from making these shows?

Here's my belief at its base level. The greatest public service a broadcaster can give is great comedy. The BBC excells in that field and long may it continue to produce such vibrant, necessary programming


Ollie