‘Humour shouldn’t just come from one political viewpoint’: Radio 4 comedy bosses ordered to tackle shows’ Left-wing bias
- It told its factual producers to check ‘political assumptions underlying your idea’
- They are making efforts to counter concerns Radio 4 has become too miserable
Radio 4 is tackling criticism the BBC’s comedy output is guilty of a Left-wing bias by telling programme makers that ‘humour shouldn’t just come from one political viewpoint’.
The station has also told its factual producers to ‘check the political assumptions underlying your idea’.
Bosses are also making efforts to counter concerns Radio 4 has become too miserable, telling producers it was not looking for ‘unremitting grief and bleakness’ in its drama output.
Director-general Tim Davie has made impartiality one of his major priorities at the corporation. He was reportedly keen for the issue to be considered by the whole BBC and not just news.
Radio 4 comedy shows have come under fire for their handling of politics. In 2018, The News Quiz was censured for anti-Tory bias. The following year Jo Brand’s joke on Radio 4 comedy talk show Heresy, about throwing battery acid at politicians, was found by the BBC to have gone ‘beyond what was appropriate’.
The following year Jo Brand’s joke on Radio 4 comedy talk show Heresy, about throwing battery acid at politicians, was found by the BBC to have gone ‘beyond what was appropriate’
Just before Christmas, the station’s boss Mohit Bakaya said major political events had dominated the news in 2022 and at times it felt ‘kind of relentless’ for listeners. He said he wanted to ‘up our level of fun’ and was planning to launch a series of pilot comedy shows
The station regularly features Left-leaning comedians such as Mark Steel and Marcus Brigstocke, and has made an effort to redress the balance by having Right-leaning comedians such as Geoff Norcott on its shows.
In a briefing sent to programme makers, the station’s commissioning editor for comedy and entertainment, Julia McKenzie, told producers: ‘I want ideas from comedy writers, performers and producers from under-represented backgrounds and especially working-class voices from around the UK. We’ll get the best and richest range of comedy that way.
‘Breadth of perspective matters too – humour shouldn’t just come from one political viewpoint.’
The BBC has in the past been accused of being dominated by a ‘metropolitan’ world view which had left it out of touch with the public on issues such as Brexit, with The News Quiz accused of treating Leave voters as though they were ‘completely stupid’.
In a separate Radio 4 document aimed at factual programme-makers, it told them: ‘Check the political assumptions underlying your idea. We need a wide diversity of opinion on our network.’
These commissioning briefs, released last month, also reveal efforts are being made to address concerns Radio 4 has become too downbeat. Just before Christmas, the station’s boss Mohit Bakaya said major political events had dominated the news in 2022 and at times it felt ‘kind of relentless’ for listeners. He said he wanted to ‘up our level of fun’ and was planning to launch a series of pilot comedy shows.
In the briefing for drama producers, Alison Hindell, commissioning editor, drama and fiction, wrote: ‘While tragedy is rich and productive material for drama, our appetite for unremitting grief and bleakness is limited.’
Factual producers were told the station wants shows that ‘bring joy, humour or hope’. The briefing document said: ‘Not everything on Radio 4 has to tackle geopolitics or social ills. You might choose to focus on more subtle or positive forces at work in the world.’
The document, which also told programme makers to avoid making ‘geographic assumptions’, said it did not want anything that felt ‘overtly worthy’.
It also revealed Radio 4 is keen to revive the idea of the hit sketch show, citing previous comedies including The Fast Show, Goodness Gracious Me, Little Britain and French and Saunders.
Radio 4’s comedy department told producers: ‘I want you to capture the essence of how we live now in the way that past mighty sketch series have. Looking back… some of those characters have not aged well and some seem like caricatures, but at the time the majority of these tapped into something noticed but perhaps not articulated. When you get it right, they endure.’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We work with talent who hold a wide range of views and perspectives, while remaining focused on providing first rate entertainment.’
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