Post by Teddy Bear on Aug 3, 2014 17:52:05 GMT
Jonathan Miller lays into the BBC and describes the mentality of those running it.
Hearing the response by the BBC to his comments I'm reminded of the sanctimonious response by Basil Fawlty spouting how his customers are so satisfied.
Hearing the response by the BBC to his comments
A spokesman for the corporation said Sir Jonathan's words were "not a description of the BBC we recognise", stating it is focused on making "great" television and radio.
BBC is run by 'media studies twerps', Sir Jonathan Miller says
Sir Jonathan Miller says the BBC is run by "media studies twerps" who insist on hearing about the "journey" of a television show
By Hannah Furness
The BBC is run by “media studies twerps” who insist programme-makers pitch shows using an incomprehensible “journey”, the director Sir Jonathan Miller has said.
Sir Jonathan, the comedian and opera director, said he no longer had the “faintest idea” what television commissioners wanted in meetings, with those in charge lacking basic curiosity.
He added the corporation is now run by “'twerps who all have degrees in Media Studies, which is like having a degree in stationery”.
Sir Jonathan, who trained as a doctor before finding fame in comedy Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett, has recently attempted to pitch a long-running scientific programme based on the phenomenon of phantom limbs.
His last major BBC commission was in 2004, for a programme on atheism.
Arguing his programmes would no longer get made, Sir Jonathan told the Mail of Sunday’s Event magazine executives do not have the same willingness to commission based on instinct.
Claiming he used to just “go upstairs” and tell the commissioners what he wanted to do, he said: “Now you go to a person called a commissioning editor, who says, ‘You haven't described the journey.’
“I don't have the faintest f------ idea what they mean. A curiosity about how we work is not enough for the Media Studies twerps.”
Last year, he condemned the "trivialisation of what is actually represented on television" today and called for a return to thoughtful programming.
He told the Cheltenham Literature Festival: "When I worked in television, in the Sixties and Seventies, it was possible to do very hard, quite difficult subjects about science, for example.
"The idea of doing a 15–part series on the history of medicine now is absolutely inconceivable. What you'd have to do is do a pitch to someone with a degree in media studies – juvenile twerps."
A spokesman for the corporation said Sir Jonathan's words were "not a description of the BBC we recognise", stating it is focused on making "great" television and radio.
Last month, during an appearance at the Telegraph’s Ways With Words literary festival, Sir Jonathan disclosed he was now intending to leave behind his showbiz career in favour of a fascination with the human body.
He told an audience he is currently preoccupied with the medical and psychological intricacies of gesture and “how we work”, claiming it is the “only” thing that interests him.
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, he has now hit out at a range of targets including the "idiot" David Cameron, the "extraordinarily uninventive" Richard Dawkins and the "grotesquely" ambitious late Sir David Frost, whom he accused of "stealing" his comic ideas.
Earlier this year, comedy producer John Lloyd also complained about problems with current executives, claiming those in charge are now drawn from "scheduling, marketing and car parking".
Speaking in May, he said: "The difficulty is at producer level because they are talking to a commissioner who is not an expert.
"Most comedy commissioners have never done five minutes of stand up, couldn’t write a sitcom, have never written a funny line but they are in the department and it’s their job to decide what the people will see.
"It's completely absurd and no-one in the system - if they've got any sanity - is happy. The controllers are sitting there all day terrified because there's going to come a subject about which they do not understand and do not like and they are expected to give an opinion on it."
John Cleese, speaking as Monty Python reunited for a final series of live shows this summer, said the corporation was made up of a "new echelon of BBC executives who can’t write, who can’t direct, who are not really associated with shows" who were nevertheless "supposed to know what they’re doing.”
A spokesman for the BBC said: "This is not a description of the BBC we recognise. We're focused on making great TV and radio which audiences tell us they love."
Sir Jonathan Miller says the BBC is run by "media studies twerps" who insist on hearing about the "journey" of a television show
By Hannah Furness
The BBC is run by “media studies twerps” who insist programme-makers pitch shows using an incomprehensible “journey”, the director Sir Jonathan Miller has said.
Sir Jonathan, the comedian and opera director, said he no longer had the “faintest idea” what television commissioners wanted in meetings, with those in charge lacking basic curiosity.
He added the corporation is now run by “'twerps who all have degrees in Media Studies, which is like having a degree in stationery”.
Sir Jonathan, who trained as a doctor before finding fame in comedy Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett, has recently attempted to pitch a long-running scientific programme based on the phenomenon of phantom limbs.
His last major BBC commission was in 2004, for a programme on atheism.
Arguing his programmes would no longer get made, Sir Jonathan told the Mail of Sunday’s Event magazine executives do not have the same willingness to commission based on instinct.
Claiming he used to just “go upstairs” and tell the commissioners what he wanted to do, he said: “Now you go to a person called a commissioning editor, who says, ‘You haven't described the journey.’
“I don't have the faintest f------ idea what they mean. A curiosity about how we work is not enough for the Media Studies twerps.”
Last year, he condemned the "trivialisation of what is actually represented on television" today and called for a return to thoughtful programming.
He told the Cheltenham Literature Festival: "When I worked in television, in the Sixties and Seventies, it was possible to do very hard, quite difficult subjects about science, for example.
"The idea of doing a 15–part series on the history of medicine now is absolutely inconceivable. What you'd have to do is do a pitch to someone with a degree in media studies – juvenile twerps."
A spokesman for the corporation said Sir Jonathan's words were "not a description of the BBC we recognise", stating it is focused on making "great" television and radio.
Last month, during an appearance at the Telegraph’s Ways With Words literary festival, Sir Jonathan disclosed he was now intending to leave behind his showbiz career in favour of a fascination with the human body.
He told an audience he is currently preoccupied with the medical and psychological intricacies of gesture and “how we work”, claiming it is the “only” thing that interests him.
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, he has now hit out at a range of targets including the "idiot" David Cameron, the "extraordinarily uninventive" Richard Dawkins and the "grotesquely" ambitious late Sir David Frost, whom he accused of "stealing" his comic ideas.
Earlier this year, comedy producer John Lloyd also complained about problems with current executives, claiming those in charge are now drawn from "scheduling, marketing and car parking".
Speaking in May, he said: "The difficulty is at producer level because they are talking to a commissioner who is not an expert.
"Most comedy commissioners have never done five minutes of stand up, couldn’t write a sitcom, have never written a funny line but they are in the department and it’s their job to decide what the people will see.
"It's completely absurd and no-one in the system - if they've got any sanity - is happy. The controllers are sitting there all day terrified because there's going to come a subject about which they do not understand and do not like and they are expected to give an opinion on it."
John Cleese, speaking as Monty Python reunited for a final series of live shows this summer, said the corporation was made up of a "new echelon of BBC executives who can’t write, who can’t direct, who are not really associated with shows" who were nevertheless "supposed to know what they’re doing.”
A spokesman for the BBC said: "This is not a description of the BBC we recognise. We're focused on making great TV and radio which audiences tell us they love."
