Controversy rages over the value of the BBC licence fee. Rumours abound as to precisely when comic geniuses Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand will return to our screens. Jeremy Clarkson continues unscathed after a joke about truck drivers murdering prostitutes. Georgina Baillie is left to roam Erotica 2008 – “the world’s largest lifestyle show for adults” – wondering where it all went semi-naked.
And in the midst of all this, BBC Radio 4′s Law in Action – for 20 years the only radio programme dedicated to demystifying and explaining the law to non-lawyer listeners – is to be slashed from 28 programmes a year to a mere 12.
For Edward Garnier QC, the shadow justice minister, the decision is baffling. “It seems strange that, at a time when the BBC is under attack for producing offensive and infantile broadcasts at enormous public expense and of little public service value, it proposes to reduce Law in Action, which makes a real contribution to public awareness of what could otherwise remain a dry, esoteric and hidden subject,” he opined in the Times recently.
Perhaps, though, the BBC could pursue the cutting edge mantra for which it is, latterly at least, famous? Why not retain Law in Action’s 28 editions but do away with the incumbent presenter – Clive Coleman, a barrister – and replace him with… Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand! No one could ever say that the law was in danger of being dry, esoteric and hidden again.
Although we might not learn anything either.
Which way will the BBC choose? To recommit to the excellent Law in Action or continue with the plan to cut it? Sadly, the image above sums it all up.
