Alwyn W Turner
No Bartók before Breakfast
Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the Nation, 1974–1987
By Jean Seaton
Profile Books 384pp £30 order from our bookshop
The BBC has always infuriated political critics: in the early 1950s Winston Churchill described it as being ‘honeycombed with socialists’. But the arrival of Margaret Thatcher as leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, and then as prime minister four years later, added a new dimension to the attacks. Now it was not merely that the BBC’s content was under fire but also that the very existence of the corporation was under threat, for an institution that operated outside commercial constraints – even if it was funded by its very own poll tax – was never going to find favour with a politician so firmly wedded to the free market.
The combative relationship between premier and broadcaster nags away through much of Jean Seaton’s splendid and enthralling book; part of the pleasure is seeing an irresistible force repeatedly making so little impact on an immovable object. During the Falklands War, Thatcher accused the BBC of ‘letting our boys down’ and
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Perhaps, rather than having diagnosed a real societal malaise, she has merely projected onto an entire generation a neurosis that actually affects only a small number of people.'
@HoumanBarekat on Patricia Lockwood's 'No One is Talking About This'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/culturecrisis
*Offer ends in TWO days*
Take advantage of our February offer: a six-month subscription for only £19.99.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/literaryfebruary/
'Nourished on a diet of exceptionalism and meritocracy, millennials internalised the harmful falsehood that hard work necessarily yields success. The very least they should settle for is a "cool job", one that ... is the focus of their "passion".'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/workers-twerkers