My greatest wish in life was to work for the BBC. It is still my greatest wish. I know it will never come true. I always knew it would never happen. But nevertheless it was my dream. I will go into my reasons. Hard to explain reasons but I know the BBC is an organisation that is admired worldwide. The BBC's motto is - Inform, Educate, Entertain. From this simple thought a philosophy has arisen that I believe has not been bettered. Now what was this philosophy? Well it is sometimes explained in what it isnt. and it can be explained in what it is aiming for. I believe the BBC Philosophy is always aimed at helping the world become more civilised. It believes in civilisation. It is always on the side of decency. It wants the world to do the decent thing. The BBC thinks long and hard about these issues. The BBC is never dogmatic. It never preaches. It always tries to be fair. Orwell was a minor employee of the BBC but he enjoyed writing about and commenting on the BBC. To the point 70 years later when Orwell's writing has not faded from the public's consciousness they have allowed a statue of him to be erected outside their building and have allowed a saying from Animal Farm to be put up on their wall next to the statue. If Liberty means anything at all it means telling governments what they don't want to hear. I cannot help but think of Margaret Thatcher. Both the statue and the comment would infuriate her. The BBC has always insisted on being independent of government. This amongst other things has infuriated Rupert Murdoch and he has continually hacked away at the BBC for the past 50 years. The BBC has not always responded in the right way. They should ignore him. But they don't. It has attempted to match Mr Murdoch by going down market in places. Television News for Instance. It tries to be sensationalist much in the same way as Mr Murdoch. I don't like it. His argument is that the BBC are taking revenue off him and cannot be as independent as he is. I don't entirely agree with this - well not at all. The BBC is not necessarily taking any revenue off him. And would his revenue increase if the BBC was closed down. And could he keep up the high standards of the BBC. Would he even try. What are Mr Murdoch's aims. Is it anything other than to make money and exercise power. Enjoy himself. Does he even consider he has any responsibilities to the wider public. He probably claims that he has his thoughts on what can benefit society and he needs to push them. The closest I got to the BBC was to be in an audience. I was in a queue waiting to go into the viewing area of the Post Office Tower when a person came along the queue asking if people wanted to go to the making of a televison show. I took one of the paper forms required and filled it in. In time tickets were sent to me. The TV studio was in Golders Green. The show was the Roy Castle Show. His guest was Spike Milligan. When Spike was introduced to the audience he said "Where are we?". The crowd yelled out "Golders Green". "Are you Jewish?" Spike asked. Great laughs from the audience. This was the closest I got to working for the BBC. The producer came on stage and said he was a recent Cambridge graduate but don't let this worry you. He said he wanted us to laugh as loud as we could. He had a definitely upper class accent. I knew that I could never compete against someone like this. In Australia I had been conditioned to believe that I could never equal anyone else but I had a slight confidence that in England I maybe could amount to something. But not against this bloke. No one in the world would ever accept that I was equal to this bloke. I learned a few things. The show was taped and some songs had to be sung twice. Lots of jokes were told that didn't make the show. At the end of the taping almost a separate show was held and jokes of a blue nature were told and the resultant loud laughter was inserted into the show where the acceptable jokes were told. The show was supposed to be set in a nightclub and the people at tables had knives and forks, plates etc, glasses etc. But no food. Spike Milligan was a conventional comedian telling jokes. Playing the trumpet. Pretending he was hit in the face with a golf ball. Losing a tooth.
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