John Whittingdale invites Armando Iannucci for BBC ‘chat’

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/27/john-whittingdale-armando-iannucci-bbc

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Culture secretary John Whittingdale has invited Armando Iannucci to a meeting to discuss the future of the BBC and his MacTaggart lecture in which he accused ministers of in effect trying to kill off the corporation.

Whittingdale extended the invite to Iannucci in the wake of his speech on Wednesday night in which he rounded on politicians and Rupert Murdoch, comparing the government’s treatment of the BBC to a “doctor urging his patient to consider the benefits of assisted suicide”.

Iannucci, who satirised Westminster in The Thick of It, and US politics in his hit HBO show Veep, said he would gladly accept the offer, but played down the prospect of him being invited to join Whittingdale’s “expert panel” advising on the BBC’s future.

“He said ‘come and have a chat’ so obviously I will come and have a chat but it’s got to go deeper than that,” Iannucci told the Guardian.

“You can’t put one token creative on the panel, you’ve got to ask yourself what this panel is for and what it should represent. At least half the people on that panel should be from the creative side of television.”

Iannucci was fiercely critical of the panel, including former Channel 5 boss Dawn Airey and ex-ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis, for not featuring producers or creatives.

Whittingdale has defended its selection, saying it was purely an advisory role and the final decisions would rest with government. It is understood there were negotiations to have one creative on the panel but they came to nothing.

Asked if the meeting would be with a view to him joining its lineup, Iannucci said: “No I’m sure not but also that would be pointless because then you would just be one token creative.

“It’s to have a discussion about looking at asking questions about positives as well as negatives [about the BBC], about how we allow BBC Worldwide to be much more aggressive and completely commercial in how it makes money internationally, paying a subscription to access the BBC archive, anything that will bring money in that will take the pressure off the licence fee.”

Iannucci said Whittingdale had told him it was unfortunate that the announcement of the panel, part of the government’s review of the BBC in the runup to charter renewal, had come so close to funding announcement that saw the BBC saddled with the £650m cost of funding free licence fees for the over-75s.

Describing their exchange as a “perfectly civil conversation”, Iannucci said it was up to Whittingdale and his cabinet colleagues to “do a bit of joined- up government and not to market your plan in such a way that it looks like you are trying to shut the thing down”.

He added: “I’m always saying this whole thing should be a proper dialogue, a proper conversation, it shouldn’t be about the government versus the BBC, it should be about the government, production community and all broadcasters talking together about what will improve the BBC and give more value for money for the licence fee payer.

“Anything I say is not going to solve everything, I just wanted to start that alternative approach to the discussion.”