ABSTRACT
The Granada excerpt was on BBC because it had won a Guild award. I read such stuff in the papers now, about what goes on at policy level (how many floors up?) in the BBC, that I'm just amazed and confused. But I hope somebody has noticed-and banged the odd desk-that though BBC programmes, justly enough, got most of the awards, there was an equally just preference, in news and current affairs, for lTV. That irony needs writing up somewhere. The BBC's strengths, the awards made it appear, were in being zany, whimsical, outdoor and artistic: lTV's in being informative. Given the degree of selection, and of course of fashion mixed up with it, it isn't at all the whole truth. But I have once or twice thought of starting this television review with "Since the BBC went commercial ... ", and my sentiments, really, are those of the group of producers and directors who have a letter in this week's Radio Times: an admirable statement, against what they call "the quietists".
