Episode 10 Points of View

Apologising for Mrs Brown, was it necessary?

Viewers cry fault over Wimbledon coverage.

And why did TV news ignore the anti-austerity demo?

Welcome to Points Of View.

Good afternoon.

Now, we start not with what was on your televisions this week,

but what was not on.

There have been more than 6,000 complaints to the BBC

over its lack of coverage of an anti-austerity demo

in the centre of London last Saturday.

The demo, which organisers say was attended by 50,000 people,

was covered by the BBC's News Channel...

Thousands of people have marched in central London.

'..but there was no mention of it on BBCs One

'and Two's main news bulletins.

'And, for many, the decision by these channels to ignore'

such a large-scale protest was a big mistake.

Last week the BBC ignored an anti-austerity march that

had more than 50,000 protesters and began right outside its front door.

It's hard to avoid the belief that the BBC's doing this deliberately.

They give uncritical voice to the government's opinion,

they ignore the opposition to austerity.

The BBC has become too enmeshed with the establishment that it should be

holding to account and the result is that those who oppose austerity

find themselves ignored and unrepresented by the BBC.

If the Corporation doesn't begin to reflect the concerns

and experiences of millions of us,

we are likely to stop supporting you

and that's an existential threat to the Corporation because

without our support and without our licence fees the BBC cannot exist.

The BBC needs to remember its role, which is to report without bias

and to hold politicians to account.

That doesn't mean Paxman-style attack interviews, it means

an open debate and equal exposure to all mainstream political opinions.

The BBC must give coverage to a wider range of views,

you must hold power to account

and you must do this without fear of this or any government.

If you're unable to do so, you no longer serve a purpose.

OK, so we put these complaints to BBC News

and we asked for an interview, but we were turned down.

They did give us a rather long statement, though,

too long to read in full here.

But in it they pointed out that,

as well as coverage on the BBC News Channel,

there were also reports on the BBC News website and on social media.

The bottom line, they say, is that

last weekend the demo was trumped by other events.

There may never be an end to the debate over what should and

shouldn't make news running orders and how those decisions are made.

Moving on, and the start of a brand-new Saturday night

entertainment show with a familiar feel.

Oh, in cricket! Bat!

LAUGHTER

It's a catch, you know...

A diving catch, a diving catch! A diving catch!

Yeah, there you go, well done.

The Question Of Sport spin-off series with plenty of stunts

really dividing fans of the original format.

As a family with young children,

we like nothing more on a Saturday evening than to

sit around the telly and watch some really entertaining programmes.

The new BBC One show Super Saturday from the Question Of Sport team

really fitted that bill for us, it was hilarious.

We were in hysterics throughout but it wasn't in bad taste,

it was great, great guests,

brilliant to see the Question Of Sport theme running through it

with Matt Dawson and Phil Tufnell continuing as captains

and really great to see Jason Manford back on our screens as well,

as he always makes us laugh.

Shots coming in from both ends of the pitch on this one.

Now, just to be clear, Question of Sport proper

has not been replaced and we're reliably told normal service

will be resumed in the autumn.

Staying with the sporting theme

and the battle to conquer at Wimbledon is truly heating up.

But some of you feeling the amount of coverage given to the tennis

is conquering the schedules.

And, for those who do want to watch the tennis,

frustration over the amount of channel hopping during matches.

Well, Andy's certainly in the driving seat on Centre Court.

We're leaving that match here on BBC Two

but if you want to continue watching you can over on BBC One.

So Murray's match over on BBC One,

here on Two we're going to take you back to Court 12

to see Johanna Konta of Great Britain,

a match we were watching earlier.

Yep, just like that. Trouble is, those people who wish to

record the action and then view it later in the day are being thwarted.

I'd just to like to complain about the BBC's coverage of Wimbledon.

I'm not complaining about the shots, the footage,

all the action, I don't mind that,

I'm sick to death of you changing channels halfway through a match.

I ring up from work,

"There's a match starting I want to watch later, please record it."

I come home, settle down, start watching it, bang, change channel,

it's not on,

then you go and put a match on from another channel halfway through.

Doesn't happen with the football, doesn't happen with Formula 1,

no other broadcaster does it, so come on, play the game, stop it.

So are tennis fans getting an unfair deal served up here?

Here's how the sports team explained the courtside shuffling.

It's Brendan O'Carroll and Jennifer Gibney from Mrs Brown's Boys.

How wonderful it is to see you both again. Thanks.

'Next up, an unfortunate slip of the tongue on Monday evening's

'The One Show. On the sofa, Brendan O'Carroll,

'creator and alter ego of Mrs Brown from Mrs Brown's Boys.'

In the guise of the loose-lipped Irish matriarch,

he/she seemed to forget the rules of pre-watershed broadcasting.

Earlier in the show we asked you to send in any messages

you'd like to be read out by Mrs Brown here for someone in your life

who needs a good talking-to. We've been inundated.

Right, Mrs Brown, are we ready?

"Please tell off Rob, Lowry and Ryan Jones for letting our

"Chihuahuas Lenny and Griff go on the table, from Mammy."

AS MRS BROWN: Get the BLEEP dog off the table!

Well, we can't be saying things like that. Oh, sorry, sorry!

Get the Chihuahua off the table. That's better.

Now, we don't want to repeat the offending word here,

but suffice to say it starts with an F and rhymes with decking.

'The One Show's Matt Baker apologised

'at the end of the programme.'

Sorry, folks, again if you were offended by whatever

Mrs Brown said this evening. Yes, it was terrible.

As expected there were complaints from those who felt it wrong

for family time viewing.

But there were also complaints from those who said that

the apology at the end of the programme was totally unnecessary.

Now, this raises the whole issue of what is and isn't acceptable

for broadcast before the watershed.

If a word is seen as a swearword by some and not by others,

should it still be banned?

There is actually a whole department in this building which wrestles

with these issues of taste and decency

and so we put the Mrs Brown quandary to the boss in charge.

The One Show was right in these circumstances to take

the action that they did.

The strongest language isn't allowed before the watershed at 9pm.

Programmes before the watershed are designed for a family audience

when all the family can watch, including children

and words that sound exactly the same as the strongest language

shouldn't be allowed as substitutes. If there are strong words

used in those circumstances they should be bleeped out,

they shouldn't be audible

and nor should words that sound exactly the same be audible.

So I think in the circumstances that arose with a performer who obviously

in other circumstances is perfectly entitled to use those

kinds of words, I think The One Show did the right thing in saying

we don't approve of that and we're sorry if it caused any offence.

I'm really, really sorry. Will you stop apologising, Mrs Brown?

It was an accident.

No doubt about the need for a post-watershed airing

for our next programme.

Murdered By My Boyfriend was a drama on BBC Three about the true

and tragic death of a young woman at the hands of her violent boyfriend.

This is the end of my story.

The journey here was not straightforward.

It began when I fell in love

and the only future I could imagine was happy.

I held on to that dream for as long as I could.

Until my broken body and beaten heart were forced to let go.

I've just watched Murdered By My Boyfriend on BBC Three,

showing that domestic abuse can happen to anybody at any age.

There were fantastic performances by the two leads

and well done to the BBC for showing a controversial subject matter.

Powerful drama with a lasting impact on BBC Three.

A fish out of water next, and the series A Cabbie Abroad,

which has London taxi driver Mason McQueen accept the challenge

to drive a taxi in three very different cities around the world.

And in this week's first episode

the plucky cockney tried to hack it as a Cambodian tuk-tuk driver.

You have got to keep your eyes open here

otherwise you ain't going to make it!

Really enjoyed watching Mason in Cambodia on A Cabbie Abroad.

He was so respectful to his Cambodian hosts

and to the culture of the Cambodian people in general.

He was funny to watch, he was emotional and he was a natural.

I'll definitely be watching the rest of the series.

In the late 19th century,

the doors to shops across the country were flung open

and thousands of single women, including self-supporting

middle-class women, poured in looking for work.

Praise too for another new documentary series on BBC Two,

with Dr Pamela Cox charting the history of shop assistants

from Victorian times to the present.

The floorwalkers, department heads

and supervisors are all visible on the modern shop floor.

The main difference then was that almost exclusively

it was men who took those roles.

Shopgirls could work as counter staff, cashiers, clerks,

packers and sewing hands.

Some could rise to become head of department but there

was no doubt that, in rank and pay, most were at the bottom of the heap.

Football to tennis, Formula 1, we had it all last week.

Then a breath of fresh air.

Shopgirls with Dr Pamela Cox shown last Tuesday.

An excellent piece of social history and very well presented.

A long-passed relative was an early shop girl and this programme

shed some light into what life must've been like for her.

Thank you and well done.

And thanks to all of you who sent your comments this week.

This is actually the last programme in the series

before we take our summer break.

We are back on the air in September,

so do continue sending us your thoughts

on all the TV you're watching, whether you love it or you hate it.

And here's how you do that.

You can write to us at...

Or call our phone line

and the number is charged as a local rate call

from any landline and it is...

There's always the very lively message board

open throughout the summer.

And you can e-mail us...

Oh, don't forget we're also on Twitter, that's @bbcpov.

So we will keep an eye across all of the TV while we're off air.

I'm sure you will too.

Thanks for watching this series, see you in September.

Goodbye.

Monty Python have been announcing more dates

for their reunion show in London.

They're so wonderfully blase, I love it.

How are you preparing yourself? Staying up late, drinking a lot.

Oh, sketches that I'm excited about doing? Hmm, none.

After a few nights of that, I can go home and get through

the rest of my life. The last time they performed was in 1980.

We might all die by the end of it, or enjoy it.