BBC test

Michael Gove, the Conservative shadow Secretary of State for Children, Families and Schools was interviewed last month by Pink News. Amongst the points raised was:

As a social element rather than a sexual element, there is what is called the BBC test. When a footballer gets married, (Children's BBC news programme) Newsround can't shut up about it. When Elton John or John Barrowman from Torchwood gets 'married,' they couldn't possibly mention it because it has moved away from being a social thing to a sexual thing.

And on 7 November 2007 at Equity's first Diversity Conference, Stonewall's CEO, Ben Summerskill criticised BBC programming for failing to reflect the broad make-up of its licence fee payers. (see blog 10 November 2007)

He said: “I have always been a huge advocate of the BBC and I do think it has served historically as a cultural glue for so many people in this country. But I think it is putting the opportunity of continuing to do that in peril if it does not properly engage and portray the way Britain is in the 21st century, rather than the way a small number of people at the top of that organisation imagine it might be.” (see blog entries on 10 August 2007 & 11 October 2007)