Broadcasting From Above

Abstract

The fourth massive volume of Asa Brigg’s The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom has still advanced the story no further than the birth of ITV in September 1955. Monumental such a work undoubtedly is; but a monument to what exactly? To the BBC, obviously, since although this volume covers in detail the struggle to break the BBC’s monopoly which was to end with the creation of ITV, it is with the Corporation that Briggs is largely concerned, and at first sight this seems understandable enough, since for the first 30 years of its history the BBC and broadcasting in this country were virtually synonymous. Some might question whether a history on such a scale is really needed (and presumably there must be at least a couple more volumes to come before the story is brought up to date). Is the BBC that important? The answer must certainly be ‘Yes’. The BBC is a major state institution, an Ideological State Apparatus fully deserving of the capitals Althusser bestows upon the term. Till Briggs’s work we had only the memoirs of a few of its servants, its annual reports and some other scattered writings from which to construct its history. If he has done nothing else he has at least provided us with abundant material on which to base an understanding of what it is that the BBC represents.

Screen Education, no. 37, Winter 1980/81.