The latest challenge, to supply a poem in praise or dispraise of the BBC, fell on somewhat stony ground. The entry felt a bit flat and you seemed to be lacking any real conviction either way. Roger Theobald’s opening lines pretty much reflected the general mood: ‘To praise or dispraise: well, if that’s the question,/ The record is too mixed to be quite sure…’
An honourable mention goes to Jerome Betts for his pithy four-liner — ‘Beeb, overstaffed and overspent,/ At which the licence-payers cavil,/ How sad to witness your descent/ From Reithian heights to Jimmy Savile.’ — and to Frank McDonald and Ray Kelley.
Basil Ransome-Davies romps home with the extra fiver and the rest pocket £30 each.
Basil Ransome-Davies I always treasured Auntie. She was such a damn good sport. Thanks to BBC steam wireless I was entertained and taught. She had lofty Reithian standards and she never sold them short, But Auntie isn’t quite herself these days.
We had ITMA kicking Hitler with a touch of the absurd; We had talks and foreign music on the high- falutin’ Third; The Home Service kept us civil.
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