We slag it off but we love it. Because it’s ours.
The BBC is always coming in for criticism, be it from Tory MPs, the Daily Mail, and quite regularly even members of its own staff. And it's true it can often be a ridiculous and frustrating institution. But we can be a ridiculous and frustrating nation. And we wouldn't quite be British without it.
The very idea of a state-funded broadcaster is unique and pioneering.
The British Broadcasting Company was founded by the General Post Office and six telecommunications companies. But it was the visionary work of Lord Reith that the country should administer broadcasting with an organization independent of both the government and corporations, and a license fee was introduced, the BBC as we know it established under a royal charter in 1927. This was a radical move. The new body bore a coat of arms with the slogan, “Nation shall speak peace unto Nation.”
Getty / Hulton Archive
And so its principles can pretty much be boiled down to "be excellent to each other".
