The great screenwriter (he wrote Cracker and much more besides) Jimmy McGovern has much to say about the comfortable idiots in the senior layers of the BBC (and many other parts of the meejah), and their fear of risk-taking, doing anything new, not having a celebrity to "anchor" the show (denying their own ability to make celebrities from the passionate expert - remember Sister Wendy?"

Here's the start of a report on his debate about Chav TV. Still trying to hunt down the transcript of his MacTaggart Lecture:

"One of Britain's most celebrated screenwriters has launched a blistering attack on the makers of so-called trash TV, accusing them of exploiting the white, working classes for their own amusement and entertainment.

Jimmy McGovern, who created Cracker and acclaimed dramas including Hillsborough, condemned 'latte-drinking, pesto-eating middle-class' TV executives, saying their treatment of Britain's working classes was not only patronising and offensive but also potentially dangerous. At a debate titled Chav TV at the Edinburgh Television Festival, panellists discussed whether the white working class was the only group left that it was acceptable to ridicule openly.

Reality television shows such as Wife Swap, Big Brother and the confessional Jeremy Kyle Show, which tend to rely on working-class participants in search of fame or fortune, were the focus of most criticism. But the portrayal of the working classes in comedy programmes such as Little Britain and dramas like Shameless were also debated."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-pen-is-mightier-than-the-board-1585542.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pJsyXM0uVI over 2 years ago via web