Daily Mail: BBC 'warping modern Britain' with 'woke' dramas, report warns

Story from Daily Mail:

The BBC risks 'warping modern Britain' by allowing its TV dramas to be blighted by politically correct bias in their stories, a report has said.

A review by the Campaign for Common Sense found that the BBC's programmes portrayed a version of Britain unrecognisable to most viewers.

The corporation's dramas regularly include critiques of capitalism, Brexit, the police and the Government – with some described by the report as being close to propaganda.

The BBC was also accused of social engineering by over-representing minorities in its programmes.

It comes just after another report said the broadcaster was 'rewriting history to promote a woke agenda'.

One show criticised in the new report was Vigil, a 2021 drama set on a nuclear submarine infiltrated by a Russian spy.

The programme depicts the government and security services covering up serious incidents.

An SNP councillor and anti-nuclear campaigner, Feargal Dalton, worked as a senior script consultant on the show.

Meanwhile, EastEnders portrayed a character equating Brexit and coronavirus.

Leitita Dean's character Sharon Watts throws water in another character's face, saying: 'We've had Brexit and Covid, we don't need you here.'

In drama The Responder, which stars Martin Freeman, almost half of the police characters are black or Asian, despite Merseyside Police having 0.5 per cent black officers and 0.4 per cent Asian officers.

The CCS report also criticised programmes including Sherwood, Industry and The Capture.

A group of leading academics recently warned the BBC documentaries showed many examples of bias and allowed 'politically motivated' actors to present their view of British history as fact.

Last year, BBC director general Tim Davie published a ten-point plan to improve the corporation's impartiality, but the broadcaster has come in for criticism for its news and drama output since.

A spokesman for the Campaign for Common Sense said: 'Too often in BBC dramas you can see only one side of an argument presented.

'And it's usually the side of a liberal, Left-wing, woke viewpoint that has more in common with the echo chambers of Twitter than the majority of licence fee payers who are forced to fund the BBC's output.

'The BBC needs to understand that not everyone signs up to a world view where the bad guys are the police, Brexit, and Conservatives,' The Daily Telegraph reported.

A BBC spokesman said: 'The BBC's world-class, critically acclaimed dramas are enjoyed by huge audiences, year in year out.

'We work with the very best creative talent who represent all corners of the UK and reflect different views and perspectives, while also providing brilliant entertainment and escapism.

'Cherry-picking a handful of examples in thousands of hours of output does not constitute analysis and is not a true representation of BBC content.'

The BBC has 'consistent bias' which amounts to rewriting British history to promote 'woke' views, a group of academics has claimed, as they accused the broadcaster of 'pandering to politically motivated activists'.

Academics writing for History Reclaimed published a report on Wednesday in which they named six examples of BBC programming since the start of 2020 which they say support their allegations.

The group accuses shows such as The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan, a report on the Benin Bronzes and Digging For Britain of rewriting history to promote a 'woke agenda'.

They say the broadcaster does this by omitting key facts and including 'inaccurate or tendentious material' in documentaries. The BBC has been contacted for comment.

The BBC supposedly gives 'a voice only to one side of a disputed past, even presenting false history as uncontested fact', most commonly in relation to the transatlantic slave trade.

The group writes the BBC is using individual programmes to foster 'a negative view of British history, and especially of its relations with the non-European world from which British citizens of ethnic minority backgrounds and their ancestors originally came.'

Other programmes mentioned by the group included Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson and a Radio 4 programme with author Kit De Waal on Sarah Forbes Bonetta.

History Reclaimed is edited by David Abulafia and Robert Tombs.

He and Mr Tombs are both professors emeritus at Cambridge University, where he specialises in Italian and Spanish history, while Mr Tombs specialises in French history.

Mr Abulafia has previously advocated for retaining the Rosetta stone, instead of returning it to Egypt, and suggested Britain should not pay reparations to countries impacted by the slave trade.

Mr Tombs has argued against repatriating the Benin Bronzes and called decolonisation a 'dangerous farce'.

Speaking about comedian Mr Ranganathan's programme, the authors said it failed to point out 'black African' involvement in the slave trade, adding: 'It is a gross distortion to talk of black slaves and white slavers; many peoples were involved.'

They allege the programme left viewers with an 'inaccurate impression' and should have included references to Britain's later efforts to end the slave trade.

The authors accuse the BBC of further errors when discussing the return of relics across the world, most notably the Benin Bronzes.

Criticising a Radio 4 broadcast last month, the writers said: 'The language used is tendentious and inaccurate.

'The objects were not 'looted' or 'plundered' but seized in what was then a legal process in retaliation for an act of war.

'More important still is what is left out — likely deliberately — from the historical account given.

'This was a punitive expedition against a violent slave-trading kingdom (hence "wealthy") after the massacre of an unarmed party of British envoys and a large number of their African bearers.'

The report authors issued four recommendations to the BBC, including establishing an advisory panel of 'properly qualified historians' to help reduce so-called 'group think'.

They also call for the broadcaster to commit to reviewing all content produced by its history department that is currently available to download or view on its on-demand services.

The final recommendations are for the BBC to update its editorial guidelines and guidance to independent production companies that all historical programmes must be accurate and 'commit to providing a diversity of opinion amongst contributors where interpretation of history is contested'.

The BBC has been contacted for comment.