The BBC’s head of arts has hit back at criticism from broadcasting stalwarts David Dimbleby and Melvyn Bragg over the corporation’s commitment to culture programming, saying she and her team were “incredibly” committed to defending the arts.
In an exclusive interview, Suzy Klein, the BBC’s head of arts and classical music TV, said the broadcaster’s new slate of programmes spoke for itself.
Her comments came after Dimbleby told the Guardian he believed the BBC had “lost its will” and nobody there had “any appetite” for art, while Bragg said no one at the BBC had “the guts to fight back” and he did not care if he never worked there again.
“I massively respect David and Melvyn, I worked as Melvyn’s researcher on Start the Week,” Klein said. “But I would push back very strongly against [those accusations]. There’s an incredibly strong and passionate commitment to the arts at the BBC, and myself and my team are defending that every single day of the week.”
The former producer and broadcaster said it was difficult to doubt this “when we do 28,000 hours of arts and culture content in a year, and almost 30 million people have watched our output in the past 12 months – which is nearly half the population of the UK. It’s hard to say we’re not making arts shows when you look at our programme.”
The lineup, announced on Wednesday, includes new drama-documentary series Renaissance: The Blood and the Beauty, starring Charles Dance as Michelangelo; drama-documentary Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius, marking the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth next year; cultural history series The History of Us, in which Simon Schama looks back at the origins of the culture wars; film The Last Musician of Auschwitz, which tells the story of the last surviving Auschwitz musician Anita Lasker-Wallfisch; and the series Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar, out this Friday.
“I think the thing that is challenging in the current TV environment, which David and Melvyn will be speaking to, is that there is a deluge of content now, and such a fracturing of TV audiences, so it’s harder to find and locate things,” Klein said.
“When Monitor was on the BBC, or Melvyn started making the South Bank Show, there were far fewer channels. I definitely recognise that we’re living in an attention and distraction economy. Social media and YouTube also have a claim on our time.”
She said the way through was to tell stories only the BBC could tell, and emphasised that it make more arts content than “all the public service broadcasters and streamers put together”. “Art doesn’t just mean one type of audience. We have Sam Smith and Florence Welch featured at the Proms alongside Mozart and Beethoven.”
Klein said that after a prolonged period of culture wars in the UK, it was more important than ever for the BBC to bring people together. She highlighted two strategies.
“The first is to tackle it head on, like with Simon Schama’s new series, which looks at the roots of culture wars. It’s something people are aware of and feel bewildered by. How did we get to a place where we often feel like different communities or sections of society are so angry with one another?
“The second is to look at where we are very strong and together as a nation. There’s hardly a cultural institution that has been untouched by the culture wars. We have to lean into the joy and passion of arts and culture, and not constantly feel like it’s a place where we have to beat ourselves up.”
And how will they attract more young people to their shows? “There’s always been a worry, but people grow into different phases in their lives,” Klein said. “I didn’t necessarily watch a vast amount of BBC TV when I was a teenager. We don’t have to take that for granted, but we can afford to feel relaxed about our place in the culture.”
She pointed to Glastonbury coverage, BBC Three, and youth radio stations as draws. “Also, audience analysis shows 16- to 34-year-olds don’t just watch programmes about young people – they also love older figures like David Attenborough.”
In fact, she said, with arts education declining in schools, the BBC had a “massively important” role to play in the enrichment of society.
“Personally, the arts has been transformative in showing me what life could be and where it can take you,” she said. “My dad worked in the rag trade, my mum owned a small business. I had to find my own way intellectually. I remember when I was eight and hearing a Mozart trio on the radio. Everything went quiet, it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard – and I ended up studying for a music degree.”
