Former Doctor Who star Peter Davison and double Doctor actor (Who and Foster) Bertie Carvel were among those who gathered outside BBC Broadcasting House on Monday to protest against the extermination of the BBC licence fee. Davison told the assembled crowd, who were rallied by broadcasting unions including the National Union of Journalists, that the corporation is, “seriously being threatened … let’s face it, this is a politically motivated move by the government designed to undermine the BBC and to slowly dismantle it.”
He went on: “It’s very easy, as with the National Health Service, to take things for granted. The BBC pumps an amazing amount of entertainment into our homes for an amazingly small amount of money. It’s the cost of a good cup of coffee from one of our finer tax-avoiding coffee shops on the high street,” he said to cheers. There was applause after he said he calculated that the 12 BBC shows he watched last week cost him about 5p, “that’s extraordinary value for money and that’s what’s under threat. If the government wants to take away popular programming, and I understand that’s what they want to do, then they undermine popular support for the BBC. And what’s going to happen to these popular programmes? Presumably someone else is going to make them and they will charge us £35 a week to watch them. We have to protect the BBC … this is something really, really precious. And once it’s gone it’s gone forever, it’s not coming back.”
If John Whittingdale does not take notice of the 22,500 or so people who have signed Bectu’s Love It or Lose It petition to him, perhaps he will take notice of a former Time Lord. Although, as Whittingdale is a Star Trek fan, perhaps William Shatner should do the union’s next rally.
